Out-of-state Dd Firms Lead Tyson?s $100M Charge

Tyson Foods Inc. on Jan. 20 announced a $100 million marketing campaign that would include all of the Springdale company’s protein brands. The bulk of that business went to two out-of-state advertising firms — the Chicago office of DDB Worldwide Communications Group Inc. and Lopez Negrete Communications Inc. of Houston.

DDB created the campaign concept and did the production work. It will handle the English-language version of the campaign and associated media buys. Lopez Negrete will do the same for the Spanish-language version.

The campaign includes $40 million worth of TV and print media ad buys. The rest is divided among creative work and outlets such as Internet, trade and cross-marketing.

Bob Corscadden, Tyson’s senior vice president/chief marketing officer, said the campaign builds on its previous advertising that used family themes to evoke connotations of trust and quality.

The new campaign message centers on two phrases: “It’s what you’d expect from Tyson … and it’s what your family deserves.”

“When we decided to move away from the Thomas E. Wilson brand for our beef products, we put two creative teams on the assignment,” Corscadden said. “We didn’t want to assume that the same branding [for chicken] would work with beef and pork. What came back from the qualitative and quantitative tests was the ‘It’s what your family deserves’ [slogan] was extremely appropriate.”

Tyson Foods acquired meatpacking giant IBP Inc. in September of 2001. Tyson is stamping its own brand name on the many former IBP products.