Arun Sudhaman 10 Sep 2012 // 11:00PM GMT
BRUSSELS--A consortium led by Ogilvy Belgium has secured two assignments from the European Parliament, after being named to the EU body’s €60m roster earlier this year.
The Holmes Report revealed in April that three consortia had been selected for the roster, which aims to promote understanding and awareness of the European Union’s parliamentary institution.
Ogilvy Belgium has been awarded an overarching strategic assignment in the run-up to the eighth European Parliament elections in 2014, and the firm has also won a brief to develop a Europe-wide awareness campaign that communicates the body’s values.
The Ogilvy consortium secured the contracts after competing against the two other roster consortia: one led by Saatchi & Saatchi Belgium; and the other led by Belgian comms agency ESN, M&C Saatchi and Grayling.
The new campaigns come as the EU attempts to broaden the appeal of the European Parliament, amid region-wide uncertainty over EU policy.
“Working alongside the European Parliament presents a great opportunity and challenge – to educate and engage European citizens during one of the most trying times in recent European history,” said Jeff Chertack, consortium leader and MD, Ogilvy Public Relations Brussels. “We will apply our knowledge of how to engage citizen-consumers to build on the European Parliament’s existing communications efforts, resulting in greater understanding and shared vision.”
Chertack will lead a multidisciplinary team from Ogilvy’s advertising, PR, Social@Ogilvy and digital units. Ogilvy group strategy director Kristel Vanderlinden will head a European team of strategy specialists and creative director Sam De Win will oversee creative.
The contract builds on Ogilvy Group Belgium’s 2010 win of the European Commission DG Environment communication framework contract and more than a decade of European institution work. Work under this contract has included development and implementation of the ongoing Generation Awake campaign on resource efficiency launched in autumn 2011.