AMV.BBDO holds onto £10m digital switchover task

Abbott Mead Vickers.BBDO has retained its hold on Digital UK’s &£10m advertising account after being forced to repitch for the business.

The agency won the account in August, but was required to repitch two months later through the Official Journal of the European Communities (OJEC), the statutory government bodies’ tender process.

Insiders say agencies originally pitching, through Haystack, were led to believe the appointment would be permanent, although Digital UK – formerly SwitchCo – insisted it was for a six-month period (MW October 13).

In July AMV.BBDO pitched against WCRS, JWT and M&C Saatchi and went on to win the account. Its re-appointment does not come as a surprise to the other competing agencies.

Digital UK, a not-for-profit body, was formed in April by public service broadcasters to co-ordinate the analogue to digital switchover, which begins in 2008. Chief executive Ford Ennals, the former group marketing director of Lloyds TSB, heads the body.

The account is worth about &£2m a year, with an overall budget to 2012 expected to top &£10m.

The organisation started a seven-year marketing campaign on Monday urging consumers in the Border region, which is the first to change, to buy digital television sets and set-top boxes in the pre-Christmas shopping period. Other regional and a national campaign are also planned.

The below-the-line brief will go out to tender in the new year, while the media business, which was handed to PHD Group as an initial project, is going through OJEC (MW September 8).

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