Arla Appoints Accenture Song UK to Lead Brand’s Creative Transformation

Arla Foods has appointed Accenture Song in the UK to lead its creative transformation across Europe, following a competitive pitch process. 

Accenture Song’s work with Arla will introduce a new approach that covers every aspect of the Arla brand experience—focusing on creative acts, not just ads— to reflect Arla’s sustainability commitments. Arla is seeking to evolve its creative output and thinking across its business to drive growth. As lead agency, Accenture Song is the key partner in driving the strategy that will underpin the transformation of the Arla Masterbrand and its portfolio of sub-brands.

Accenture Song will partner with Arla to deliver a new creative brand strategy, launching in 2024. This will see a new creative platform rolled out across Europe, led by an integrated creative campaign. Accenture Song has been Arla’s agency of record since 2019 and this recent win marks an expansion of the scope of work and into the rest of Europe. 

Arla is one of the largest dairy companies in the world, with 8,500 farmers across seven countries in Northern Europe, and in the UK it’s one of the biggest food producers. Arla foods is owned by the dairy farmers supplying milk to the company, who are determined to lead the global dairy industry towards sustainable farm practise; to minimize C02 emission and increase carbon sequestration on farms. As part of its creative transformation, Arla is facing into the sustainability issues within dairy by tackling them head-on with industry-leading sustainability commitments and making a positive case for dairy. 

Arla Foods’ farmer owners have recently decided to change how they pay themselves for the milk across their cooperative, with up to 500 million EUR earmarked to reward and motivate farmers. The more climate activities they do the more they are paid for their milk based on their activities to drive sustainable farming practise, and to learn and experiment with new ways of farming for the future.

Will Hodge, co-chief of Accenture Song’s creative business in the UK, said, “It’s no secret that the future of food is in desperate need of change and Arla’s industry-leading sustainability commitments are a credit to the organisation. The scale of Arla’s ambition speaks to the overwhelming potential of creativity and the role it can play for health and sustainability when brands are willing to give it a seat at the top table. Together, we are helping Arla shape the next iteration of what its business looks like by driving growth through creativity.” 

Patrik Hansson, CMO, Arla, said, “In a world that has partly lost its relationship with nutritious, natural food and will have to feed 10 billion people, the need for sustainably produced, high-nutrition dairy products will be more important than ever. I’m excited to be partnering with Accenture Song to use the superpower of creativity to better connect consumers to sustainable products, and ultimately enable them to play a vital role in the future of food.”