Kinetic retains 15m Vodafone account

Kinetic, the WPP Group-owned outdoor agency, will retain Vodafone’s £15m outdoor media planning and buying account following the appointment of Carat. Its decision to shift its £70m media planning and buying from OMD to Carat was announced this morning (January 22).

Carat will take over the TV, press and online business from OMD on April 1, while its search engine optimisation will be handled by Greenlight. OMD had worked on the business 12 years.

Kinetic won the Vodafone business after a pitch against Posterscope in February 2007. The agency has previously worked with the mobile operator for five years.

Vodafone appointed Carat after calling a review last June, which is part of European-wide review of its media planning and buying business that being conducted on a market- by-market basis. It is understood that the it was a procurement-led pitch, which was run out of its German office.