OMD retains £10m Shop Direct search business

By Maisie McCabe, campaignlive.co.uk, Tuesday, 15 May 2012 11:40AM

Shop Direct Group, the owner of Littlewoods and Very, has reappointed OMD UK to its £10m paid search strategy and management account following a final shootout against MediaCom.

Very.co.uk website: Shop Direct paid search account stays with OMD

Shop Direct Group called a pitch for its paid search as part of a two-year statutory review process in January and spoke to up to 10 agencies including digital specialists and media agencies, before narrowing the field down to OMD and MediaCom.

OMD will continue to manage direct response activity for Shop Direct and its brands Very.co.uk, Littlewoods and Isme, with a view to increasing their profitability.

It is understood that Shop Direct spends up to £10m on paid search per year. The Group's offline planning and buying is not affected by the review and is held by Aegis Media’s Carat.

Jonathan Wall, group e-commerce director at Shop Direct Group, said: "We were impressed with the quality of work from all of the agencies but OMD stood out as a trusted business partner highly committed to our success, with an exciting vision of the future, and specifically the potential of the wider search marketplace for our brands."

OMD’s search team, led by search operations director Andrew Harries, offers the agency’s clients a wide range of support and services including mobile and data management.

Dan Clays, who started as managing director of OMD earlier last month, said: "Jonathan and his team have big ambitions for all of the brands and are highly committed to stretching what’s possible in digital – which is absolutely in keeping with our ambitions at OMD."

This article was first published on campaignlive.co.uk