Ferrero Rocher appoints Rainey Kelly to £6m ad account

The incumbent agency WCRS has parted company with the brand.

The account, went up for pitch in June, as first revealed by Pitch, and was handled by The Observatory. RKCR won out in a final shootout against Mortimer Whittaker O’Sullivan. St Luke’s Communications also pitched for the account.

Its most recent campaign included the ’Food of the Gods’ advert featuring the gods of Olympus celebrating Easter by giving their succulent and heavenly Ferrero Rocher chocolates to those on earth as gifts to enjoy. It was not created by WCRS.

Last year Ferrero Rocher launched a £5m marketing push for its Christmas collections in an attempt to gain a major slice of the seasonal confectionary market and to remind consumers that ’Christmas isn’t Christmas without Ferrero’.

It also signed up presenter and actress Amanda Holden for its Christmas campaign last year. As part of the deal, Holden held a Christmas carol night at Westfield shopping centre beneath the brand’s giant Christmas tree

The chocolate brand, which is owned by Ferrero UK, also owns brands including, Tic Tac mints, Nutella chocolate spread and Kinder Surprise chocolate. Earlier this month, Nutella launched an integrated campaign called “Breakfast Splits”, in a bid to build on the success of its “Wake Up to Nutella” campaign that has been running since September 2007, created by Krow Communications, who also handle Kinder Bueno.

WCRS first won a place on the Ferrero company roster in November 2001 when it was appointed to the Kinder Bueno account in the UK, which was worth £4.5m.

The appointment of WCRS was a result of a shift in marketing policy by Ferrero, after the company decided to shift its advertising over to agencies.

This story first appeared on Pitch, Centaur’s subscription-based online interactive marketplace for agencies and clients to share news, opinion and debate.