Food Lion Announces Mullen as New Advertising Agency

Public Company Information:
NYSE: DEG

Food Lion, one of the nation's largest grocers, announced today it has selected Mullen as its advertising agency of record. Mullen will be responsible for developing Food Lion's advertising campaigns and partnering with the company on integrated marketing initiatives in support of the Food Lion brand.

"Mullen will be a great partner to enhance the Food Lion brand, especially as we continue to implement the new Food Lion strategy in 2012," said Cathy Green Burns, president of Food Lion. "Mullen has a unique opportunity to help us transform our business as we strengthen the Food Lion brand. We look forward to leveraging the creative and strategic insights of the Mullen team to help us educate our customers about Food Lion."

Boston-based consulting firm Pile + Company managed the review process, which began in August 2011. Mullen succeeds Ames Scullen O'Haire as the agency of record. The terms of the contract were not disclosed, and new creative and advertising could take effect as early as the first quarter of 2012.

"We are confident in Mullen's ability to deliver creative and compelling marketing programs to our customers," added Karen Fernald, senior vice president of brand strategy and marketing at Food Lion. "Mullen's experience in driving retail brands and expertise in reaching target audiences with powerful and relevant messages in a variety of marketing venues will serve as the perfect complementary partner to our organization."

Mullen's North Carolina office will lead the Food Lion account team.

"Mullen is thrilled to partner with Food Lion," said John Fitzgerald, president of Mullen's North Carolina office. "We're looking forward to helping drive greater loyalty with current customers and bring new shoppers into the mix. We believe our strategic and creative excellence will help re-energize consumers around the lion's share of advantages associated with shopping at Food Lion."

About Food Lion

Food Lion, based in Salisbury, N.C., is a subsidiary of Delhaize America, the U.S. division of Brussels-based Delhaize Group (NYSE: DEG) and operates more than 1,100 supermarkets. The company employs approximately 57,000 associates delivering quality products, low prices and service to customers in 11 Southeast and Mid-Atlantic states. For more information, visit www.foodlion.com.

About Mullen/Frank About Women

Mullen is a full-service, "hyperbundled" agency, integrating disciplines from creative to digital marketing, public relations and social influence, media planning and buying, mobile marketing, direct response and performance analytics. With an "unbound" approach to marketing, Mullen specializes in working with culturally relevant experiential brands and is recognized as the leading marketing-to-women consultancy through its Frank About Women group. Agency clients include JetBlue, Zappos, Unilever, Hanesbrands, GlaxoSmithKline, CSX Transportation, Novartis, BASF, Kumon Learning Centers, FAGE, LivingSocial and Match.com. Mullen has been named to the Advertising Age Agency A-List and as one of Fast Company's Most Innovative Companies. Headquartered in Boston, the agency operates offices in North Carolina, Detroit and Pittsburgh. Mullen is an independent brand within the Interpublic Group of Companies (NYSE:IPG). For more on Mullen, please visit www.mullen.com, follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/mullenunbound or "like" us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/mullenunbound.