LG hands pan-European digital business to AKQA

Gareth Jones, Marketing, Wednesday, 18 April 2007, 12:00am,

LG Electronics has appointed AKQA as its pan-European digital agency as part of a plan to give the web a central role in its marketing strategy.

The brief, worth between £5m and £10m, will see AKQA develop a web portal promoting LG's mobile phone range in more than 20 key European territories.

LG is already using the internet as part of an integrated campaign backing the launch of its Shine handset. The activity is running across TV and outdoor as well as the Yahoo! and MSN websites.

The Korean electronics company also recently signed a deal with Google to pre-install the search engine's range of services on its handsets.

LG plans to shift a big proportion of its spend online to promote further mobile phone launches this year.

It is understood that the LG web portal will form the central plank of its marketing strategy for the second half of this year and into 2008.

The brand's latest handsets will initially be promoted online before being supported by TV and outdoor advertising campaigns.

In April 2005, LG hired Euro RSCG and Starcom to handle its pan-European advertising and media planning respectively. However, it appointed DDB in Korea to develop a global TV campaign for its Shine handset.

AKQA was unavailable for comment.

This article was first published on Marketing