Ultimo hires Faulds to fight Wonderbra

by retail entrepreneur Tom Hunter. Last year, Hunter sold his Sports

Division chain to JJB Sports for pounds 290m, and acquired the Fosters

Trading Company stores, which he is currently rebranding as d2.

Faulds will develop and plan a press and outdoor campaign to begin in

July, a month before Ultimo launches.

The bra features gel-filled pouches, rather than padding, and is claimed

to offer more comfort than Wonderbra for the same cleavage

enhancement.

While MJM will not reveal its marketing spend, Ultimo is understood to

be backed by a six-figure investment in MJM by Hunter.

He has said he expects Ultimo to give Wonderbra ’a run for its money’,

while MJM founder Michelle Mone said she expects turnover to leap from

pounds 3m to pounds 10m next year on the back of the launch.

The ad campaign, which will initially run in women’s magazines and on

billboards in London, Edinburgh, Manchester and Dublin, will feature a

model and a plastic surgeon, and are themed around the idea that the bra

will put plastic surgeons out of business.

They will use the tagline ’Comfortable on you, rough on the plastic

surgeons’.

The ads will be backed by an extensive national PR campaign through

Spence Allan.

MJM, which was set up by Mone and her husband in 1997, will be taking on

the might of Sara Lee, which owns both Wonderbra maker Playtex and

Pretty Polly, which has recently launched its first range of bras.