M&C Saatchi poised to win £2m Müller/Cadbury dessert account

M&C Saatchi is tipped to win the £2m advertising business for the range of chilled desserts Müller Dairy sells and markets under licence from Cadbury.

Müller approached a number of undisclosed agencies with a brief to develop a campaign for the Cadbury desserts, which include Caramel and Dairy Milk.

The project is thought to involve mainly print and press advertising, with the possibility of some television work.

TBWA/London, which handles the Müller account, declined to pitch for the task because of a perceived conflict with the Masterfoods business that it won last year. TBWA won the £14m Müller account in October last year (MW October 7, 2004), after a pitch against M&C Saatchi, HHCL/Red Cell and Abbott Mead Vickers.BBDO.

The sales, marketing and distribution responsibilities for Cadbury’s chilled desserts were previously handled by Uniq, the convenience food group. Müller snatched the rights from Uniq, which continues to manufacture Cadbury’s desserts, last year (MW March 11, 2004).

The deal reinforced the position of Müller as the UK’s leading dairy brand in the chilled dessert category and followed the appointment of Andrew Harrison as Müller managing director (MW January 8, 2004). Earlier this month, Müller doubled its spend for its Corner brand to £6m, when it launched a low-fat variant of the range.