Sainsbury's pools data-driven ad account into Ogilvy

Sainsbury’s has consolidated its digital and data-driven marketing business into Ogilvy following a review sparked by its long-term aim to consolidate activity across the Sainsbury’s, Argos, Tu and Habitat brands.

The group, which issued an RFI for the review in May, previously split the business across a number of agencies, including Table19, Gravity Road, and The & Partnership-owned AllTogetherNow.

It is understood that the review does not affect Iris, which handles the Sainsbury’s-owned Nectar loyalty scheme.

The appointment comes as Sainsbury’s relaunches Habitat in its supermarkets and online after closing its flagship store during the pandemic.

The group bought the furniture brand, founded in 1964 by Sir Terence Conran, with Argos five years ago, in a deal worth £1.4bn.

But the home furnishings retailer has suffered, leading to the closure of several stores, including its Tottenham Court Road flagship outlet, leaving it with just 11 concessions in supermarkets and three furniture showrooms.

The company now hopes it can revitalise the brand by expanding online, selling products in supermarkets, and introducing a new children’s furniture range. Argos acts as Habitat’s order fulfilment outlet.

Ultimately, Ogilvy’s appointment falls in with the group’s long-term aim to become a purely data-driven business, backed by Nectar data.

The retailer already gathers data from multiple sources; it has over 18.5 million members of the Nectar scheme and claims to have 33 million customer records at its disposal. It also has a partnership with both Accenture and Google to implement machine learning technology to identify what customers want and the trends driving their eating habits.

Neither Sainsbury’s nor Ogilvy have commented about the review.