BMP DDB lures 31m Frito Lay

The DDB network has won the account for the $50m (31m) Frito Lay crisps brands across Europe, the Middle East and South Africa on the strength of London agency BMP DDB’s success with the 11m Walkers Crisps business in the UK.

The Frito Lay brand is owned by PepsiCo but is not used in the UK, where PepsiCo’s brand in the crisps market is Walkers. There are various brand names used under the Frito Lay umbrella brand name.

BMP DDB will be the lead agency working on the business and will produce advertising on the account which local agencies can adapt to their markets, or create their own work. The business was previously handled on an ad hoc basis by BBDO, Young & Rubicam and DDB.

The appointment has been made by Martin Glenn, the commercial vice-president of PepsiCo Foods International, which changed its name to Frito Lay Europe last week.

Previously, Glenn was vice-president of marketing at Walkers from 1994, though he had been with the company since 1992. It was Glenn who commissioned the acclaimed advertising for Walkers, through BMP DDB, featuring Gary Lineker in his “No more Mr Nice Guy” role.

This played a key role in the brand’s success, while the agency has also produced award-winning work on another PepsiCo brand – Doritos. It won the only gold at last week’s British Design & Art Direction awards for its sponsorship credits for Doritos snacks.

The Walkers brand saw sales increase in value by 16 per cent in the year to the end of February, compared with the same period the year before, according to market research company IRI Infoscan. Sales of rival brands Golden Wonder and KP fell by 12 per cent and 20 per cent respectively.