Killing off the Freeserve name puts a question mark over M&C Saatchi's hold on the advertising account. The agency created the ISP's 'Be Free' campaign, which kicked off last summer and featured nudists and hippies to illustrate the freedom provided by the internet. BBDO holds the Wanadoo ad account in its flagship market France.
Freeserve's media planning and buying account is held by Walker Media while its online media business is handled by Quantum Media.
Whichever agencies communicate the rebrand would have the task of informing 2.5 million UK subscribers that they face having to change their e-mail addresses.
Freeserve issued a statement which said: "Freeserve has only just begun to evaluate the process of rebranding the company as Wanadoo. If Freeserve is rebranded then it will be at least two years after the company was acquired."
Wanadoo, which itself is owned by France Telecom, completed its acquisition of Freeserve from the Dixons Group in February 2001 for £1.6bn.
Apart from the UK and France, Wanadoo operates its ISP service in seven other countries.
All the European territories operate under the Wanadoo brand.
COMMENT
The Dixons Group capitalised on BT's inertia over the internet when it created the Freeserve ISP, bundling it with all its PCs.
It soon became the UK's biggest ISP.
Wanadoo's 'brand evaluation process' signals an eagerness to give its subsidiaries a single brand and bring it into line with main major international competitors T-Online, AOL and Tiscali.
But the disappearance of the Freeserve brand will require careful management in order to keep existing customers on-side.
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