Wieden & Kennedy trounces DDB in £15m contest for Lurpak brief

Wieden & Kennedy (W&K) has been appointed to handle the &£15m advertising business for Arla Foods’ Lurpak brand following an eight-month review. The business moves from DDB London, which had held the account since 1993.

It is not thought that W&K has been handed the company’s Cravendale milk brand, also held by DDB, at this stage. Cravendale was not part of the pitch but it was thought that Arla was looking to consolidate its accounts when it called the review in December last year.

An Arla spokeswoman denied a decision had been made and W&K refused to comment as Marketing Week went to press.

Arla reappointed Clemmow Hornby Inge (CHI) to handle the &£7m Anchor account in June following a pitch against W&K and DDB. W&K and DDB were then left to compete for Lurpak.

Arla kicked off the review following the departure of head of marketing Hanne Sondergaard last year. The Danish dairy co-operative has traditionally had long relationships with its ad agencies. CHI won Anchor from WCRS in March 2003 with a brief to raise the butter’s profile as a traditional but healthy product. Before WCRS won the account in 1999, Saatchi & Saatchi held it for 14 years.

DDB was appointed to handle Lurpak in 1993 and strengthened its hold on the Arla business in 1998 when it won Cravendale.

Last year, the agency axed Douglas, the animated trombonist who fronted Lurpak’s ads for two decades, in favour of a young Danish woman called Maria.