Vizeum wrests £10m Eurostar media account from OMD

by Sam Matthews, Brand Republic 28-Sep-05, 11:00

LONDON – Vizeum has won the £10m Eurostar media account, ending Manning Gottlieb OMD's 10-year tenure of the business.

The Aegis-owned agency emerged victorious after a final three-way shootout against Mediaedge:cia and OMD. Starcom was ruled out of the pitch process earlier this month.

Eurostar is planning to increase its UK media spend from £4.4m to between £7m and £10m to coincide with the opening of its St Pancras International Terminal in 2007.

Vizeum is expected to fully replace OMD from January 2006, but will work on some media planning prior to this.

Following a burst of international activity with the company's launch in 1994, Eurostar quickly restricted most of its media activity to London and the South-East, its main customer base.

However, the company is looking to target consumers further north because it can now boast shorter journey times from St Pancras, which it believes will be of great interest to travellers outside of the capital.

Greg Nugent, head of brand, product and UK marketing at Eurostar, said: "We chose Vizeum because it understands the challenges and potential Eurostar faces in the marketplace and how to fully exploit the power of the brand."

The switch to St Pancras International will see the fastest London-Paris journey times cut to two hours 15 minutes and London-Brussels reduced to one hour and 51 minutes.

Eurostar's creative agency TBWA\London is unaffected by the review.

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