Cadbury has completed the shake-up of its $23m creative agency roster, parting ways with The Furnace, B&T Today can reveal.
The FMCG giant has trimmed the roster for its main chocolate brands from five to four agencies, with The Furnace’s four-year tenure on the Boost brand coming to an end.
George Patterson Y&R Melbourne will add Boost to its existing work, which includes Picnic and Cherry Ripe. Saatchi & Saatchi Sydney will continue to handle the Dairy Milk portfolio, while Publicis Mojo will oversee Freddo, Roses and Cadbury’s innovation work.
DDB Auckland has also been retained by Cadbury and will work on Dairy Milk and Moro in New Zealand, along with Cadbury Easter.
As revealed by B&T Today earlier this month, Cadbury kicked off the review of its creative line-up in the wake of a hostile takeover bid by Kraft which is understood to have put the company under global pressure to analyse its cost base.
The review was overseen by Amanda Banfield, who was named marketing director for Australia and New Zealand in April. Banfield is credited as being an architect of Cadbury’s highly-praised marketing work in the UK and Ireland, prior to her arrival in Melbourne.
Banfield said: “We are delighted to be working with such strong agencies and look forward to doing some ground-breaking work together in 2010.”
She added: “The Furnace has been a great partner and supporter of Cadbury, and we are very proud of the work we’ve done together in building the Boost brand. It’s sad that we won’t be working together in 2010 and we wish them every success in the future”.
The review does not affect Carat, Cadbury’s media agency.
According to Nielsen, Cadbury spent $23.6m on main media between October 2008 and September 2009.
