Cumberland Packing, the maker of brands like Sweet ‘N Low and In The Raw sugar and stevia, has picked Ammirati as its new agency of record. The Brooklyn, N.Y.-based company replaces Mother, New York, which had been working with Cumberland since January 2010.
Cumberland spent nearly $10 million on measured media last year, per Nielsen. The company, whose other brands include Butter Buds, focuses its marketing efforts on Sweet ‘N Low and In The Raw. The agency’s first work is set to break in June.
The move came without a review. Agency founder Matthew Ammirati, who lives in New York City’s Brooklyn Heights, has been a fan of the family-owned company, which employs 400 people across from the Brooklyn Navy Yard. The president of the eponymous agency and nephew of Ammirati & Puris co-founder Ralph Ammirati says he’s pursued the business run by the Eisenstadt family for the last couple of years.
The decade-old agency has done well in working for family-owned businesses: Ammirati began partnering with Vitaminwater eight years ago before it was sold to Coca Cola, and also works for Nice-Pak, a privately held manufacturer of wet-wipe products.
“We’ve had a niche in going after family-run companies,” said Ammirati. “A lot of these companies (like Nice-Pak) have done private label, so they really appreciate the value of brands.”
Ammirati’s other clients include Powerade, Energy Kitchen, Zynga, Pirate’s Booty, CitiHabitats and Flywheel.