Morrisons to refresh advertising strategy

Morrisons has given clear indication it plans to overhaul its advertising strategy as it gears up for the launch of its online food business and convenience store expansion.

morrisons
Morrisons is overhauling its advertising strategy to support a more multichannel approach to brand building.

The supermarket’s corporate brand director Belinda Youngs is leading a review of its advertising and in-store marketing roster in a bid to have a single agency leading its creative direction. Morrisons currently works with DLKW Lowe on its marketing.

The review is part of wider efforts to reset the company’s marketing approach and aims to develop a more multi-channel advertising strategy. It comes in advance of a raft of brand building investments planned for 2013. Last month, it confirmed plans to move into the online grocery market over the next year alongside, expanding its convenience business after acquiring 49 stores from DVD rental business Blockbuster.

It is hoped the move can further highlight the supermarket’s fresh, UK-sourced food positioning, which it claims is resonating more strongly with consumers in the wake of the horse meat scandal. The retailer unveiled Ant & Dec as its brand ambassadors earlier this year as part of a campaign to highlight how it differs from the budget supermarkets that have been eroding its market share.

Youngs says: “The latest Ant & Dec campaign has been very successful for us, but as Morrisons continues to move into multi-channel and multi-format retailing, we need to ensure we have an agency structure in place for the challenges and opportunities that lay ahead.”

Morrisons, the UK’s fourth largest food retailer, has an 11.9 per cent share of the market behind Sainsbury’s (16.9 per cent), Asda (17.9 per cent) and Tesco (29.4 per cent).

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