NEWS: Adams in pounds 2.5m push

Childrenswear specialist Adams has handed its pounds 2.5m advertising

account to Bartle Bogle Hegarty in readiness for its first large-scale

marketing campaign in six years.

The Sears-owned retailer is near to completing the overhaul of its 320-

strong portfolio and is now ready to market its brand to customers.

The spring campaign will highlight the fact that Adams is the only

multiple retailer dedicated to childrenswear. It will also seek to bring

some fun to an area traditionally seen as functional.

Adams is also seeking to exploit declining levels of advertising

expenditure in the market place.

According to Mintel, the amount spent on advertising the sector fell

from pounds 733,000 in 1989 to pounds 108,000 in 1994, the last year on

record, to represent less than 1% of its pounds 2.5bn in sales.

Karen Calderwood, brands communications director, said: ‘Compared to

other brands that excite children, such as McDonald’s, there is little

branding in childrenswear, and we want to change that.’

Competitors such as Mothercare, Next and Gap all provide children’s

clothing but do little to market their brands nationally.

The win is BBH’s third from the Sears roster. Earlier this year it won

the Selfridges and Wallis accounts. BBH account director Steve Kershaw

said: ‘Our long-term aim is to make the product more desirable and to

attract an affluent consumer who is having fewer children later in

life.’

This article was first published on Marketing