M&C axed from 6m Benckiser

Benckiser has dropped M&C Saatchi from its 6m Vanish stain remover account and handed the business to Clark & Taylor.

M&C won the account for the laundry additive in February from Roose & Partners. It adapted some European TV commercials, but Benckiser marketing director Keith Edwards says the agency’s creative work was unsatisfactory.

“It’s a chemistry thing. It is a good creative agency, and we were looking for that kind of creativity. But we weren’t getting advertising out of the door that set us on fire. There comes a time when you say ‘we can’t crack this’,” he says.

Clark & Taylor won the account without a pitch after presenting credentials to Edwards. The agency is developing a new campaign for Vanish that breaks on October 19.

In addition to the television advertising, there will be sampling and PR work with women’s magazines. This will involve additional spending by Benckiser.

Edwards says Vanish has about 35 per cent of the laundry additive market, but is coming under pressure from Procter & Gamble’s Ace Gentle Bleach brand, which has achieved a 30 per cent share since its launch in March.

It is understood to be the first account that M&C has lost since the agency was set up by the two brothers Maurice and Charles in June 1995 as a breakaway from Saatchi & Saatchi.