The move, which is understood to have occurred without a pitch, effectively integrates the Barclays digital accounts under one agency roof. Integrating the Barclaycard digital business with the £70m above the line account for the main Barclays business, which Walker won from Starcom in March last year, under the stewardship of its chief executive Phil Georgiadis.
The agency was in contention with PHD, OMD and Starcom to take the above the line account in a pitch process handled by Jim Hytner, the group marketing director at Barclays.
Mark Syal, a former account director at Aegis online agency Diffiniti, heads up Walker-i. The digital division currently holds the main digital account for Barclays along with Woolwich and First Plus, and has staffed up from three employees at the time of the Barclays media account win, to just fewer than 30 online specialists at the current time.
The main account moved from Starcom at the beginning of June, to support a brand repositioning that started at the end of 2005.
In August 2006, Unique Digital launched an online branding campaign for Barclaycard. The campaign contained the new marketing slogan 'Relax' and ran online throughout that month in continuity with television and press advertising. The creative was produced by Dare.
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