Ogilvy & Mather faces review of £14m KFC brief
Fast food chicken chain KFC is reviewing its £14m advertising account held by Ogilvy & Mather (O&M), ending months of speculation about the business.
Fast food chicken chain KFC is reviewing its &£14m advertising account held by Ogilvy & Mather (O&M), ending months of speculation about the business.
The review, which is being handled by the AAR, will be overseen by marketing director Claire Harrison-Church, who joined from Lever Fabergé a year ago (MW August 9, 2001). O&M is understood to be repitching for the business.
O&M has handled the account in the UK since 1994, when it won the business from Young & Rubicam. This year, the agency dropped the dancing Colonel Sanders figure and introduced the strapline: “Give in to the chicken”. KFC started a campaign last week for the launch of its Tikka Pockets. The advertising uses Indian shadow puppets and is an attempt to differentiate the product from other fast food Indian products.
Since last November, KFC has sponsored ITV1’s children’s programme SM:TV Live in a &£1.3m deal, including broadcast sponsorship, online and SMS. However, last week Granada Enterprises Commercial Ventures announced that KFC would not be renewing the sponsorship for a second year (MW last week).
KFC employs 12,000 staff and has about 500 stores in the UK and plans to open another 300 by 2005. KFC is owned by Tricon Restaurants, which also owns Pizza Hut and Taco Bell.
