15 November, 1996
Wrangler has hired Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO - along with the team that
produced some of the highly acclaimed advertising for its biggest rival,
Levi’s - to handle creative work on its pan-European account.
The writer, Nick Worthington, and his art director, John Gorse, who
joined AMV from Bartle Bogle Hegarty in October, were assigned to crack
the brief.
It is their work that will run when the agency’s new TV campaign, with a
budget of between pounds 16 and pounds 20 million, breaks across Europe
in spring.
Michael Baulk, AMV’s chief executive, said: ’We asked Nick and John if
they felt they could wash Levi’s out of their hair. They’ve done so with
fabulous advertising which will certainly not be a Levi’s
derivative.’
Worthington and Gorse, whose work for Levi’s includes the famous ’creek’
and ’drugstore’ commercials, were a timely hiring for AMV, which was
already in discussions with Bob Coppage, Wrangler Europe’s president,
about a possible pitch for the account.
The agency heard last Friday it had secured the business after its
presentations had been researched alongside others from GGT and
Duckworth Finn Grubb Waters. Media remains at CIA Medianetwork.
Coppage said: ’AMV offered us a strategy for our brand and some creative
work for that strategy which was absolutely brilliant.’
Details of the creative approach remain under wraps but it is understood
it will continue to link the brand strongly with its American roots,
possibly through the use of real-life-style rodeo footage. It is also
expected to highlight jeans as a part of everybody’s wardrobe rather
than just a fashion icon.
Although Wrangler is the UK’s second biggest jeans brand with an 8.2 per
cent market share, according to AC Nielsen-MEAL, it lags behind Levi’s,
which leads the market with 25 per cent.
Baulk said: ’Levi’s has produced some outstanding ads which have been
ac-knowledged by agencies and consumers. Our task is to produce work
good enough to sit alongside them.’
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