CHI in pole position to land Heineken as Lowe chooses Stella

June 14, 2002

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3-4 minutes

CHI in pole position to land Heineken as Lowe chooses Stella

Clemmow Hornby Inge is tipped to pick up the £10 million Heineken UK and Ireland account without a pitch after Lowe resigned the work last week.

It is highly likely the account will go to CHI because of connections the agency has with Lowe, which dropped the account to work on Stella Artois. Charles Inge, Lowe's former creative director, is a founding partner at CHI, and last month CHI poached the art director Mickey Tudor and the writer Brian Turner from Lowe. The senior creative team previously worked on several Heineken spots, including "old man".

As Heineken prepares to usurp its existing Cold Filtered brand with a 5 per cent version in a direct challenge to the market leader Stella Artois, the company is thought to be looking to appoint without a review because of the tight schedule of the launch.

It is thought Heineken will need creative work to appear by September in time for the product launch next year.

Neither Heineken nor CHI were available for comment.

- Close-up, p14.