Mustoe Merriman Herring Levy has won HP Foods’ pounds 6.5 million
advertising account after a pitch against Partners BDDH and Banks
Hoggins O’Shea.
The task includes advertising for brands such as the famous HP Brown
Sauce, Lea & Perrins Worcestershire Sauce, Daddies Sauces and the Amoy
Chinese food range.
HP put its account up for review after the incumbent, Young & Rubicam,
won pounds 150 million of business from its parent company, Danone. The
client said the rethink was a ’rebalancing of agencies’.
Mustoe Merriman’s appointment marks the first time HP has moved off
roster for its advertising.
Media buying, which is handled by Carat, is understood to be
unaffected.
The challenge facing HP is to halt the fall in sales brought about by a
decline in the traditional ’meat and two veg’ meal in the UK. It has
tried a number of different advertising routes to address the problem
during its five-year spell with Y&R.
The most innovative of these was a one-off ad which positioned HP Sauce
as a good cure for hangovers in the lads’ magazine, Loaded.
More recently Y&R has been running humorous ads featuring a fighter
pilot and a firewoman demonstrating how powerful an experience eating HP
Sauce can be, using the endline: ’Have you got the bottle for it?’
The company has dealt with a similar problem on Lea & Perrins by
repositioning it as a tasty addition to snacks.
No-one at either Mustoe Merriman or HP Foods was available to comment as
Campaign went to press.
