MEDIA: PERSPECTIVE - Latest Initiative win makes life tougher for embattled MPG.

Well I never. Initiative Media, an agency with a UK presence as elusive as the Goa-based Lord Lucan lookalike Jungly Barry, has pulled off the new-business coup of the year.

As part of a review of its pan-European media account, France Telecom has handed Initiative the pounds 68 million UK task that includes planning and buying for Orange and Freeserve (won from Media Planning Group and Walker Media respectively).

This comes just days after Initiative added the pounds 22 million Saab business to its General Motors portfolio and captured the ICI business from Carat and PHD.

Initiative's France Telecom UK win came as a surprise because MPG was thought to be going head to head with OMD Europe for the account Instead, after a long-winded process that made last year's Sony marathon appear both rational and fair, the telecoms group has split its nine markets between MPG and Initiative.

'The only winner will be France Telecom because it will reappoint MPG in most markets and get them much cheaper,' one agency boss predicted a few weeks ago. Almost, but not quite. Having snuck up the back staircase in a clandestine fashion reminiscent of Carat, Initiative emerges with the business in five key markets.

Its win of the UK account is a triumph for all at Initiative, particularly its pleasant but previously unspectacular chief executive, Jerry Hill, who, after defending Unilever and GM, is now putting Initiative on the map.

So chapeaux off to all at Initiative but ...