Kelly Weedon Shute hooks Fisherman’s Friend

Kelly Weedon Shute has won the UK account for the throat-burning lozenge Fisherman’s Friend from Ogilvy & Mather.

Kelly Weedon Shute already handled the pan-European satellite televsion campaign for the sweet and the consolidated account is worth about 2m to the agency.

Media for the brand remains unchanged and stays with MBS Media in the UK and Carat in Europe.

Kelly Weedon Shute picked up the pan-European account for satellite TV at the end of 1993 and ran advertisements on MTV Europe.

Fisherman’s Friend is sold in more than 100 countries and 95 per cent of the total production is exported.

In some countries the brand has achieved cult status and the sweet was one of Europe’s fastest-selling confectionery brands during the Eighties – production between 1976 and 1989 increased by 2,000 per cent.

Its strongest markets are in Germany, Scandinavia, the Benelux countries and the UK.

The sweet is produced by Lofthouse of Fleetwood, a company owned by Doreen Lofthouse, who has become one of the nation’s richest women on the strength of its sales.

Outside the UK the brand is aimed at a much younger market with most purchases in Germany, for example, being made by people in the 23-to-35 age group.