Barraclough Hall Woolston Gray has picked up the direct marketing
business for the Dixons Group-owned computer retail chain, PC World.
The appointment comes after a final bout with WWAV Rapp Collins,
following a first round of pitches which also included Brann SJA and
Bates Communications.
The task focuses on the trade side of the business and will attempt to
unify the component parts of PC World through direct marketing.
There are two subsidiary operations which come under the PC World
banner: PC World Business Direct, a business-to-business mail-order
catalogue launched last October following the Dixons Group’s acquisition
of the mail-order company, DN Computer Services; and Dixons Group
Business Services, which offers a business gift voucher service for all
outlets within the Dixons stores portfolio, comprising Dixons, Currys,
PC World and the Link.
PC World’s consumer credentials have been established through a
heavyweight press spend featuring full-page, price-based ads by M&C
Saatchi, which also ran a TV campaign last autumn.
Barraclough Hall’s task will be to build on this consumer reputation to
establish the chain as a serious business brand, appealing to the
business-to-business audience.
At the time of the pitches, an agency source suggested: ’The winning
agency won’t be looking at how to make the press ads better - that’s a
completely separate area.
’At the moment, PC World is conscious of the fact that it doesn’t have
enough of a brand positioning in the business sector. This is quite a
substantial task and this is the first time that the company has wanted
a direct marketing agency on the roster.’
M&C Saatchi has been working with PC World since June 1996, and the
media task was recently placed into its sister media agency, Walker
Media, as part of the entire pounds 108 million Dixons Group media
planning and buying business.
No-one at PC World or Barraclough Hall was available for comment as
Campaign went to press.
