CHI wins 5m Waterstone’s ad account

CHI & Partners has scooped the 5m advertising business for bookstore chain Waterstones. The agency will handle all print, TV and outdoor work for the bookstore brand. It will also create the advertising for Waterstones Christmas account when the bulk of its advertising airs.

CHI & Partners has scooped the £5m advertising business for bookstore chain Waterstone’s. The agency will handle all print, TV and outdoor work for the bookstore brand. It will also create the advertising for Waterstone’s Christmas account when the bulk of its advertising airs.

The agency pitched against Abbott Mead Vickers.BBDO, Bartle Bogle Hegarty and Lowe to win the busines. The review is understood to have been prompted by the acquisition of rival chain Ottakar’s, which Waterstone’s parent company HMV bought in May 2006.

Incumbent St Luke’s did not repitch. The agency won the business in July 2005 from Beechwood, which was also incumbent on HMV’s business. Previously, the chain worked with agencies on a project basis.

Waterstone’s has around 300 stores across the UK, Ireland and Europe and its flagship branch on Piccadilly, London, is the biggest bookshop in Europe. It was founded in 1982 by Tim Waterstone, a former WH Smith executive. The chain was bought by WH Smith and later sold in 1998 to HMV Group for £300m.

The review did not affect the HMV brand or media planning and buying agency OMD UK.
Bookstores such as Waterstone’s are facing increasing competition from cut-price titles online and in supermarkets.

In June last year HMV Group unveiled a three-year turnaround and £40m cost-cutting plan to revive flagging sales across both HMV and Waterstone’s stores. Measures included closing unprofitable stores and selling devices such as MP3 players instore.

Unveiling results at the same time, it said like-for-like sales fell 4.1% because of competition from supermarkets and online, despite the UK book market overall growing by 2.1%.