The restructure has been sparked by the departure of Catherine Kehoe, head of marketing and communications, who had responsibility for the management of all of BT's advertising agencies. Kehoe has been given the new role of head of strategy and marketing for BT Business.
Amanda Mackenzie, BT's director of marketing services, told Marketing that she was in the process of bringing in several marketers and that BT would also be reviewing how to manage its agency roster.
"We already have a very strong team, but we are going to be recruiting and we are looking at all options as part of a wider restructure," she said.
The decision comes in the same week that BT handed the £12m advertising business for its BT Yahoo! broadband and dial-up joint venture to Fallon London. The account has been handled by Clemmow Hornby Inge since the launch last summer. However, the agency gave up the business at the end of last year so that it could work on Carphone Warehouse's telephony business.
From the start of April, as part of BT's reduced agency roster, Fallon London takes control of all of BT's broadband and dial-up advertising, while St Luke's handles business-to-business and Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO runs all of BT's consumer business. The agencies are now developing the ad theme for BT.
It will be unveiled in the next few months, and will consolidate BT's ad output to ensure that one single message is given to consumers.
The development has been born out of concerns within BT that its advertising is stretched across too many services and that there is no underlying message, unlike the "It's good to talk" strapline that proved so successful in the 90s.
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