Carat loses £3m Jacob’s media account to Starcom

Carat has lost the £3.4m media planning and buying activity for United Biscuits-owned Jacob’s Bakery. UB has given the business to Starcom, which handles the media planning and buying for UB.

Carat has lost the &£3.4m media planning and buying activity for United Biscuits-owned Jacob’s Bakery. UB has given the business to Starcom, which handles the media planning and buying for UB.

UB called a review of the account (MW December 2, 2004) after it bought Jacob’s from Danone last year. The review was called so that UB, which also owns the McVitie’s and KP brands, could unify its media planning and buying activities. Carat was appointed to the Jacob’s account in April last year.

The review is UB’s latest initiative since it bought Jacob’s. The company recently appointed Publicis to handle the advertising for Jacob’s, moving the business out of Euro RSCG London.

UB had been considering axing some of Jacob’s lines or merging them with existing brands, but a recent flood at a factory put any consolidation plans on hold (MW July 7). Also, product launches are thought to have been delayed until the factory can restore full distribution.

Consolidation of the Jacob’s brands was a key part of UB’s strategy this year. It was thought that UB planned to review all of the Jacob’s product lines before ditching ailing brands or merging them with existing UB lines.

Earlier this year, Jacob’s group marketing director Graham Hunter left the company. He was appointed as group marketing director of Northern Foods in April (MW April 21). Jon Eggleton now heads the UB marketing team.

The acquisition of Jacob’s in September last year gave UB a 27 per cent share of the UK biscuits market.