Morrisons announces four-strong shortlist as pitch gets underway

After seven years with Publicis.Poke, Morrisons supermarket has decided to see what’s out there.

This year’s Christmas advert centred on “Farmer Christmas” and wasn’t a standout offering, so maybe next year we will see the efforts of a new agency. AMV BBDO (still looking to replace Sainsbury’s), Leo Burnett and Pablo are looking to take the account off Publicis.Poke, which is still in with a chance.

When the review was announced, chief customer and marketing officer Rachel Eyre said that a lot had changed in the last seven years, so they wanted to make sure they are working with “the very best strategic and creative partner.”

The shortlist would suggest that the pitch is about more than just saving costs, but Morrisons is saddled with millions of buyout debt and was recently overtaken by Aldi as the UK’s fourth largest supermarket.

There have even been rumours of a sale to Amazon, which sells Morrisons via its Amazon Fresh delivery service.