Woolworths drops Leo Burnett Sydney for M&C Saatchi to handle supermarket creative
Woolworths has appointed M&C Saatchi as its creative partner for its supermarkets account, ending the supermarkets’ relationship with Leo Burnett.
It is the supermarket’s third agency in less than two years after Leo Burnett picked up the account in April 2014 without a pitch, taking the account from the now defunct Droga5 Sydney.
Woolworths is one of the biggest advertisers in Australia, but has suffered numerous setbacks and misfires in the past year with campaigns widely derided by the public.
The win is timely for M&C Saatchi which earlier this year lost a large chunk of the Optus creative account with the retail business moving to Big Red, however was retained on the enlarged roster.
Jaimes Leggett, M&C Saatchi CEO
In a statement M&C Saatchi CEO Jaimes Leggett said: “Woolworths is one of Australia’s largest advertisers, one of the country’s most valuable brands and one of the most sought-after accounts. We couldn’t be more excited to be back working with the Woolies team.”
In a statement, Leo Burnett Sydney CEO Pete Bosilkovski, said: “The Woolworths Supermarket business is in a state of significant change. We wish them all the best.
“I want to thank our talented people for their incredible hard work and unrelenting commitment over the two years.
“As always, our focus now is on our people, especially those directly affected by this change.”
However the agency will retain the Big W business it won from Saatchi & Saatchi last year despite the other changes. It is thought the change could affect around 40 jobs at Leo Burnett.
Leo Burnett won the main Woolworths business when Tony Philips came in as chief marketing officer of the brand from rival, Coles, ending its two-year relationship with Droga5, which had taken the business from M&C Saatchi in 2012.
Leo Burnett moved to change the tenor of the advertising, launching a new strapline ‘Cheap Cheap’ to rival Coles’ ‘Down Down’ tag.
The campaign included animated birds and a series of ads featuring former X Factor winner Samantha Jade.
However the brand ran into controversy last year after creating an Anzac themed campaign centred around the tagline ‘Fresh in our memories’ which was the butt of derision on social media.
Weeks later Philips departed the chief marketer role abruptly, with the position sitting vacant until the recent appointment of Andrew Hicks to the post.
Woolworths last worked with M&C Saatchi, which starts work on the account immediately, in 2011 when it lost the business to Droga5.
The agency had worked with the brand since 2002 with M&C Saatchi’s retail head, Luke Dunkerly helping to set up the agency’s retail division which went on the help guide the supermarket into the position of being Australia’s strongest retail brand.
Dunkerly so impressed Woolworths’ executives that they poached him to run marketing on the brand.
Dunkerly was recently handed the job of Marketing Masters hardware while the business is prepped for sale.
Back on the Woolies account: Andy DiLallo
Observers have wasted little time drawing a line between the luring of M&C Saatchi executive creative director Andy Di Lallo over from Leo Burnett last year where he oversaw the business.
Similarly M&C Saatchi’s strategy lead Justin Graham was at Droga5 when it handled the Woolworths account.
At the same time, M&C’s long history on the business has also been noted.
“They know that business absolutely,” one observer said.
“They will settle in with it very easily, even though there have been a lot of changes at Woolworths. It is probably the right place for them to be.”
The Woolworths release:
Woolworths today announced that it has engaged M&C Saatchi as its key creative partner for its Supermarkets account.
Woolworths Director of Marketing Andrew Hicks, said: “We’re delighted to be starting a new partnership with M&C Saatchi. They have a formidable client list including some iconic and complex Australian brands and we’re very happy to be adding Woolworths to that list.”
“We have a solid foundation to build on with our price position and long-standing reputation as the Fresh Food People. With M&C Saatchi, we now look forward to creating a new generation of work that supports the next phase of our transformation.”
M&C Saatchi Group CEO, Jaimes Leggett, said, “Woolworths is one of Australia’s largest advertisers, one of the country’s most valuable brands and one of the most sought-after accounts. We couldn’t be more excited to be back working with the Woolies team.”
Mr Hicks thanked outgoing agency Leo Burnett for their work with Woolworths over the past two years.
“Leo Burnett have brought their skills and ability to our diverse business. We thank them for their work in that time, including the relaunch of the Fresh Food People commercials, Low Price Always and most recently our Make It Famous Christmas campaign.”
Miranda Ward worked for Mumbrella from 2013 to 2017, eventually becoming deputy editor. Miranda joined Mumbrella in September 2013 from Sky News.
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………….and they said the Xmas party wouldn’t work.
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wowee – what a shambles Woolworths has become, lurching from one agency to another in a bid to improve their fortunes, when the truth is that it’s they themselves who are the probleem
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This account is deadset poison.
First hand advice for anyone at M&C potentially having anything to do with it, steer clear.
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Wasn’t M&C’s Justin Graham at Droga5 when Woolworths were there too?
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I understand Todd Sampson was a big part of Leo Burnett getting Woolies in the first place and this corresponds with Todd stepping down as CEO and leaving Leo Burnett nearly 5 months ago.
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Woolies is the most pathetic brand in Australia, constantly reacting to Coles, and it’s absolutely disgusting how they (and Optus) keep jumping from agency to agency, as if anyone else is to blame for all the shit work that gets produced. These corporate behemoths are run by a bunch of politicians and accountants with complete disregard for the consequences of their cowardly actions on the livelihood of hundreds of people every year. They shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near a room where anything resembling creative decisions are being taken.
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This headline should read “Woolworths chew up and spit out yet another agency.”
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Todd is still at LEO as chairman. You’d think they continue to pay him to maintain relationship with key clients.
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disgusting
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It must be a sad day at Leo’s. I know that the guys who worked on Woolies gave their all and more. Woolworths don’t deserve an agency like Leo’s or M&C. They treat their agencies like shit and then blame for their ineptitude. [Edited under Mumbrella’s moderation policy]. There are forty plus people and their families that are suffering today. Let our thoughts be with them.
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Sounds like woolies need to sack their marketing department.
Typical response of a failing company.
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Wow, 40 jobs!
Are there any other industries where losses have such a profound personal effect? No wonder the vide of ad land is how it is. There’s just so much on the line
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For the record, Todd Sampson is a ‘non-executive’ type Chairman. It is basically name only he comes in once every couple of months. He might not even know Woolworths is gone.
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The last intelligent business person at Woolworths was Greg Foran. Since then the management have been connoisseurs of mediocrity without judgement or talent . Constant reaction, panic, and blame some other factor have characterised their daily life and a change of agency, even to one as good as M & C won’t cut it until the people who let Foran go are banned from the building, if not the planet.
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Speechless.
But far, far from surprised.
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Woolworths spent $88 million on advertising and marketing in 2015 but as always the fish rots from the head.
Its pretty easy to blame Leo but Woolworths hierarchy still need to take responsibility for poor decisions, strategies and execution.
Good luck to Saatchi hopefully they can wring out some success in the Woolworths brand.
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By taking on this account M&C demonstrate that they don’t care about their employees any more than Woolies does. They will have to assume that in a year, when Woolies moves on, they will have to fire several dozen employees, leaving them without a job in an economic environment which is almost certain to be much worse than it is today.
I know it’s a lot to ask from an agency who thinks girls jumping out of cakes is creative, but come on M&C, man up and take a stand: fire Woolies.
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@The Stand
Like, fire them today?
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Question to The Stand -what the f#@& is your point?
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Clearly WWS wasn’t offended by our party. I have a long history on WWS and like all clients they want an agency that is a partner. They found a good one. Well done M&C
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Looks like they can have their cake and eat it too.
Boom tish!
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Next year . . . lap dances
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Tom loves this stuff watch M&C sort out the mess that Woolies have got themselves into.
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@Confused and @Critic-At-Large
Apologies for the hyperbole, I forgot for a moment how literal you guys take everything (but the last commercial break just reminded me).
So I’ll pretend you’re five: obviously, they can’t fire them now (I don’t think any Aussie agency has ever fired a client. Crispin fired IKEA!). But if they had some balls, they’d taken a stand against the way clients treat our industry, if nothing else for the sake of their employees.
In one agency I worked, five account people left because the client treated them like crap. The management did absolutely nothing. Same thing.
The leaders of our agencies are weak. That’s my f#@&ing point.
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Bloody hell! What a whinge fest! Congratulations M&C, I look forward to seeing some ‘fresh’ new ideas. Well done.
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@ The Stand
Woolies are massively challenging and have been the architects of their own downfall.
But to suggest that M&C “fire” them is nothing short of idiotic. Anyone who works on Woolies is bound to get paid ‘danger’ money and five minutes on Google will highlight they are a tough client. Both the agency and any employees hired on to the account will be going into it with eyes wide open.
Lets not forget that Droga was allowed to produce the work that Droga was famous for, and it flopped. Leos won the account without a pitch for reasons unknown (personal relationships perhaps), and were clearly out of their depth.
M&C previously had them for 10 years, so it’s not impossible to make it work. There is no agency in town who would turn them down.
On another note, I’m not sure if you’re being intentionally ironic, but in one sentence you manage to dredge up the ‘girls jumping out of cakes’ while at the same time telling M&C to “man up”.
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A steaming pile of Freshness to be sure.
Maybe try New and Improved . . . might push the produce.
Truth is, for a massively retail client, you need a massively retail agency.
CAN.
It’s Australian for FOOD, Mate.
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This story has attracted more than the normal number of nut jobs.
The Stand is utterly incoherent,then we get What’s Wool Worth? Who is even more confused.
What is he/she trying to say?
CAN..um yeah?
What do Therese people do for a living?
F@&$(!&@ scary!!!!
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@KGB
FYI – The Monkeys have politely turned down pitching for Woolworths…twice I believe. It is possible 😉 They now work with IGA.
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I thought #27 was attempting retail-themed slam poetry – I hear all the kids are into it.
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They didn’t turn it down, they just didn’t make it past the tissue. That’s spin.
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@The psychiatrist @ LM
Not surprised that you’re having trouble fathoming WWW’s message, given your own lack of facility with language. Wasn’t all that cryptic really, so perhaps this is a case of physician heal thyself?
For the rest of us, it’s simple. M&C are built upon what passes for the success of the CAN campaign with a large ‘retail’ client. Creativity had very little to do with any of that work, as it was essentially cribbed from at least one, if not more internationally recognised campaigns outside of Australia.
As a result. M&C will be perfectly positioned for a brand like WW for whom creativity will not be necessary, and for whom there are any number of grocery chain ad campaigns from offshore for the team at M&C to chose from in their ‘inspiration’ for something to replace ‘the fresh food people’, almost none of the terms of which apply to the WW brand and the products they sell . . . fresh? (disproved by their ‘fresh frozen’ faux pas), food? (oft debatable if you read labels), people? (see faceless corporation).
As far as Loud Mouth is concerned, what the self-confessed 48 year old art director would know about slam poetry or what the kidz are into is seriously debatable. Perhaps she should stick to critiquing font size and kerning issues with that one good eye.
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@Groucho 32. The real Groucho here. If you must post under the identity I have been using for years.at least try and make it interesting. And try to make it make sense. Currently you read like you are trying to bore everyone to death. Perhaps your own identity would help. Idiot. Hopefully Mummy will stop publishing posts from you without my email address before you set up a blog pretending to be Mumbrella. Or at least amend the false claim. In the interests of quality. Or not pandering to an idiot.
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@Groucho
As articulate as ever.
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