DB Breweries has announced the appointment of Saatchi & Saatchi as the lead creative agency on cider brand Orchard Thieves.
This announcement follows a pitch process, during which the Auckland and Sydney offices worked closely together—a move that helped to convince DB’s marketing director Sean O’Donnell that Saatchi was the right agency.
“We were really impressed with the thinking and passion the Saatchis team brought us and the way the two offices worked seamlessly throughout the whole process,” O’Donnell says. “We’re looking forward to launching the campaign to consumers and transforming their perceptions of the cider category.”
Orchard Thieves was first launched by DB in late 2013, with branding developed by Running with Scissors, in a bid to capitalise on the cider boom (Contagion has worked on the social side of the account for some time will continue to do so).
According to numbers released in 2015, DB’s cider brands, which include Monteith’s, Old Mout, Rekorderlig, and Orchard Thieves, comprise a 45 per cent share of the category’s total volume—and some of the onus will now be on Saatchi to grow that number.
Neither DB Breweries nor Saatchi would confirm which other agencies were involved in the pitch. However, StopPress understands that Colenso had also thrown its hat into the mix in a bid to add to its DB portfolio, which already includes Tui (won from Saatchi earlier this year), Old Mout Cider, Rekorderlig and DB Export.
Saatchi will release its Orchard Thieves campaign across both Australia and New Zealand in 2017.
