St Luke’s and Manning Gottlieb Media are poised to pick up the pounds 4
million task of helping to raise consumer awareness of the television
news and information service, Teletext.
Teletext, which is operated by Associated Newspapers, drew up an agency
shortlist last month consisting of its incumbent agency, Foote Cone
Belding, Bates Dorland and St Luke’s, which pitched in conjunction with
MGM.
These agencies are understood to have made creative, strategic and media
presentations over the past few weeks, from which Teletext chose two -
Dorlands, which pitched with Zenith Media, and St Luke’s/MGM - for a
final head-to-head.
No-one at St Luke’s or its media partner was available for comment as
Campaign went to press, and Teletext’s managing director, Peter Van
Gelder, declined to confirm which agencies had won the pitch. However,
industry sources said that both FCB and Dorlands had been told they had
been unsuccessful in the review.
Teletext was relaunched at the beginning of the year with a national
television and press campaign under the slogan: ‘Teletext - the
information channel.’ The ads featured a computer-generated talking
head.
However, Van Gelder is understood to be disappointed at the relatively
low public awareness of the service even after the advertising push.
Although customers are increasingly turning to Teletext for services
such as late flight bookings, few are aware of the full extent of the
service, which covers everything from weather to chatlines to regional
news.
Around 70 per cent of television sets can receive Teletext, which is
available on Channel 4 and ITV. Its main competitor is Ceefax, which is
carried on the BBC.
