Close-Up: The real reason why Cadbury has chosen SSF.(Saatchi Saatchi Fallon)

Critics wonder if Svengali Maurice Levy engineered the Cadbury/SSF deal. But what does the client say?

The news in mid-September that Cadbury had moved its pounds 100 million global advertising account out of Publicis and into another part of Publicis Groupe, the one-year-old Saatchi Saatchi Fallon (SSF) venture, posed a number of questions.

Just how will the new partnership work? Will the move be the catalyst for more brand consolidation? And, perhaps most poignantly, why make the change when some of Publicis' best work recently has been produced for Cadbury?

The facts are difficult to dispute. Thanks to Publicis' work on Creme Egg, sales were up 14.9 per cent year on year. Its contribution to the launch of the Creme Egg Twisted bar saw the product outsell the Mars bar this year. Its 2007 Wispa work won Campaign's press ad of the year.

Tamara Minick-Scokalo, the global commercial president of Cadbury, says the shift into SSF is not a reflection on Publicis, but a signifier of Cadbury's growing ambition. 'There wasn't necessarily a problem with Publicis and the work it was doing. But at Cadbury, we have a very emotive brand that is well known for having tremendous communication advertising. A partnership with SSF will provide us with the match we need to help expand the brand and grow our business even further,' she says.

And history has shown, Minick-Scokalo continues, that a change of agency is the best way to aid the progression. 'I would say that Publicis did struggle with Dairy Milk, and when we moved it to Fallon and it gave us 'gorilla', it showed us the possibilities available to raise that bar a little further.'

She ...