The owner of John Lewis and Waitrose has replaced its advertising partner of 14 years with Saatchi & Saatchi, the agency famous for its 1979 “Labour isn’t working” Conservative party election campaign.
The deal ends the relationship with Adam&eveDDB, which created a run of highly successful promotions based on a cosy emotional feel without a hard focus on price and turned John Lewis’s tearjerking Christmas ads into an annual event, with Monty the penguin, Edgar the excitable dragon and Buster the bouncing boxer dog all capturing the nation’s attention.
S&S, also known for its Harvey Keitel-fronted Direct Line ads, will now become the lead creative partner for all advertising activity for the John Lewis Partnership (JLP), which owns 34 department stores and dozens of Waitrose supermarkets.
The agency will take the lead on this year’s Christmas TV campaign and next year’s launch of a joint John Lewis and Waitrose loyalty card as well as promotion of the group’s financial services arm.
Charlotte Lock, the customer director at JLP, said: “We’re thrilled to be partnering with the talented team at Saatchi & Saatchi in our next stage of growth. As well as sharp strategic thinking and creative excellence, Saatchi & Saatchi’s culture, commitment to inclusion and social impact makes them a great fit for JLP. We’re very excited about what we’ll achieve together.”
Franki Goodwin, the chief creative officer at S&S, said: “There’s no bigger need or indeed appetite for advertising than the success of John Lewis Partnership – these brands are important to the fabric of our nation and we can’t wait to get started.”
The ad agency change comes as the JLP chair, Sharon White, attempts to lead a turnaround in fortunes for the employee-owned retail group, which has slumped to a loss amid soaring costs and stumbling sales growth since the start of the Covid pandemic.
White has insisted the group is on the right path to profitability but she faced a major rebellion from the group’s staff council last week, when nearly a quarter voted against her continuing as leader and more than 90% voted to chastise her over performance in the past year.
As part of her revamp, White is cutting central costs, investing in new avenues including building flats to rent above stores and trying to bring in customers via partnerships with the likes of the takeaway delivery firm Deliveroo and Dobbies garden centres.
White has hired the former Hovis boss Nish Kankiwala as the group’s first chief executive, tasking the former private equity supremo who has no direct retail experience with speeding up the pace of change.
