Rainey Kelly Ovaltine work under threat after acquisition

Rainey Kelly Campbell Roalfe/Y&R’s tenure on the £1m Ovaltine and Options advertising business is under threat, following the acquisition of the Novartis brands by Associated British Foods (ABF).

Rainey Kelly Campbell Roalfe/Y&R’s tenure on the &£1m Ovaltine and Options advertising business is under threat, following the acquisition of the Novartis brands by Associated British Foods (ABF).

Novartis agreed to sell its food and beverage business for &£171m to ABF yesterday (Tuesday). The sale is part of the company’s strategy to move away from the food market and focus on healthcare and pharmaceuticals.

Hot drinks Ovaltine and Options are the main UK brands affected by the deal. Rainey Kelly has been responsible for their advertising since 2000, when it won the business from Abbott Mead Vickers.BBDO (MW June 15, 2000). Later that year, Rainey Kelly created Ovaltine’s first television advertising campaign for 14 years.

The brands owned by ABF use a number of different agencies. Walsh Trott Chick Smith picked up Ryvita from Publicis earlier this year (MW February 21) and the agency is also the incumbent on Silver Spoon. Mitchell Patterson Grime Mitchell is responsible for Twinings’ advertising and Publicis is the incumbent on bread brands Allinsons and Kingsmill.

An ABF spokesman says: “We don’t have an agency roster in the way that a company like Unilever does. The companies work quite autonomously.”

He adds that following the acquisitions, the structure of the company and agency arrangements has yet to be decided.

Recommended

You really must eat your greens, Ian

Marketing Week

The Diary pities poor Union managing director Ian McAteer. Animal lovers have complained to the Advertising Standards Authority about his agency’s “distressing” press and poster ads for local leather settee manufacturer Olympian (MW last week) – they show a baby cow asking plaintive questions such as “Is mummy going to be alright?” and receiving the […]

Smells like woodchip, tastes like…

Marketing Week

No one knows better how hard it is to keep a secret in advertising than the AAR’s Martin Jones. The secret reviews he assists with often quickly become public knowledge once he has told an agency which advertiser is searching for an agency. This time however, the AAR excelled itself in its quest to keep […]

Who’ll raise me from the abyss?

Marketing Week

How many sales promotion agencies does it take to change a light bulb? This is very important to me. I work in a submarine, and while submarines are perfectly adapted to working below the line, right now I’m completely in the dark. And a submarine is a scary place to be in the dark. I […]