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EBay awards £10m ad account to Albion

by Joanne Payne Brand Republic 30-May-07, 10:50

LONDON - Online auction house eBay has appointed creative agency Albion to handle its £10m advertising account after a competitive pitch.

The agency won the business after a pitch that kicked off in April when the client left incumbent Delaney Lund Knox Warren, which declined to repitch for the business.

Albion won the business after pitching against shortlisted Mother and longlisted Saatchi & Saatchi, WCRS and DDB London.

DLKW had held the account for three years. DLKW was appointed in March 2004 as eBay's first UK creative agency, beating Joshua, Oglivy & Mather and DFGW in a competitive pitch.

Skype appointed Albion in October 2005, a month after being bought by eBay for $2.6bn (£1.3bn), when it was looking to build a major presence in the UK to promote its free, internet-based voice calls service. Albion produced a number of animated viral movies which ran online, in addition to press advertising that ran in 10 countries around the world.

The agency, headed by managing director Jason Goodman, also works with internet TV firm Joost and is working on a creative campaign for the rollout of the service. The agency was appointed without a pitch after working with Joost owners Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis on their Skype project, which was later sold to eBay.

It is understood eBay will continue to use the same illustrated figures currently in place in the next campaign, although this is yet to be confirmed.

Other Albion clients include Innocent Drinks, UKTV and online betting service Betfair.

Albion was contacted, but declined to comment.

Media planning and buying, held by PHD, is unaffected by the creative review.