The John Lewis Partnership-owned supermarket made its decision this week after a two-month pitch process.
Adam & Eve/DDB beat Creature, Lucky Generals and WCRS in the final stage of the process. CHI & Partners and J Walter Thompson were also involved earlier on in the review.
The process kicked off in March, two months after Bartle Bogle Hegarty ended its relationship with Waitrose in order to pick up the £110 million Tesco ad account.
Although Adam & Eve/DDB’s success on the John Lewis account could have been seen as an advantage in the Waitrose pitch, the two businesses have preferred to keep their ad accounts separately in the past.
Adam & Eve/DDB has worked with John Lewis since 2009, when, as a start-up, it beat Miles Calcraft Briginshaw Duffy, which worked with Waitrose at the time.
MCBD resigned Waitrose in 2011 following its merger with the digital agency Dare, which worked with Sainsbury’s. Waitrose had discussions about moving its business into Now but appointed BBH in June 2011 instead.
This latest Waitrose pitch had echoes of the 2011 review for John Lewis as Helen Calcraft, Andy Nairn and Danny Brooke-Taylor, who were at MCBD in 2009, now run the start-up Lucky Generals as co-founders.
BBH made the shock decision to drop Waitrose in January to take on the Tesco ad account without a pitch. Tesco had previously worked with Wieden & Kennedy London.
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