Wieden & Kennedy takes over Coke Classic ad account in North America

by Staff, Brand Republic 07-Oct-05, 08:45

NEW YORK - Wieden & Kennedy, the independent ad agency, has been handed the creative account for the main Coca-Cola brand in North America without a pitch.

The account was previously held by Berlin Cameron, part of the WPP division Red Cell United. According to reports, W&K is to work on developing new creative for the Coke Classic brand in the US, although Berlin Cameron will continue to handle some of the work.

Berlin Cameron picked up the work from McCann Erickson in 2003. In that situation, Coca-Cola maintained for some time that it was working with both agencies before eventually giving the job over to Berlin Cameron completely.

This latest move comes as the beverage giant faces further sales declines, despite having splashed out over $145m (£82m) on advertising last year.

At the time the Coke account shifted into Berlin Cameron, there was a wide feeling that agencies were having trouble "cracking" the brief and coming up with a big idea to emulate the success of campaigns such as "I'd like to teach the world to sing".

Coca-Cola is still addressing that problem, and is in the middle of a pitch process to find an agency to come up with a global ad campaign for the main Coke brand. Wieden & Kennedy and Red Cell are each involved in that pitch.

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