CIA baby milk brief adds £4m to American Home Products business

CIA Medianetwork UK has won the £4m media planning and buying account for baby milk company SMA Nutrition, which previously used healthcare media agency Acumen.

CIA’s brief is to launch a multimedia campaign this summer for Progress, SMA’s “follow-on” milk for babies over nine months old. The creative account is held by Euro RSCG Healthcare and is not being reviewed.

SMA Nutrition marketing manager Simon Shneerson says: “In the review of media, we were looking for improved ways of working and getting more value from our marketing budget.”

SMA is a subsidiary of US pharmaceutical company American Home Products (AHP), parent of another CIA client, Whitehall Laboratories. CIA was appointed after Shneerson spoke to other AHP roster agencies, including Optimedia. CIA handles Whitehall’s analgesic brands Anadin and Advil. Optimedia works on the nutritional additives Centrum and Caltrate.

Shneerson claims Progress has a fifty per cent share of the follow-on milk market, ahead of rivals Cow & Gate Step Up and Farley/Heinz.

But it is a complex market. Promotion of milk for babies under nine months old is prohibited, as regulators believe it may dissuade women from breast-feeding, which is considered to be a safer and healthier option. Promotion of follow-on milks is strictly regulated.