ING Barings picks MPG ahead of £15m consumer push

by Jennifer Whitehead,, Brand Republic 12-Dec-02, 11:00

LONDON - ING Barings, the Dutch investment bank, is to hand its £15m UK media account to Media Planning Group.

ING Barings is preparing to launch consumer products in the UK for the first time. It has appointed Vallance Curruthers Coleman Priest to handle creative for the account.

MPG competed against several agencies, including Optimedia, for the business from a list coordinated by the Advertising Agency Roster, which also handled the creative pitch. MPG is part of the French group Havas.

ING's launch is reported to be a financial services portal targeted at consumers, but no details have so far been released. ING's Dutch arm recently set up a consumer internet bank in association with Planet Internet, a unit of the Dutch telecommunications company Royal KPN NV.

In April this year, DDB was appointed to ING Barings' multimillion-pound global advertising account, as the company attempted to streamline its brand interests into one organisation. DDB now oversees the creative account for the company's range of banking, insurance and asset management services across 65 markets.

Previously, the $10m (£6.3m) global account was handled by Ogilvy & Mather, with MindShare handling the media.

ING Barings denied it was hiring a media agency, and Media Planning Group was not available for comment.

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