OMD hold on Samsonite £30m task under threat

Luggage giant Samsonite has called a global pitch for its estimated £30m media buying and planning account. The business is held by OMD in most territories across the world, while Manning Gottlieb OMD holds the £1m UK account.

Luggage giant Samsonite has called a global pitch for its estimated &£30m media buying and planning account. The business is held by OMD in most territories across the world, while Manning Gottlieb OMD holds the &£1m UK account.

The company spends more than &£10m across Europe, although the majority of its budget is spent in the US. The 95-year-old company is understood to have shortlisted five agencies to pitch for the business. It is not known whether OMD has been asked to pitch for the account in the UK.

The European part of the review is being handled out of the company’s Belgium office. Samsonite director of advertising Ward Vandorpe confirms that the company is searching for a global agency with a “strong regional hub”. He says the company is likely to make a decision by the end of the month.

One source says that the agency brief indicates that the company plans to “significantly increase” its marketing activity in the future to back a raft of new products.

The review will not affect Samsonite’s advertising account, which is held by TBWA International. In 2003, the company launched its first global advertising campaign under the banner “Travel Made Easy”, created by TBWA/Brussels.