The year's most mammoth account (perhaps the year's only mammoth account) is not being launched by a car manufacturer, a soap maker or a sporting goods conglomerate. Instead, wireless provider Orange, UK, has laid down eight figures to ensure a 2003 mindshare in one of the world's oldest mobile markets. It's a move unthinkable in North America where talking on a cell phone in public places still earns you the evil eye.

Though some may call the expenditure brave, the company, historically a high-rolling advertiser, spent £8.5 million on cinema advertising alone between January and September of this year. Still, what's seen as courageous to some is good business insurance to others.

According to Mark Waites, the managing director of Mother, London, the best business insurance is finding clients of a similar mind-set. "Like-minded clients will be predisposed to your ideas," he says. Indeed, from the six-year-old Clerkenwell-based agency known for it's wonderfully bizarre campaigns, Waites has nailed it. "This is not a regular kind of agency," he explains, "Many people will decide right off the bat that this place is not for them. If you walk in expecting to be whisked down a marble hall and into a glass office, it's not going to happen."

Luckily for Mother, some high-rolling clients have eschewed the chichi in favor of the summer camp-like surroundings of the Mother ship. The company popped their cherry in a big money deal with ITV Digital, which ended in a rancorous custody battle over the now-defunct broadcaster's inanimate simian mascot in March of 2002. (Mother is still owed payment, thought to be in the neighborhood of six figures.) The new deal, for mobile phone giant Orange, comes not a moment too soon. The highly publicized account acquisition is poised to fill the cavernous revenue gap left by ITV. The new account is set to hit UK telescreens and newsprint in the New Year.

Worth an estimated £43 million, the account was awarded after a four-way, six-week battle between high rollers, Mother, M&C Saatchi, Bartle Bogle Hegarty and - Orange agency once removed - WCRS. The appointment came at the heels of Lowe, London's resignation of their two-year-old account earlier this year.

Strictly speaking of the global company's UK ad forays, the nearly 10-year-old Orange has gone through a few agencies since their inception as Microtel back in 1993. In the UK, four agencies have positioned the telecom - not only as a leader in wireless communications - but also as a much-coveted client. Wolff Olins and WCRS devised the first branding campaigns with the "It's my life" and "The future is bright. The future is Orange" tags and "Orange" - the moniker Microtel adopted in 1994. WCRS remained Orange, UK's agency of record until 2000 when Lowe made its way onto speed dial. The pre-Millennium year brought the instantly recognizable stylized animation of AKA PIZAZZ and Phil Hunt, but they were replaced by more emotive ads directed by Gorgeous' Chris Palmer. Though those spots aired in 2001 and made the Cannes shortlist, by that time WCRS had been replaced by Lowe, aboard since 2000.