The supermarket chain is believed to have researched two creative ideas from the agencies before making its final decision to stick with AMV.
The two ideas are understood to have involved the celebrity chef Jamie Oliver, although he has not formally agreed to renew his contract to promote Sainsbury's, which expires in May. Sainsbury's might well have to pay the TV chef as much as 拢3m to after the success of his 'Jamie's School Dinners'.
The battle for the account kicked off in February. Bartle Bogle Hegarty and Leo Burnett were cut from the review at the end of March, with the initial long list also including DDB London, McCann Erickson, TBWA\London and Delaney Lund Knox Warren.
The advertising review had been instigated by chief executive Justin King as part of a wider look at the supermarket chain, which has fallen from the second to third biggest in the country, after Tesco and Asda.
Sainsbury's first appointed AMV in 1981 and the agency has created memorable work including the hugely successful Jamie Oliver campaign and a 1993 series of spots that showed celebrities such as Dawn French preparing their favourite meals.
However, it has not always been smooth sailing -- AMV also created the 1998 "Value to Shout About" campaign, starring John Cleese. It was voted most irritating ad of the year, and is often mentioned in lists of disastrous advertising campaigns.
Sainsbury's dates back to 1899, when John James and Mary Ann Sainsbury opened a shop selling milk, butter and eggs in Drury Lane, London. The firm remained a family business until flotation in 1973, by which time Sainsbury's was the UK's leading supermarket chain with more than 250 stores.
It was behind the first self-serve supermarket, which opened in Croydon in 1950, and was a pioneer of now commonplace supermarket features such as out-of-town stores and own-label products.
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