Fox picks Ingram for European films role

Twentieth Century Fox has appointed The Ingram Partnership as its first European media strategy agency with a brief to work on both cinema films and home entertainment releases.

The agency will advise the European regional offices on broad strategic media issues and develop communications plans for individual forthcoming releases.

The film company spends an estimated &£135m on its European marketing.

However, each territory will retain its dedicated media planning and buying agency. In the case of the UK this is Starcom MediaVest.

The Ingram Partnership won the business after a pitch against unnamed agencies. It was overseen by vice-president of European theatrical marketing Todd Huntley. Films that the agency will work on include the animated feature Robot and the comic strip-inspired action movie The Fantastic Four.

The agency is already working with Twentieth Century Fox on the release of the next Star Wars epic – Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge Of The Sith (MW July 29). The films are made by Lucasfilm and distributed by Twentieth Century Fox under agreement.

Unity, the media-neutral planning agency, worked on two previous Star Wars films and was acquired by Tempus/CIA founder Chris Ingram shortly after forming The Ingram Partnership (MW July 31, 2003).

The agency positions itself as an independent and integrated marketing consultancy. Clients include Mercedes, the London Olympic 2012 bid and a consortium of television broadcasters.