The Omnicom agency beat its sister shop Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO, The Brooklyn Brothers and the incumbent, Rainey Kelly Campbell Roalfe/Y&R, to pick up the business.
The pitch began in March and, controversially, 20 shops were initially invited to participate by the intermediary Creativebrief. Eight agencies had chemistry meetings and the final four went on to the main pitch.
During the process, industry commentators made much of the fact that James Murphy, the founder and chief executive of Adam & Eve/DDB, had worked on Virgin Atlantic when he was at RKCR/Y&R.
There was also speculation that AMV could benefit from Virgin Atlantic’s director of brand and customer experience, Reuben Arnold, having had a relationship with the agency while at Eurostar.
Adam & Eve/DDB will now develop the global creative vision for the airline and set the UK marketing and advertising strategy alongside Naked Communications, which won the eCRM account last year, and Manning Gottlieb OMD, which handles media.
RKCR/Y&R will oversee projects that are already in progress over the next few months and ensure there is a smooth transition. No staff members from the agency are expected to move to Adam & Eve/DDB.
Although representatives from other markets were involved in the process, the Y&R network will continue to work with Virgin Atlantic outside of the UK.
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