The lucrative Diageo Spirits portfolio has been won and lost. This time, Ikechi Odigbo led DDB smiles away with the multi million naira business against LTC JWT, Noah’s Ark and one other creative agency.
Diageo, parent company of Guinness Nigeria Plc called for pitch early in the year after Udem Ufor’s SO&U departed from the account as result of Insight Publicis equity partnership with Publicis.
It would be recalled that SO&U then in affiliation with Saatchi & Saatchi was controlling the Diageo and Guinness Nigeria creative businesses, which led to the epic campaign “My Friend Udeme” in the late 2000.
DDB won the pitch ahead of LTC JWT after Noah’s Ark had pulled out. The reason for Lanre Adisa’s agency withdrawal could not be ascertain as at the time of this report. But Odigbo’s agency defeated LTC JWT and one other agency.
Investigation reveals that the unnamed creative agency is one of the new creative shops.
Going forward, DBB will be responsible for the Diagoe Spirits portfolio in Nigeria, which comprises Red Label range, Smirnoff and others.
Again, Agency’s role will lead the marketing agenda for the Diageo spirits portfolio in Nigeria, developing brand strategies and leading the execution of these strategies to ensure that chosen priority brands are leaders in their categories in Nigeria.
The role will continually identify and quantify new growth opportunities for the portfolio based on continuously updated consumer insights, developing new growth drivers if required in partnership with West Africa Spirits Hub Team, whilst developing Spirits Marketing Talent for the future in Nigeria & Africa.
Diageo Brands Nigeria (DBN) was created in 2010 to drive Diageo’s Spirits business in Nigeria. The success of DBN is critical to the success of Diageo’s operations in Nigeria and therefore is critical to Diageo Africa’s success.
A key pillar of Africa’s growth is Spirits West Africa, with the ambition of doubling its profit on Premium Spirits and creating an integrated Total Beverage Alcohol business. The Spirits category in Nigeria is fast-paced with multiple competitors, an emerging route to market structure and evolving competitive set. This represents a major challenge as the role is likely to require a solutions oriented approach that is both proactive where possible and reactive where required.
On why SO&U lost the Diageo businesses, in December 2015, Publicis announced a new organisation designed to better serve clients, around 4 main divisions: Publicis Communications (gathering creative networks Leo Burnett Worldwide, Publicis Worldwide, Saatchi & Saatchi, Bartle Bogle Hegarty (BBH), global design and technology consultancy Nurun, and creative production group Prodigious Brand Logistics and global PR agency MSLGROUP) under the leadership of Arthur Sadoun
