New digital media roster for Cable and Wireless

A rationalised roster of digital design consultancies has been drawn up by Cable and Wireless Communications, to take the business forward as a non-consumer brand.

The revised roster includes two incumbent digital consultancies, Nucleus and USP, plus Bates Interactive, which has worked with Cable and Wireless Plc.

AKQA and Pres.co have been dropped from the list, following the move away from consumer branding.

“The object of this roster is to work on our business communications positioning because we are selling our consumer business,” says Cable and Wireless Communications brand manager Barney Bailey.

“We went through a pitching process before Christmas and now we have appointed three groups,” he adds. In total, 13 consultancies made presentations to the telecoms group.

“There are genuinely no projects specifically lined up for any of them yet,” according to Bailey, “although Nucleus has some ongoing work.”

Nucleus designed the identity for CWC’s new TV service, Cable and Wireless Digital, last year.

This latest roster emerges as the telecoms giant sells its consumer business to rival NTL.

CWC received shareholder approval this week for the separation and sale, to NTL, of CWC ConsumerCo., its residential cable, business cable, indirect residential telephony, residential Internet and digital television businesses.

New owner NTL plans to convert CWC customers to the NTL brand, (DW 13 August 1999).