Napolina, one of the UK’s top-selling Italian cooking brands, has appointed agency Lucky Generals as creative partner to drive the firm’s ambitious growth strategy which will also see it launch its biggest UK ad campaign to date.
First established in Italy, Napolina launched in the UK in 1965. It is now owned by Princes Group and has over 140 lines, including pasta, pizzeria, grated cheese, sauces, tomatoes, olive oil, pulses, balsamic vinegar and pesto.
Lucky Generals has been briefed to give the brand cut-through in an increasingly crowded category, with the aim of reconnecting with new and lapsed shoppers across the category.
Napolina has also hired digital agency Spin to lead on organic social, and Honey to lead on design. The agencies join Weber Shandwick (PR) and Wavemaker UK (media) which already work with the brand. They will all collaborate as an interagency team.
The agency appointments follow the recruitment of former PepsiCo, Hovis, and Innocent chief Jeremy Gibson, who joined the Princes Group in April as marketing director.
Princes is one of Europe’s largest food and drink groups, and owns a raft of brands including Crosse & Blackwell, Crisp N’ Dry, Flora, Batchelors Peas, Branston Beans and Princes of course.
Gibson said: “We’re on a mission to become more meaningful to our consumers and deliver a compelling story through our communications, increasing brand recognition, saliency, and purchase intent as we do.
“Lucky Generals’ creative approach and ability to build brand platforms will be a major part of our success. However, the real benefit is going to come from bringing all of our agency partners together under one aligned vision to drive us on that mission.”
Lucky Generals client partner Vickie Ridley added: “The Napolina team are fiercely ambitious, it was clear from the first time we met that they are on a mission to drive the brand forward at pace – we can’t wait to help them do just that. And I can’t think of many things better than winning a piece of business that allows us to consume copious amounts of spag bol.”
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