WCRS is poised to take Habitat’s advertising above the line having seen
off BST-BDDP to the account.
Stephen Woodford, the managing director of WCRS, confirmed that his
agency had been asked to make a final presentation to the managing
director of Habitat, Cliff Burrows, on Friday. The only other finalist,
BST, has been told it has not made it through to the second round.
Habitat, which is owned by the Swedish furniture group, Ikea, used
Saatchi and Saatchi between 1991 and 1994. More recently, most of its
advertising has been handled in-house.
The retailer decided earlier this year to hire an agency and plans to
spend up to pounds 2 million on advertising in 1997. Habitat’s marketing
director, Richard Millar, and its marketing manager, Matthew Griffiths,
enlisted the help of the Advertising Agency Register this summer to draw
up a shortlist of eight agencies.
These were whittled down to a final shortlist of three: BST, WCRS and
Lowe Howard-Spink (Campaign, 25 October). However, only the first two
eventually made their presentations, which were based on creative,
strategic and media planning ideas for a branding campaign next spring.
Media buying is handled through Zenith Media and is unaffected by the
review.
Habitat spent just pounds 500,000 on advertising last year, but when
Saatchis handled the account the budget was pounds 4 million. The
relationship produced award-winning work and only ended when the
furniture chain went in-house to produce a campaign for its 30th
anniversary.
