International Marketer’s Blog

Tom Tom, the navigation systems maker has appointed Dutch creative agency Selmore to devise a campaign for a multi-country European marketing push early next year.

Selmore trumped Leo Burnett and FHV/BBDO to win the business.

Tom Tom’s products are currently sold  in 30 countries and translated into 20 languages, though it is not clear whether cross country implementation will be decoupled from the creative shop.

Poppe van Pelt, creative partner at Selmore, said: “Navigation devices are an (more…)

Global phone giant Telefonica, parent company of O2 and Movistar, has started the search for ad agencies to rebrand and implement in their key country markets.

It follows the appointment of design agency Interbrand/DDB along with Lambie Nairn in May to work on Telefonica’s new international brand positioning and identity in a move that decoupled creative work from traditional advertising agency networks.

Telefonica is understood to be contacting both roster networks and non-roster shops in the UK and Europe to pitch for the business. Telefonica currently spends around £250 million (more…)

Yahoo has appointed a new creative agency, Goodby Silverstein & Partners to work alongside its established worldwide agency Ogilvy and Mather.

The surprise move follows the  international roll out of Yahoo’s biggest ever integrated campaign “It’s You” last month handled by Ogilvy and Mather in the US, UK and India.

Explaining the move in an interview with Advertising Age, Sally Baldwin, Yahoo Senior VP-Global Integrated Marketing and Brand Management said:

“We have been planning to expand our portfolio of agency partners for several months, and now that our multiyear effort is under way and our campaign is in full swing in the U.S., the time was right. This move was made to optimize our mix of agencies for the long-term as part of the normal course of business.”

Yahoo’s decoupling of a new creative agency from a its worldwide network is part of emerging trend with international brand managers looking to gain greater marketing efficiency savings in the deployment of international marketing via a centralized creative hub.