See this week's new-business rankings here
Ongoing
Sir Martin Sorrell, executive chairman of S4 Capital, took some of the big holding company groups by surprise when the former WPP boss showed up at Diageo's all-agency meeting to kick off its global media review.
The drinks giant spends £2bn a year on marketing, so it is unlikely that Sorrell's start-up and its digital media arm, MightyHive, could handle more than a fraction of Diageo's business, but his presence was certainly noted by rivals at the meeting. S4 would not comment.
Reviews
Holiday park owner Away Resorts is seeking an agency to work on web design and build. Creativebrief is supporting the process.
Wins
London North Eastern Railway, the publicly owned operator of the East Coast Main Line, has appointed M&C Saatchi to lead its strategic and creative marketing campaigns, and Merkle to run digital marcomms and direct customer experience marketing. The appointments follow a pitch process assisted by Creativebrief.
MSQ Partners has been named lead communications agency for London Power, the green energy partnership created by the mayor of London and Octopus Energy, after a competitive pitch. MSQ will handle all launch communications for the brand, which will be available exclusively in London from December. The Gate, MSQ’s advertising agency, will lead creative development.
Vizeum has been hired as global media agency of record for domestic-appliance business Groupe SEB, which owns brands including Tefal, after a competitive pitch. The incumbent was Mindshare.
The Wild has been appointed to lead social media strategy for Stonehouse Pizza & Carvery after a competitive pitch. The brand’s social strategy was previously managed by Brew.
Mapping and location service company Here Technologies has picked Digitas as its global media agency after a competitive pitch. The incumbent was Twogether.
BritBox, the joint venture from the BBC and ITV, has chosen Total Media and ITV Creative ahead of a marketing push to promote the launch of the video-streaming service. Total Media has been awarded the contract for media strategy, while ITV's in-house arm ITV Creative will be responsible for UK branding and the launch ad campaign.
Hyundai and Kia have reappointed Havas Group Media as its media planning and buying agency for Europe, Russia and Turkey. Innocean, the global in-house shop for the brands’ parent Hyundai Motor Group, ran the process and decided to retain the 10-year incumbent.
