Brown-Forman Australia has appointed VML Commerce as its integrated below-the-line agency of record as it seeks to bolster awareness of its brands including Jack Daniel’s El Jimador and Woodford Reserve.
VML Commerce will be responsible for delivering end-to-end creative commerce solutions for Brown-Forman’s key retail and on-premise partners, stretching from promotions, shopper marketing, channel strategy and localised brand creative work.
The creative commerce company, which was appointed following a competitive pitch process, will manage the American spirits and wine company’s portfolio of brands, including the Jack Daniel’s range, as well as growth brands like El Jimador and Woodford Reserve.
The offering combines shopper strategy, channel planning, promotional marketing and world-class creativity across all Brown-Forman brands in Australia to supercharge continued growth in glass spirits and RTD.
Oliver Dickson, marketing director of Brown-Forman, said the business needed a partner that would help them think against the grain both strategically and creatively in the year ahead.
“VML Commerce has demonstrated that they understand how to strategically position key products within our portfolio of brands, while doing so with innovative, best-in-class executional thinking.”
Belinda Webb, managing partner at VML Commerce, said the company aims to “deliver breakthrough creative that breaks the BTL mould for these incredible brands.”
VML Commerce is WPP’s end-to-end Creative Commerce Company. It takes a “unified view of the purchase journey” to reach “the most creatively engaging, culturally relevant commerce experiences” anywhere life intersects with commerce as part of a network of 13,000 specialists across 44 countries globally.
It is part of the VML brand, which was controversially created in October this year when WPP merged the advertising agency Wunderman Thompson and VMLY&R to create the industry’s largest creative company. The move saw the end of the iconic Y&R advertising brand.
See also: Mediaweek’s A to Z of 2023: E is for e-commerce by Jon Bird, executive director, VML Commerce