EasyJet restarts £33m European pitch process after change of heart on strategy

by Jennifer Whitehead, Brand Republic 25-Jan-06, 09:00

LONDON - Budget airline EasyJet has halted its pan-European pitch process, which was in its final stages, after deciding to widen its search to include creative 'hot shops' from beyond the UK.

Saatchi & Saatchi and Ogilvy & Mather were the final agencies in the running for the £33m account -- until a decision was taken by the airline last night to halt the process and widen the pitch.

Agencies that have already pitched will be invited to pitch again for the work, but EasyJet is to widen the scope of its search and may appoint a roster of agencies across Europe.

Toby Nicol, spokesman for EasyJet, said that the shift in strategy comes after the appointment of commercial director Saad Hammad, who joined in November, three months in to the pitch process.

Nicol said: "It would have been lunacy to go through the process just for the sake of it."

When the review was originally revealed in August, EasyJet had said it wanted to appoint a single agency to create consistent advertising in all its major markets.

In the past, EasyJet has used agencies on an ad hoc basis, including The Bank, which created a campaign aimed at business, and Sledge, which made EasyJet's first television ad in 2004.

Even without an agency, the airline has had no problem creating in-house ads that get noticed -- even if it is because they are sexist, in the case of the "weapons of mass distraction" campaign showing a close-up of bikini-clad breasts, or accused of plagiarism, as in the case of the "management trainee" campaign that harked back to Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO's classic ad for The Economist.

AMV had been on the shortlist for the EasyJet account, along with Lowe London, before it was cut to two agencies.

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