H&M £70m brief shock
McCann subsidiary loses global fashion business as Swedish retailer replaces marketing chief
Swedish fashion retailer Hennes & Mauritz (H&M) has appointed a new global marketing director and pulled its $100m (&£70m) global advertising business out of McCann-Erickson-owned Hasan & Partners, just a year after appointing the Finnish agency.
Jorgen Andersson replaced Sanna Lindberg as global marketing chief earlier this month. Lindberg has taken over Andersson’s previous role as managing director of the company’s Swiss office.
Andersson blames creative differences for the split with the Helsinki-based agency. Parent company McCann-Erickson Worldwide claims the move will not affect the retailer’s relationship with Universal McCann and McCann’s youth agency Magic Hat, which were appointed to handle H&M’s &£4m UK advertising account in October last year.
Andersson says: “Hasan has developed a new platform for H&M and we are very happy with the work. But since we do not see eye to eye on how to implement the new strategies creatively, we have decided to end the relationship.”
He adds that H&M has not yet put its global account up for pitch: “We are taking a bit of ‘time out’ and are reviewing our options to decide how best to move forward with our creative strategy.”
H&M appointed Hasan in August last year, ending a ten-year relationship with Ronnberg McCann.
