Saatchi & Saatchi has snagged creative advertising duties for the world's largest gum brand, winning Kraft Food's Trident account after a global review.
The Publicis Groupe agency beat out independent Wieden & Kennedy and Omnicom Group's TBWA in the final round. Both TBWA and Saatchi referred calls to Kraft, which did not immediately respond to multiple requests for comment. W&K did not return calls for comment.
Kraft pulled Trident from WPP's JWT in July, saying at the time it wanted to bring "fresh thinking" to the brand. The food giant's gum business has underperformed globally, and correcting that trend seems to be a particular focus of CEO Irene Rosenfeld, who indicated at an investor conference in early September that the key is boosting sales in more mature markets such as the U.S.
"The key challenge for gum and candy is in developed markets. Developing markets are on a roll," she said, noting that while gum and candy has "experienced significant challenges," business was up 2% year-to-date. "We understand the base of the problem, young people, the key targets, have less disposable income," she added. "We're fixing it with sharper advertising, more innovation, and smaller pack sizes to hit key price points."
In the U.S., Trident sales fell 4.2% to $290 million in the year ending Sept. 4, under-performing in the sugarless gum category, where sales dropped by 1.9%, according to SymphonyIRI. Trident is the No. 2 sugarless gum brand in the States with 12.8% share, trailing Orbit, from Mars-owned Wrigley, which has 15.6% share and whose sales grew by 1.5%. Kraft spent more than $21 million on measured media on Trident in the U.S. in 2010, according to Kantar Media.
Globally, Trident holds the lead with 12.8% share as of the end of 2010, the latest data available from Euromonitor. Orbit is the No. 2 global brand, with 7.9%. When all brands are combined, Mars has the global lead with 33.3% share, followed by Kraft at 30.7%, according to Euromonitor.
JWT, New York, still runs Kraft's Stride brand, which has made a recent ad push featuring extreme sports star Shaun White, whose likeness is featured on the package of Stide's newest flavor, called "Whitemint."
