WiMAX carrier Clearwire Corp. hired Los Angeles-based Omnicom Group’s DDB as its new advertising agency following a review of its advertising business. Clearwire offers WiMAX service in 35 markets, most of them small to midsize metropolitan areas.
Spending on the carrier’s advertising account was expected to grow to more than $25 million, said an executive familiar with the situation. Other contenders for the account included the Los Angeles offices of M&C Saatchi and independent shop Richards Group, Dallas.
St. John & Partners, of Jacksonville, Fla., was Clearwire’s previous advertising agency.
None of the agencies could be reached at press time. Russel Wohlwerth, a partner in A-Team Advertising Advisors, who headed Clearwire’s search for a new advertising company, declined to comment.
Clearwire, based in Kirkland, Wash., outside Seattle, is the latest project of Craig McCaw, whose McCaw Cellular was purchased by AT&T and became the original AT&T Wireless Services Inc. Launched in 2003, Clearwire previously raised more than $1 billion from investors including Intel and Motorola. An upcoming IPO is expected to raise an additional $400 million.
Just this week, Clearwire purchased $300 million worth of wireless spectrum licensed to or leased by BellSouth. Government regulators required AT&T to sell the spectrum as a requirement for approval of its $86 billion acquisition of BellSouth.
Alice Z. Cuneo is a reporter with Advertising Age, a sister publication of RCR Wireless News. Both publications are owned by Crain Communications Inc.
