After a final round of pitches against Omnicom’s Adam & Eve TBWA and WPP’s VML, VCCP’s formidable new business team have yet scored another big victory – Ikea UK & Ireland’s creative account.
Incumbent Mother declined to repitch back in November, and in December the five-strong shortlist was whittled down to three, when McCann and AMV BBDO were knocked out of the race. Head of Marketing Sarah Green told campaign that Ikea was impressed by VCCP’s “open and collaborative approach” as well as its solid strategy, commerciality and creativity.
Mother worked on the brand for 16 years and set some very high standards for VCCP to follow. One of Mother’s first ads for the Swedish furniture brand was Kim Gehrig’s “You’ll always find me in the kitchen at parties”, and the agency subsequently built “The wonderful everyday” line into one of this century’s most recognisable and versatile campaigns.
VCCP is expected to continue to use the same tagline, but as Ikea struggles with increased cost of materials and shipping as well as a customer-base with less money to spend, the new agency’s challenge will be about more than just making memorable creative work.
A review of the media business, currently held by Dentsu’s iProspect, is still underway.
