JWT loses 10m Lipton tea global ad account to DDB

Unilever has consolidated its agency arrangements for its Lipton tea
brand, moving its entire global creative business out of JWT to
Omnicom-owned network DDB. The global account is worth an estimated
10m.

The agency has held the account for the Li…

Lipton%20Yellow%20LabelUnilever has consolidated its agency arrangements for its Lipton tea brand, moving its entire global creative business out of JWT to Omnicom-owned network DDB. The global account is worth an estimated £10m.

The agency has held the account for the Lipton brand in the US since 2004 and across Europe since 2005. The move will come as a blow to WPP-owned JWT, which has held the account outside these regions since 1982 playing a significant role in the brand development particularly in Africa and Asia.

The appointment completes a process of "global alignment" with DDB, which will start working on the business from July this year.

The agency will be tasked with developing a global communications strategy to unify the brand on the back of the recent success of its "Lipton Tea Can Do That" campaign.

Unilever senior vicepresident for beverages, Didier Dallemange, says/ "Our global brands are being run in an ever more co-coordinated way and a single-alignment agency will obviously help."

Unilever last year appointed DDB Worldwide’s Tribal DDB as its first global digital agency for the Lipton brand. Tribal DDB has been charged with leading innovation in the interactive space and driving the Lipton brand forward in this area.

In May last year DDB London suffered a major blow when it lost the £10m account for Unilever’s core tea brand PG Tips to Mother (MW May 4, 2006). The agency had held the account since 1922. The move represented the second significant Unilever won in the first half of the year having already picked up the business for snack brand Pot Noodle in January.