Booze and beer are literally just part of the job at KBS and Bensimon Byrne now that they’ve been named creative agencies for Ontario’s liquor retailer, the LCBO.
The Toronto-based agencies came out on top in two separate competitive reviews: one to handle advertising for the retailer’s in-store promotions, won by KBS, and the other to handle brand work including corporate social responsibility, which went to Bensimon Byrne.
Previously, Leo Burnett served as the agency of record overseeing all of this work. It originally won the account in 2012.
“Both agencies bring experience in digital that will be leveraged for promotional and corporate social responsibility awareness campaigns,” said Kerri Dawson, vice-president of marketing, LCBO, in a statement to Marketing.
The reviews were conducted in April and were managed by Ontario’s Advertising Review Board. Dawson confirmed that LCBO’s media planning and buying remains with PHD as part of a broader Ontario government contract.
“Our assignment is specifically around the retail calendar, campaigns that they do typically on a monthly basis around highlighting specific partnership and driving people in store,” said Nick Dean, president and CEO of KBS Canada. The LCBO runs 13 unique ad campaigns a year covering 655 retail locations across the province.
Dean said KBS’s long history of working on retail (which includes Walmart, Target, Sleep Country and BMO) was a decisive factor in winning the account.
“What we were able to display immediately was how to motivate consumer behaviour in store,” he said. “And we understand that these campaigns happen at a rapid pace and we have a proven history of being able to execute against aggressive retail calendars.”
When you are going to market with new work every month, you need to be working on multiple campaigns at once, finishing one while starting another, he said.
The mandate now will involve mostly print, web and radio work, though Dean believes there is opportunity to do more web video work as well.
KBS was notified of the win about eight weeks ago and has already produced some work over the summer.
