ITV said today that it had appointed Bartle Bogle Hegarty as its advertising agency - two years after dumping the firm.
BBH, which makes ads for British Airways and Persil, will develop off-air creative work for all ITV channels.
ITV Creative will continue to produce on-air creative while Dare will remain ITV's digital agency.
M&C Saatchi, which took over ITV's advertising two years ago, after the arrival of Clare Salmon as marketing director, will continue to produce ITV's off-air campaigns until the end of 2007. It did not repitch for the business.
David Pemsel was promoted in January to replace Ms Salmon, who left ITV at the end of 2006.
The selection of a new ad agency is a key part of Michael Grade's content-led revival of ITV.
Since Mr Grade became ITV executive chairman in January the broadcaster has boosted its marketing budget from £16m to £20m in a bid to reverse the fortunes of the flagship ITV1 network through heavier programme promotion.
"Next year is a crucial phase in ITV's content-led recovery strategy and the ambition of our programming needs to be matched by the ambition of our creative partners," said Mr Pemsel.
"We wanted an agency who are confident enough to be able to take us in to new territory and BBH are the right people to do that."
· To contact the MediaGuardian newsdesk email editor@mediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 7239 9857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 7278 2332.
· If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication".
Source: guardian.co.uk
