B&Q and Dreams looks for creative uplift – but have they the ad firepower?

What can an ad agency really do for a legacy retail business?

Struggling B&Q has put its ad account, currently with Engine, up for review while bed retailer Dreams, now owned by Sun Capital Partners after a pre-pack administration a few years ago, has abandoned M&C Saatchi for the enticing delights of Uncommon Creative Studio.

Both new agencies will no doubt start with a bang and then it’ll be a matter of keeping it going as other financial needs press on budgets. With a media agency somewhere in the mix advising them to place digital ads here, there and everywhere – with, sometimes, the upshot that nobody is really sure how or why the advertiser is changing.

B&Q used to be a giant of the UK retail scene but has slipped back as new, online competitors have moved in and it’s lumbered with too many, undeniably dowdy stores.

Time was when such giants were able to blast their rivals out of the water – in part by investing in huge TV campaigns. that’s not the case any more – which must be at the back of the minds of the lucky winning agencies.