Arena BLM close to landing £14m Pipex media account

by Andrew McCormick, Media Week 18-Mar-08, 09:50

LONDON - Broadband supplier Pipex is seeking to consolidate its £14m media spend into one agency after parting company with Omnicom agency PHD.

Havas agency Arena BLM, which already handles Pipex's digital spend through its digital arm BLM Quantum, is thought to be close to landing the account, although Pipex has been working with Publicis Groupe agency Zed Media, which handles media spend for Pipex's parent company Tiscali.

Pipex spent nearly £10m on offline media in 2007, according to Nielsen Media Research, while its digital media account is thought to be worth about £4m.

Peter Turner, marketing director at Pipex, said it is working with a number of suppliers and media agencies, but no final decision has been made.

Pipex is implementing changes in strategy after Tiscali bought its broadband and phone division for £210m last July. Pipex put PHD on notice following the acquisition and stopped working with the agency in January. Since then, Zed has handled offline media spend, while Arena BLM has continued to run the ISP's online media activity.

PHD landed the £10m offline media account for Pipex in August 2006, while BLM Quantum was awarded the ISP's online media account in September the same year.

Tiscali's purchase of Pipex is likely to result in a reduction in the latter's media spend. Tiscali already has a strong consumer brand in the consumer ISP market, while Pipex is likely to build on its basis as a strong business-to-business ISP.

Tiscali's share of the UK ISP market was boosted to around 15%, behind only Virgin Media and BT, following its acquisition of Pipex last year. The deal added Pipex's broadband and phone customers to its existing one million customer base.

Pipex was behind one of the most high-profile ad campaigns of recent years after it hired David Hasselhoff to front the brand in 2006.

Tiscali's plans for Pipex have, however, been kept largely under wraps since last summer's takeover. There has been speculation the company's UK operations could be sold off by the Italian company. Announcements about future developments are expected in April.