• by David Kaplan , November 12, 2004

Horizon Media has been awarded the media buying and planning account for Vivendi Universal (VU) Games, a leading global publisher of interactive entertainment. The account's media spending is $25 million, according to CMR/TNS Media Intelligence.

The account, which was won after a review with several undisclosed contenders, will be handled by Horizon's Los Angeles office. Rival independent shop Kovel/Fuller, Culver City, Calif., was the incumbent.

VU Games has also chosen Black Lab, an independent ad agency based in Venice, Calif., to do its creative work for a forthcoming video game due out next year, the company said in a statement.

VU Games currently ranks as the No. 2 PC games publisher and No. 7 console publisher in the United States according to sales tracking analyst NPD. The video game marketer has over 700 titles available such as Warcraft, StarCraft, Crash Bandicoot, and Spyro The Dragon.