BBH loses out to Spanish agency in Vodafone pitch
Vodafone has appointed Spanish agency Tapsa to handle its pan-European brief following a pitch that involved incumbent Bartle Bogle Hegarty. BBH has been the mobile operator’s global lead creative agency since the end of 2004.
Tapsa, which already works with Vodafone in Spain, will create a campaign based around roaming (using mobile phones abroad) that will run across Europe – including in the UK – in the summer.
It is not known how many agencies Tapsa pitched against to win the project, but the team that works on Vodafone’s UK account was one of those involved.
The practice of pitching pan-European projects between roster agencies is nothing new – it is particularly popular in the auto-motive sector – but BBH has always had a strong grip on Vodafone’s global business.
However, Vodafone director of brand strategy and manifestation David Erixon insists the company has pitched global briefs between roster agencies in the past, calling it a “centre of excellence” model.
Erixon was one of a handful of Vodafone marketers to move to Dublin at the end of last year as part of a relocation of the company’s global brand team (MW December 20, 2007).
Several senior marketers, including Aled Rees – who oversees the mobile giant’s £25m-a-year sponsorship of the McLaren Formula One team – and David Pinnington – who is responsible for its £20m-a-year Champions League deal – are leaving the company as result of the move.
Vodafone moved its £47m UK advertising business out of JWT and into BBH at the end of 2006.
