Sony Ericsson picks McCann

& Saatchi and Publicis London.

The competing agencies were briefed at the start of the process to come
up with ideas for a Christmas campaign. However, they were told that the
winner of the Christmas brief would not automatically take the global
account. Presentations for the main brief are scheduled to take place
later this month.

The pitch was called after the company split from Bartle Bogle Hegarty,
its advertising agency of the past five years. The agency resigned the
account after Sony Ericsson hired the brand consultancy Wolff Olins to
create a new brand strategy, which it asked BBH to implement.

Last week, Campaign revealed the creative treatment Wolff Olins has
developed involves adapting the iconic "I (Love) New York" slogan. The
circular Sony Ericsson logo will appear in place of the heart shape. The
logo is to be followed with words such as "music" and "photography".

Sony Ericsson is understood to have presented the treatment to BBH after
Wolff Olins had secretly been working on it for five months. The mobile
phone company stipulated that the agency had to use the idea. BBH is
said to have disagreed with Sony Ericsson over the strategy and the
direction in which it would take the brand's advertising.

Wolff Olins' idea will be executed in a global campaign following the
resolution of the creative pitch.

BBH's most recent campaign for the brand, which promoted its K800i
Cyber-shot phone, featured the tennis stars Daniela Hantuchova and Ana
Ivanovic.

The ad, which ran internationally, featured the pair playing a fast and
furious rooftop game of tennis, images of which were captured on a
Cyber-shot phone.

One of BBH's earlier campaigns for the handset manufacturer was a spot
for the K750i camera phone. It featured a couple taking photographs of a
chain of events in which a dragonfly was eaten by a salmon, which in
turn was eaten by a bear, which got carried off by an eagle.