Virgin Mobile calls creative, PR and social pitch, as it emerges the telco’s media is also in play
Major telco Virgin Mobile is pitching its creative, public relations and social accounts, Mumbrella can reveal.
The creative pitch is understood to have come up at the same time that it emerges Virgin Mobile media’s is also in play with parent company Singtel having decided to roll the $10m media account in with the existing $50m Optus pitch.
Starcom is the incumbent media agency on both telcos while Havas, One Green Bean, Dynamix and Future Buro are all creative roster for Virgin Mobile.
“We are in the initial stages of pitching of creative, PR and social,” said Nicole Bardsley, director of Virgin Mobile brand and communications.
“We are currently drawing up a shortlist of agencies and we will be inviting all of current agencies to be part of that pitch.”
Havas Worldwide Sydney and One Green Bean were behind Virgin Mobile’s “Fair Go Bro” campaign featuring Brad Pitt’s brother Doug.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3o9VW5TeQU
More recently One Green Bean and Havas created Virgin Mobile’s ‘Game of Phones’ campaign and One Green Bean is responsible for the telco’s #mealforameal social initiative.
The combined media pitch is understood to be have been happening for a few weeks and would likely benefit Havas Media, due to it sister agencies having worked on the creative business. Havas Media is thought to be on Optus shortlist along with incumbent Starcom and UM.
“The media pitch is being run as part of the Optus pitch but the Virgin Mobile requirements within it are essentially a separate part of the business,” said Bardsley.
Other agencies on the Optus creative shortlist are incumbent M&C Saatchi and Ogilvy, which holds the Optus business account and works with Optus’ parent company Singtel in Asia for a spot on the main roster along with independent agency The Works is up against a number of other smaller digital agencies.
The Optus creative shortlist is understood to be different from the list being developed for Virgin Mobile.
Nielsen puts the main media spend of Virgin Mobile at $8.8m in the last 12 months.
Nic Christensen
My first question for Virgin that doesn’t seem to be answered in this article, is why is it that you are pitching your creative?
Are you looking to cull your roster?
Are you looking to put a rocket under your existing agencies?
Are you unhappy with your current work?
Are you looking to screw down the existing agencies on price?
Basically, what is it that you are fixing?
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Hi Viv,
As we understand it Virgin and Optus are both end-of-contract pitches they have to do in line with their corporate governance.
Cheers,
Alex – editor, Mumbrella
Doug Pitt was great but the stuff from Havas has been woeful ever since. Would imagine it hasn’t performed well either. Time for change.
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Virgin Mobile media has always gone along with Optus under the Singtel contract. This isn’t a new thing.
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