O2 reviews its high-profile music sponsorship account

The%20O2O2 is reviewing its music sponsorship account, which is held by Drum PHD. The incumbent will repitch for the business.

Shadi Halliwell, the head of brand and marketing communications at O2, will oversee the review. Drum, PHD’s branded content division, has handled the business since O2 was known as BT Cellnet.

The agency has negotiated various high-profile deals for O2, including its sponsorship of the early series of Big Brother and the traffic and travel reports on Capital Radio in 2003.

Drum’s founding partners Laurence Munday and Simon George, who launched the agency at Abbott Mead Vickers.BBDO in 1993, left last year. Drum appointed Mark Eaves, who was previously managing director of its production arm Drum Screen, as managing director of the main agency to replace them.

In January, O2 consolidated its entire media planning and buying business into ZenithOptimedia. Zenith, already the incumbent on the offline media account, added the online media planning and buying, which was previously handled by Media Republic, following a review. The agency will begin working on the company’s digital media account from next month.

O2 announced this week that it was making a move into social networking with the launch of O2 Bluebook. The site allows users to publish their “mobile lives” – including address book contacts, text and picture messages and photographs – on the internet. The launch will be backed by a £4.5m ad campaign created by Vallance Carruthers Coleman Priest.

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