AMV.BBDO steals £5m UK Campbell’s account

Abbott Mead Vickers.BBDO is understood to have picked up the £5m UK account for Campbell’s soup and sauces brands from rival roster agency Rainey Kelly Campbell Roalfe/Y&R.

The business consists of Campbell’s soup and Homepride brands Soup In A Bottle and Pasta Bakes.

The company spent £3m last year to launch Soup In A Bottle under its Homepride brand, which made its debut in the soup sector.

Rainey Kelly will also lose the account for Campbell’s condensed soups, which appear in tins with the well-known red and white labels (MW October 12).

No one at Campbell’s or either agency would comment as Marketing Week went to press, although AMV.BBDO is understood to have won the business without a pitch.

Y&R and BBDO handle advertising internationally for Campbell’s and neither the US nor European business will be affected by the decision.

BBDO already handles Campbell’s condensed soups in the US, where the Homepride brand does not exist.

BBDO has been tipped to win the Oxo and Bachelors accounts after Campbell’s bought the brands from Unilever last year (MW February 1).

Competition authorities insisted that Unilever sell the Oxo and Bachelors brands, including Cup A Soup and Super Noodles, following the company’s £13bn acquisition of Bestfoods last October.