Gizmondo picks O&M for £10m advertising account

Hand-held gaming device company Gizmondo has appointed Ogilvy & Mather (O&M) to handle its £10m advertising business in the UK following the resignation of Mother earlier this month.

The global advertising account will be run from O&M’s office in Scandinavia, which was previously responsible for a portion of the business in Europe.

O&M Scandinavia will now handle all the European business, as well as launches in Australia and New Zealand.

Mother was appointed to handle the launch of the next-generation handheld games console in the UK in October, but resigned the account at the start of May after apparently falling out with the client.

It is understood the agency was developing a seven-figure advertising campaign for the device, but that Gizmondo was unhappy at the cost. The company is thought to have produced its most recent ad in house.

Gizmondo Europe, a subsidiary of US-based Tiger Telematics, launched its hand-held console, which can play games, music and films, send text messages and take pictures, earlier this year.

Last year, Marketing Week exclusively revealed that the Gizmondo device would also be able to show television-quality ads called Smart Ads (MW August 12, 2004). Gizmondo later announced that the machine would feature e-mail capability (MW December 16, 2004), and subsequently launched a new version of the device in April that carries Smart Ads as standard (MW April 14).

Gizmondo, which opened a flagship store on London’s Regent Street in March, signed a £2.7m European sponsorship deal with MTV last month.