By Arun Sudhaman

LONDON: Brands2Life has decided to end its decade-long relationship with T-Mobile rather than take part in the lucrative agency review for parent company Everything Everywhere – the mobile giant formed by the merger of T-Mobile and Orange last year.

The development means that the agency will walk away from an account worth as much as £1 million. The move has been triggered by Everything Everywhere’s decision to review all of its PR consultancy work across T-Mobile, Orange and the newly-formed holding group.

Brands2Life co-founder Giles Fraser told the Holmes Report that his agency would continue to support T-Mobile until a new agency was in place.

Everything Everywhere head of PR Mat Sears confirmed the development. “They said they didn’t want to take part in the agency review. We absolutely respect that, and we are certainly working with them in the run-up to any decisions, and they will be helping us during the transition, which could be as long as six months.”

It is understood that Orange incumbent GolinHarris is taking part in the review, along with a number of leading UK PR agencies.

Sears added that the goal of the review was to select an agency to handle a “unified” brief, overseeing a centralised core press office and campaigns for Orange, T-Mobile and Everything Everywhere. Other agencies will also be appointed in due course to handle specific tasks across different parts of the businesses.

Sears explained that the process was still at a ‘longlist’ stage, which has involved one-to-two hour chemistry meetings with agencies which have met credentials requirements. Once these are complete, contenders will be whittled down to a shortlist of agencies that will pitch for the business.

However, Sears noted that the pitch would not be a “traditional” one. “We’d like to see any prospective new agency work under pressure on stuff that’s relevant to the work they will be doing once they’ve taken the business.”