PokerStars hands £1m UK ad mantle to Mustoes
Online gambling company PokerStars has appointed Mustoes as its UK advertising agency, as it plans a major summer push across Europe. The appointment was made earlier this week, after a competitive pitch that involved several other agencies including Vallance Carruthers Coleman Priest.
Earlier this month, BLM Media was appointed as PokerStars’ media planning and buying agency in the UK, where the company plans a cross-media campaign with a spend of over &£1m.
In Scandinavia, PokerStars has awarded its media account to MindShare and its creative brief to Zed.
PokerStars European marketing director Tamar Yaniv, who is overseeing the campaigns across the continent, confirms the appointments. She says the company has taken an “unorthodox” approach to its European push. Earlier this year, the company hired below-the-line agency Experience, which worked with Israel-based freelance advertising strategists Erez Bahar and Limor Erilchman to develop a “creative platform” for creative agencies.
Yaniv says that Experience is no longer working with the company, having fulfilled its brief.
Although the company already has a solid base of European players, and sponsors the televised European Poker Tour – which was won by Dutchman Rob Hollink last month in Monte Carlo – Yaniv adds that it wants a greater presence in the region as online gambling takes off.
