Vegemite Ends 74-Year Relationship With JWT

By Erik Oster 

Vegemite, the love it or leave it yeast-derived food spread brand from the land down under, has ended a relationship with JWT dating back over seven decades.

JWT served as the brand’s creative agency for 74 years and launched its long-running “Happy Little Vegemites” campaign.

Yesterday, Bega Foods tapped Melbourne-based agency Thinkerbell to handle the account, after acquiring Vegemite from Monedelez Foods last year. Oddly enough, it had been some 90 years since Vegemite was owned by an Australian company.

Advertisement

“Through recognising the strength in our Australian heritage and our need to focus on the future to continue positive momentum, we felt the time was right to refresh our creative agency,” Bega Foods marketing director Ben Hill said in a statement. “Thinkerbell – a new cutting-edge Australian agency – represent everything that we want our brands to deliver. With a new team and new outlook, we are thrilled to be working closely with Thinkerbell to instill the Vegemite and Bega brands further into the Australian psyche.”

Thinkerbell was founded by Cummins & Partners vets Adam Ferrier, Ben Couzens and Jim Ingram last year.

“We feel a great responsibility and are thrilled to be at the helm of the creative execution to drive the future success of brands such as Bega and Vegemite, two of Australia’s most loved and iconic brands,” Ferrier said in a statement.

“Our approach and differentiation is that we focus on bringing science and creativity together. We will use this combination to spearhead the development of a new creative platform that will help both Vegemite and Bega Peanut Butter continue to grow into new markets locally and abroad,” added managing partner Maggie Read.

Advertisement