The incumbent on the work was Initiative, which also handles Orange's offline media planning and buying. The company decided to switch to a dedicated online media agency as it shifted focus to spending more money on digital advertising.
Working with the Orange direct marketing team, i-level, the biggest dedicated online media agency in the UK, will be responsible for handling all planning and buying activities relating to online direct sales, brand advertising, search and affiliate programmes.
The appointment client conflict has forced the agency to resign the digital planning and buying account for BT, which it has held since 2000.
Initiative has worked on Orange's UK media planning and buying since parent company France Telecom consolidated its media roster in 2003.
The review of the digital media arrangements coincided with a pan-European review of France Telecom's creative advertising business across all brands, including Orange and Wanadoo.
I-level was formed in 1999 by Andrew Walmsley and Charlie Dobres, with the view to create an agency that would specialise only in digital communications. It now has more than 60 staff and offers a full range of digital communications services.
If you have an opinion on this or any other issue raised on Brand Republic, join the debate in the .
_1.jpg)
.jpg)
