CIA wins Virgin media account

CIA Hong Kong has won a raft of new business worth HKdollars 60

million (about USdollars 7.7 million), including luring away Richard

Branson's high-flying brand, Virgin Atlantic Airways, from OMD.

The agency was appointed by Virgin following a number of meetings and

presentations over the past six months.

The airline's marketing and PR manager for Hong Kong Angelina Wong

described CIA's ideas and recommendations as "innovative".

"For even a simple ad, they can make it so that it arouses strong

interest. They are constantly looking for ways to break through the

clutter, for example in print, they can combine advertising with

editorial or advertorial and public relations in a very unique way," she

said.

Virgin is 49 per cent owned by Singapore Airlines (SIA), which recently

tapped CIA to be its worldwide media agency.

However, Ms Wong denied that this was a realignment based on SIA's

choice of media agency. "Virgin is very decentralised and each market

can choose the agency it wants and in this case we too had a choice and

exercised that right."

The change in media agency in Hong Kong comes seven months after Virgin

dropped TBWA as its creative agency, replacing it with local hotshop Get

Smart.

CIA Hong Kong's other wins included Charles Schwab and Chinese bank,

ICBC.