GiffGaff founder hires Wavemaker as media agency for new venture

We are delighted to announce that GiffGaff founder Gav Thompson has appointed Wavemaker UK the media planning and buying for his new mobile phone network. Worth £25m in billings, we pitched against the7stars and Goodstuff for the task.

The brand’s name has not yet been made public but Thompson announced on LinkedIn that the company’s name under which it will operate is Paraspara. Thompson, who will also be chief executive of the business, started looking for a creative agency in March and appointed Lucky Generals in June.

Paraspara will be a non-conventional mobile network and an enhanced version of GiffGaff, which is marketed as a lower-rate, pre-paid, community-led mobile network. Commenting on the appointment, Thompson said: “we initially wanted an independent media agency but the team voted unanimously to appoint Wavemaker”

Wavemaker demonstrated that they totally got my vision for the brand, that their understanding of the market and the folk we want to talk to was bang on, and their media strategy and ideas blew me and the rest of the team away.

Jenna Banks, current Head of Brand at TalkTalk, is set to join Thompson as Marketing Director. Kelly Parker, Wavemaker UK Chief Executive Officer, said the category hadn’t “delivered anything distinctive for consumers for years” and we’re “excited to disrupt the market”. She added: “Working alongside a stellar line up of creative and design talent we are not only going to deliver some fabulous work, we are going to have a lot of fun along the way too.”

Press release originally published in Campaign.