Mansfield holds £3m Freemans

Mail order company Freemans has retained Mansfield Lang Direct Media for its £3m media buying and planning account. Mansfield Lang beat MediaCom, MediaVest and Media Buying Services to keep the business.

Mail order company Freemans has retained Mansfield Lang Direct Media for its &£3m media buying and planning account.

Mansfield Lang beat MediaCom, MediaVest and Media Buying Services to keep the business. BBJ Media is understood to have withdrawn shortly before the others pitched.

The agency has been the incumbent on the Freemans catalogue account for more than five years.

The pitch was overseen by Freemans marketing director Andrew Jackson, who joined the company from Norwich Union Direct at the end of last year.

The account was last reviewed three years ago, when BBJ and Media Planning were set to pitch against Mansfield Lang, but the review was called off by Freemans and Mansfield Lang retained the account.

Ken Mansfield, chief executive of the agency, says: “It’s the second review we’ve won for Freemans, having beaten some of the biggest agencies.”

Freemans operates in a very competitive market, which is dominated by the company and its two rivals, Great Universal Stores and Littlewoods.

But last year, German mail-order giant Otto Versand bought Freemans from its parent company, Sears, in a &£150m deal. Otto Versand also owns mail-order company Grattan.