VCCP loses £10m Glenfiddich brief to Waverley

William Grant & Sons has dropped Vallance Carruthers Coleman Priest (VCCP) from its &£10m global advertising account for Glenfiddich following a roster review.

The joint incumbent, US-based Merkley & Partners, has scooped the entire advertising business.

Earlier this year the company split the business between VCCP and Omnicom-owned Merkley & Partners with a brief to come up with global campaigns for the whisky brand (MW February 5). The work produced was subsequently reviewed.

McCann Erickson has previously held Glenfiddich’s advertising account.

The agency, which continues to work on the brand in markets such as Spain and France, handled the business for almost three decades.

Managing director Simon Macdonald, alongside group marketing director for malts Paul Godfrey, oversaw the pitch.

Macdonald, a former Bass Beers marketer, joined William Grant last year from Citibank, where he was the managing director of business banking for Europe, the Middle East and Africa (MW November 13, 2003).

Godfrey says: “Glenfiddich has always benefited from innovative advertising, which has challenged malt whisky convention and reflected the confident and charismatic nature of the brand.”

It is not clear whether the brand’s long-standing stag icon, which is associated with blue-collar sport in America, will be ditched.