Today Campaign reports that Naked Communications has closed its largest office in London just over three months after shutting down its New York operations.
We first broke news of the New York operation’s demise in January. The reason for both closings, according to our sources and Campaign’s, was the loss of the Virgin Atlantic business, which was Naked’s largest single account and the only business remaining in its Manhattan office as of the first of the year.
The change came after the Richard Branson-owned brand decided to take all of its digital marketing and electronic customer relationship management work in-house. According to a note from Enero Group, the Australian network that owns Naked, Virgin provided 7 percent of global net revenue for the entire organization as recently as last June.
From the Campaign story:
“Following the contract with Virgin Atlantic terminating on 31 March, it is understood that the agency did not have any other clients and has now folded the operation into another Enero unit.”
Naked remains very much operational in Australia, where it recently won creative and strategic AOR duties for Sigma Pharmaceuticals’ retail division, including the Amcal and Guardian chains.
We have reached out to Naked’s head of PR at Enero-owned firm Hotwire, which also saw its global CEO step down last month after more than 16 years. We will update this post if they provide a statement or more information.
Update: An agency spokesperson commented, “Naked’s business in Australia continues to perform well and is unaffected by these changes, as is its affiliate in Japan.”