Isobel sees off The Bank to win Harrods branding task

Harrods has appointed Isobel to create a brand advertising campaign beginning next spring and lasting most of 2006.

Isobel won the business after beating off competition from The Bank. A spokesman for Harrods has confirmed that the agency will not be retained as the luxury department store’s agency of choice, but has been appointed with this specific project in mind. However, it is understood that Harrods is looking for an agency or group of agencies with which it can form a partnership.

Harrods has been without a retained agency since M&C Saatchi resigned the account in March after only seven months. It blamed irreconcilable creative differences. Harrods then chose to promote its annual sale with a remake of an old Leagas Delaney ad, created in house. Since then, the company has used Ogilvy & Mather for a poster project.

The review does not affect Harrods’ media planning and buying account, which is held by PHD.

Meanwhile, Isobel has created an advertising campaign for Birmingham’s Bullring shopping complex. The &£500,000 campaign, to run across television and radio, and with national press inserts, challenges consumers to acknowledge the excitement and glamour of city life and view Bullring’s central location as a positive factor, using slogans such as “If you want to be at the edge, you’d better be at the centre”.