TBWA GGT Simons Palmer has scooped the pounds 10 million UK account
for Ask Jeeves, the butler-fronted internet search engine, after a pitch
against Rainey Kelly Campbell/Y&R and Delaney Lund Knox Warren &
Partners.
The review was initiated by Euro RSCG’s decision to resign the account
because of an emerging conflict with the Microsoft-owned search engine,
msn. TBWA will be asked to build on the success of Euro’s launch work,
which featured characters based on PG Wodehouse’s ’Jeeves & Wooster’
books.
The campaign helped the site attract 1.7 million visitors by the end of
April, establishing it as the UK’s tenth most successful web brand.
Ask Jeeves has distinguished itself from the packed field of search
engines by allowing users to submit their queries as chatty questions
such as, ’Where is Mozambique?’ rather than strings of key words. ’In a
mass of faceless dotcoms, Ask Jeeves is a powerful brand with a genuine
point of difference,’ Neil Christie, TBWA’s chief operating officer,
said.
The Ask Jeeves site was said to be considering a stock market flotation
within weeks of its UK launch, but tough market conditions have pushed
back plans for an IPO. ’Our first priority is to get ourselves into a
position where we can IPO and the second issue is to find a time when
the climate is appropriate,’ Adrian Cox, the vice-president of marketing
at Ask Jeeves UK, said. ’Our starting point is to build the brand in its
own right.’
Cox predicted that next year Ask Jeeves would import several features
from its US parent site, which owns half of the UK operation in
partnership with Carlton Communications and the Granada Media Group.
’We’re aiming to bring a number of the US products to Europe. One
opportunity is the Ask Jeeves Kids site, which will be cleaner and
feature less advertising,’ he said.
The media planning and buying account for Ask Jeeves UK will remain with
Media Planning. Triangle Communications, which was recently appointed to
the below-the-line account, is also unaffected by the appointment.
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