London gaming group begins £5m hunt for an agency
London Clubs International (LCI) is looking for an agency to handle the advertising for the launch of seven casinos around the UK over the next two years. The business is thought to be worth &£5m.
The company has already held a pitch, believed to have involved five agencies, and is close to making an appointment. Industry sources say My Agency, set up last year by former McCann Erickson directors Luke White and Nick Wright, is in pole position to win the business.
It is understood the successful agency will produce integrated work for LCI and that both advertising and direct marketing shops were involved in the pitch.
The marketing activity will be heavily focused on the cities in which the casinos are due to open, which include Manchester, Nottingham and Glasgow.
LCI, which has operated casinos for over 40 years, has five of the 24 casino licences in London. It appointed Inferno to handle its advertising business in 2000 (MW November 23, 2000).
Casinos were given greater advertising freedom in 1998, when they were allowed for the first time to produce A5-sized ads in newspapers containing only factual information.
Casino groups are now looking to take advantage of the deregulation enacted in last year’s Gambling Act and LCI recently gained a licence to operate a casino at the Equinox site in Leicester Square.
