John Townshend’s start-up agency Now is understood to have landed the £25m Waitrose account as part of a deal which will see the existing account team at its current agency MCBD move into Now’s offices.
It is also believed that Vision 7, the company that owns both Dare and MCBD, is to take a 40 per cent stake in the new agency. MCBD merged with sister agency Dare at the beginning of this year.
Waitrose is reported to have agreed to the move on the understanding that the existing team continues to work on the account, although it will monitor the situation.
Rupert Thomas, Waitrose’s marketing director, is reported to have admitted the retailer is in discussions about the future of the account, “including a combination of the current team who work with us and the Now agency”.
Now only opened for business last week, and the win would be a major coup for the co-founders Townshend, Mark Lund and Kate Waters. While at Rapier, Townshend managed to juggle a number of huge integrated accounts, including Virgin Media and Lloyds TSB, although this win is thought to be purely for the ad account. Kitcatt Nohr Digitas handles the DM business for Waitrose.
Related stories:
Lord T and chums join the start-up gentry
Townshend reveals start-up ‘Now’
