Crown Paints, the painting and coatings brand, has picked full-service marketing agency BIG Partnership to look after its trade PR and social media brief after a three-way pitch.

Under the contract, BIG will help Crown Paints grow its brand presence with the important architect and design community, as well as supporting its trade brands for professional painters and decorators. The brief also covers an ambitious new retail strategy for a series of new and existing Crown Decorating Centres across the UK.

Crown Paints has a 200-year heritage, having been founded in 1777 in the town of Darwen, where it is still headquartered today. It is part of international coatings specialist Hempel Group, owned by the Hempel Foundation, which supports cultural, humanitarian and scientific causes around the world.

BIG’s Manchester team will lead the Crown Paints account.

Rob McCann, BIG’s Head of Manchester, said:

“Crown is a brilliant brand and one the whole team was really excited about working on. It’s a fascinating business with some really exciting ambitions, so we can’t wait to take some of our ideas and make them a reality.

“Our team worked incredibly hard to deliver a great pitch and it’s always nice to see that result in a win.”

Katie McLean, Crown Paints marketing director, said:

“As well as a great pitch, the BIG team showed real enthusiasm for working with us and really understood our industry and what we’re trying to achieve.

“We loved that BIG had put so much effort into their research and interpretation of the brief, and clearly went above and beyond to provide a really impressive pitch with some great ideas.”