Lowe picks up £100m Knorr business

Unilever is to shift four regional advertising accounts, including South East Asia and Greater China, worth £100m for the Knorr brand from WPP's JWT to Interpublic-owned Lowe.

The move does not affect DDB Worldwide, which holds the Knorr account in North America and Africa, Middle East and Turkey.

The move is a blow for WPP Group which has lost out to rival holding company Interpublic Group and will be a major boost for Lowe after it recently lost the £4m Innocent account as well as the launch campaign for the 4% variant of Stella.

There will be a handover period for the Knorr brand and Unilever said it will begin working with JWT to ensure a smooth transition to Lowe, which is already one of Unilever's aligned agencies, in the first quarter of 2009.

It has picked the account in Western Europe, Central Eastern Europe, Latin America, South East Asia, Greater China and South Asia.

The £120m account will be coordinated out of Lowe's London office with creative hubs leading the work in each region.

JWT remains a Unilever aligned agency and will continue to work on other brands, including Sunsilk, Lux, Radiant and Timotei.

Silvia Lagnado, Unilever's Group vice-president savoury said: "This choice was far from easy to make and I'd like to thank JWT for all their hard work on the Knorr brand.

"Lowe has delivered fresh ideas on the global projects we have worked on together and I am excited about the prospect of working with them on a broader basis going forward."