This article originally featured on Campaign.
OMD UK has won a five-year contract to handle Channel 4’s media planning and buying, beating the7stars and Zenith.
The OMG cross-agency team, called Fast4WD, will be led by OMD UK chief executive Laura Fenton, who recently joined the Channel 4 account team and was “instrumental” in retaining it.
She will form a new team that combines media planning and buying expertise from OMD with data and tech, analytics, innovation and strategic partnerships within OMG.
The brief involves helping Channel 4 adapt to a changing media landscape, an increased focus on its Future 4 strategy, which includes transitioning to a digital-first media company that skews to young people, and helping establish the broadcaster’s new brand positioning, “Altogether different”.
The Fast4WD team will work with Channel 4’s marketing and viewer experience teams from October.
“We’re delighted to announce that Channel 4 is appointing a new Fast4WD team in OMG as our new media partner,” Channel 4 chief marketing officer Zaid Al-Qassab said.
“OMG demonstrated completely fresh and ambitious data and tech solutions that will put viewers at the heart of everything that we do and will help propel us towards our Future 4 digitally focused vision. We are thrilled to work with such an exciting and inspirational new Fast4WD approach, created specifically for Channel 4.”
OMG UK CEO Dan Clays added: “The total transformation of the TV market over the past decade, which has only accelerated through the pandemic, demands a revolutionary marketing model to help Channel 4 seize the opportunity of a new landscape.
“We have developed an altogether different proposition for the future of 4, that pulls on the best of OMD and OMG, supported by a reimagined team and advanced data and technology infrastructure. We cannot wait to get cracking as we write a new chapter for 4 together.”
ID Comms supported Channel 4 on its media review.
Channel 4 has only reviewed the business once before, when it consolidated all media into OMD in 2011. It previously retained Profero (now part of MullenLowe) for its digital account, and Michaelides & Bednash for strategic planning.
