The Globe and Mail has brought out the big guns – in the form of agency BBDO Canada – to lead its attack in the ongoing newspaper marketing war.

bbdo was chosen to handle the account, estimated at $1 million, from a selected shortlist of agencies which included Brandworks International, the incumbent of three years.

Darcia Joseph, The Globe’s vice-president of marketing, says the paper has been very happy with Brandworks but that it now needs a larger agency that can provide a wider range of services and put more people to work on each assignment.

Brandworks will stay on the business until the end of the year and Joseph says the ‘Read Up’ tag line created by the agency will continue to be used.

‘We’ve built up equity in it and, in order for us to move off that, we would have to have something quite a bit better,’ she says.

The Globe has concentrated its advertising efforts in outdoor and print, although two of its competitors, the National Post and The Toronto Star, have heavy television components to their campaigns.

Joseph says she is looking at multiple media options for 1999 but that plans have not yet been finalized.