Alcatel Lucent to Euro RSCG
October 14th, 2006 - Posted in OtherEuro RSCG has landed Alcatel Lucent’s global rebranding assignment following a review, sources said.
The Paris office of the Havas-owned agency bested undisclosed finalists. The projected global media spend for the assignment is $125 million, per sources.
Representatives at Euro RSCG referred calls to the Paris-based client.
Executives at Alcatel’s U.S. headquarters in Plano, Texas, were not immediately available for comment. Officials at Lucent Technologies, based in Murray Hill, N.J., also could not be reached.
Alcatel in April disclosed its intent to acquire Lucent for $13 billion. The deal is still pending; if approved by the U.S. government, the combined company would be called Alcatel Lucent.
Lucent makes telecommunications equipment for networked phone systems. Alcatel markets switching and transmission devices for landline and wireless applications. The union is expected to give the combined entity a nearly 20 percent share of the world’s telecomm market.
There is no record of media spending for either company beyond 2001. (That year, Alcatel spent $20 million on U.S. ads, while Lucent spent $50 million, per TNS Media Intelligence.)
Alcatel created a stir with its advertising five years ago when Havas’ Arnold in Boston created a campaign using the voices and images of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Lou Gehrig. The agency parted ways with the client several years ago.