Big Fuel was named T-Mobile USA’s first social agency of record, beating Sapient Nitro and the Dachis Group in a competitive review for the business.

Previously, social media efforts were handled by T-Mobile’s corporate communications department. Big Fuel now takes the lead in development of T-Mobile’s overall social strategy: The agency will oversee the implantation of social media analytics; integration of social into existing MarCom efforts; brand-channel oversight; content development; and retail activation of social media.

Earlier this year, AT&T said it had struck a deal to acquire T-Mobile from Deutsche Telekom AG for $39 billion in a move that would create America’s largest mobile phone company. The company has since seen a big jump in its social media following. “Over the past six months, we have grown our fan and follower base on Facebook and Twitter exponentially,” Reid Walker, vp, corporate communications, T-Mobile USA, said in a statement.

Publicis USA is the wireless carrier’s creative agency. With the proposed merger still under regulatory scrutiny, and not expected to close until next year, it is unclear what impact an AT&T merger would have on incumbent T-Mobile agencies. 

Big Fuel was founded in 2004 and has grown its client list to include General Motors, Microsoft, InBev, Clorox, and Colgate-Palmolive. The New York-based agency opened a Detroit office earlier this year and, in the coming months, plans to open in Seattle near T-Mobile USA’s Bellevue, Wash., headquarters. In the beginning of the year, Jon Bond, the co-founder of  Kirshenbaum Bond Senecal + Partners, joined Big Fuel as chief executive.