Bartle Bogle Hegarty's alliance with the DDB network is understood to have been the winning formula in scooping the pan-European account for Xbox, estimated to be worth pounds 50 million.
BBH pitched in tandem with DDB-owned agencies to offer a ready-made network - a template already in place for the agencies' Audi business in Europe.
The DDB-owned agencies are thought to have won the business in three key European markets. Verba DDB of Milan is expected to handle the business in Italy; DDB Tandem is believed to have won the task in Spain, and Louis Quatorze looks set to handle the account in Paris.
Media planning and buying for the lucrative account has yet to be decided.
The original pitchlist for the account had included the cream of London agencies. However, BBH was left in a final shoot-out against Lowe Lintas after Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO and the Amsterdam-based agency 180 were knocked off the list in December.
In the same month, BBH resigned its pounds 60 million pan-European Sega business to pitch for the Xbox account, having only worked with Sega for ten months.
The global Xbox account is estimated to be worth pounds 300 million. McCann-Erickson Worldwide, a Microsoft roster agency, has already been awarded the US business, worth around pounds 150 million.
The UK launch of the eagerly awaited console looks set to be delayed until 2002, although it is due to launch in Japan and the US at the end of this year.
No-one at BBH, Lowe Lintas or Microsoft was available for comment.
In December, it was announced that Nintendo of Europe was looking for an agency for its forthcoming console, Gamecube.
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