Leagas Delaney takes on 2.5m Italian pasta task

Leagas Delaney London has scooped the £2.5m UK advertising account for Italian food manufacturer Pastificio Rana. It won the business following a three-way pitch against Grey London and WFCA.

The agency is now working on a brief for a full-scale launch of fresh pasta brand Giovanni Rana in the UK. The campaign, covering TV, press and online, will start in early autumn.

Giovanni Rana is the number one brand of fresh pasta in Italy, is available in France, Spain and Sweden and extensively marketed in the US.

The foodmaker, which was set up in the 1960s by Giovanni Rana and is still family-owned, describes itself as “the unchallenged leader” in the European fresh pasta market. The company’s products have had limited availability in the UK for several years. This is the most serious assault it has made on the UK market.

Pastificio Rana began the search for an agency to boost its UK brand profile last summer (MW August 3, 2006). Its product filled and unfilled pasta range also extends to gnocchi, ravioli and tagliatelle.

The company refers to itself as a “pocket multinational”, a big business that has developed on to the international stage but retains its traditional values.