Virgin Direct has asked TBWA GGT Simons Palmer to line up against
Rainey Kelly Campbell Roalfe in a head-to-head pitch for its #15 million
business.
The news comes as a blow to TBWA. It thought it had held on to Virgin
Direct following a review in July - which was called after TBWA, the
incumbent, won the conflicting #50 million NatWest account in June.
CDP and Rainey Kelly were both involved in the initial review. At the
time, Steve Taylor, the brand manager at Virgin Direct, described the
decision to stick with TBWA as a ’passive’ one.
As a result of that review, Rainey Kelly won a strategic branding
project from Virgin Direct. The agency was expected to create the
strategy for a new brand campaign, planned for January 1999, but it now
has a chance of creating the entire campaign covering Virgin Direct’s
PEPs, life insurance and pensions.
Virgin Direct is hoping to be seen as a more serious, grown-up player in
the financial services market.
