Virgin Media confirms digital media switch to MG OMD

The business was previously split between Starcom and Manning Gottlieb OMD with Starcom the previous incumbent on the £15m Virgin Media digital account.

Manning Gottlieb OMD, which already held the £5m Virgin Mobile digital account, now handles all of Virgin Media's £70m total media spending.

The pitch was run by Virgin Media Procurement and Marketing, with the Virgin Media account set to switch to Manning Gottlieb OMD in November.

James Kydd, managing director of marketing for Virgin Media, said: "With volumes growing consistently, we felt there was a real opportunity to dramatically grow our online business and we wanted to ensure that we were giving ourselves the best chance of doing this.

"This has not been an easy decision. Starcom did a great job of dealing with the complexities of merging the old ntl and Telewest accounts into Virgin Media. However Manning Gottlieb OMD really impressed us with their creativity, freshness of thinking and strong commercial focus."

Robert Fitch, managing director of Manning Gottlieb OMD, said "We don't underestimate the challenge ahead of us, but we are convinced that digital media, specifically online, will be incredibly important in helping Virgin Media communicate its proposition in the market and, even more importantly, drive new customer sales and grow customer value.

"This is great news for us as an agency overall and a real big pat on the back for our online team."

This article was first published on brandrepublic.com