Score: 9 Last year: 9
After a successful 2013, Adam & Eve/DDB had a big job to do if it wanted to go one better. Happily, pretty much everything fell into place. A&E/DDB won the most hotly contested pitches and cleaned up at awards ceremonies.
At Cannes, it won four Grands Prix for Harvey Nichols "sorry, I spent it on myself", as well as overall Agency of the Year. Even without the contribution of the department store, A&E/DDB would have topped the UK results table. And the Agency of the Year accolades did not end on La Croisette: the shop also picked up the title at Eurobest, LIA and the Epica Awards. And, of course, by the end of the year, it had been named Campaign’s Agency of the Year.
Creative highlights during 2014 included streaming Manchester United fans on to the touchline at Old Trafford for Google, funny online films for new clients Mulberry and Maille, as well as solid work for Volkswagen. And the John Lewis Christmas campaign, "Monty the penguin", was the most integrated yet, with interactive in-store activities, storybooks and merchandise accompanying the obligatory heart-warming film.
Across the year, A&E/DDB picked up 14 new pieces of business. It beat Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO to both Virgin Atlantic and McCain. The agency also won the AA from VCCP without a pitch. In fact, the only pitch A&E/DDB failed to convert (publicly, at least) was Tango.
In structural terms, A&E/DDB evolved in 2014. It promoted Mat Goff, Tammy Einav, Alex Hesz and Xavier Rees to allow the founders to spend more time on client business.
A&E/DDB’s 2014 was as good a year as any agency could hope for, and it has set itself an even higher bar for 2015. Campaign will be watching with interest.
How the agency scores itself: 9
How the agency rates itself: Eleven out of 12 pitch wins and 14 new clients. A range of work including world-first "front row" technology for Google, Sony TV bubbles, Haig Club and Christmas campaigns for John Lewis, Maille, Mulberry and Harvey Nichols. Our most successful awards year – 11 Agency of the Year gongs including Campaign, British Arrows and Cannes (22 Lions, including four Grands Prix), and our second IPA Effectiveness Grand Prix in a row for Foster’s.
| Adam & Eve/DDB | |
|---|---|
| Type of agency | Advertising |
| Company ownership | Omnicom |
| Nielsen billings 2014 | £259m |
| Nielsen billings 2013 | £232m |
| Declared income | n/s |
| Total accounts at year end | 42 |
| Accounts won | 14 (biggest: McCain) |
| Accounts lost | 3 (biggest: Phones 4u – administration) |
| Number of staff | 322 (+30%) |
| Key personnel | James Murphy chief executive David Golding chief strategy officer Ben Priest chief creative officer Jon Forsyth chief communications strategy officer |
Score key: 9 Outstanding 8 Excellent 7 Good 6 Satisfactory 5 Adequate 4 Below average 3 Poor 2 A year to forget 1 Survival in question
Footnote: *indicates where agencies claim the corporate governance constraints of the Sarbanes-Oxley legislation.
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