- Sprint has dropped its long-time agency J. Walter Thompson, San Francisco, from its estimated £90 million ($150 million) account with the appointment of McCann-Erickson, New York.
The change in agency comes as Sprint attempts to shift its consumer brand focus beyond long distance calls for which it is best known, in order to focus on a wider range of services, including the Internet.
JWT has worked on the Sprint business since 1982 but the account has looked unsettled for the last six months. JWT had switched the creative from San Francisco to New York and the agency recruited new creative staff. However, four months ago Sprint secretly appointed former AT&T agency McCanns to handle a special project.
According to Sprint no other agencies were involved in the review process.
The appointment of McCanns does not affect Grey, which handles Sprint's business to business account, or J.Walter Thompson, New York, which will continue to handle broadcast media buying services for Sprint on a corporate basis.
Sprint also announced that McCann Relationship Marketing will handle customer- acquisition direct-mail efforts for Sprint's consumer long-distance group, and that their sister agency, Draft Worldwide, Chicago, will continue to handle Sprint's direct mail efforts to existing long-distance customers.
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