- Andrew McMains

NEW YORK Cossette has landed creative and media duties on the Waterford Crystal brand after a review, the agency confirmed today. Account billings are estimated at $5 million.

"It's just a fabulous brand," said Sally Kennedy, president of the New York shop. "There's a huge opportunity" to make Waterford Crystal more top of mind, particularly among young adults, she added.

Cossette's win comes just a few weeks after Bill Oberlander, a former executive creative director at Interpublic Group's McCann Erickson here, came aboard as chief creative officer.

Oberlander was part of Cossette's pitch team. Cossette bested three other New York agencies to win the business: MDC Partners' Kirshenbaum Bond + Partners and independents AgencySacks and ML Rogers. Alan Krinsky Associates in New York managed the process.

Final presentations took place last week at the agencies' offices. Each contender got about three hours to present to five client executives.

Waterford Crystal is marketed by Waterford Wedgwood USA in Wall, N.J. The brand's competitors include Baccarat Crystal, Tiffany & Co. and Lenox.

The winning agency is expected to create traditional and interactive ads as well as collateral for stores and sales executives. Its first campaign will likely break in the first quarter of next year.

"Even in this challenging environment, our venerable brand has a tremendous opportunity to gain further market share and re-energize the category," said Regan Iglesia, svp, marketing at Waterford. "The depth, experience and strategic thought process of [Cossette] was extremely impressive and we have no doubt that our new partnership will take the Waterford brand to new heights."

In the past, Waterford has used Chillingworth/Radding, New York, to create print ads. (Chillingworth/Radding did not participate in the review.) Media duties have been handled in-house.

Past major media spending on the Waterford Crystal brand has ranged from more than $1.3 million in 2006 to less than $1 million last year, according to Nielsen Monitor-Plus. Those figures do not include online spending.