Steve’s breakdown: Coca-Cola is inviting agencies to pitch for the European advertising business for its Vitaminwater brand.

LONDON, UK: The soft-drinks manufacturer has been in direct contact with agencies to invite them to compete for the account, which spans North-West Europe – including the UK – and the Nordics.

Initial meetings between Coca-Cola and pitching agencies are lined up for the coming weeks.

The water brand’s advertising has been slammed in the past for making misleading claims, with one poster banned by the Advertising Standards Authority last year.

The ASA ruled that the description of Vitaminwater as “nutritious” was misleading because each 500ml bottle contained about 23g of sugar, or a quarter of a person’s GDA for sugar, as well as added vitamins.

Vitaminwater works with Exposure on its advertising in the UK. The agency created a campaign for Vitaminwater last year that ran across outdoor and highlighted the spectrum of colours used on the brand’s packaging.

As part of the campaign, a Facebook competition invited people to “show their vits” and “join the vit pack” for the chance to win prizes.

More recent advertising for the brand has focused on promoting its status as a London 2012 global partner. In May, Vitaminwater used its Twitter account to give away Olympic beach volleyball tickets.

Jessie J was signed up as Vitaminwater’s brand ambassador in September last year as it announced its London 2012 partnership.

As part of its initial activity around the Olympics, Coca-Cola encouraged people to co-create a new Vitaminwater variant, using a crowdsourcing project called Flavour Creator on its Facebook page.

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