Scotland Overview
Newhaven kicked off the year as Scottish Advertising Agency of the Year, following an impressive 2005. As well as the top honour, November’s Scottish Advertising Awards 2005 also saw the agency scoop 10 awards including the Chairman’s Award for its Tennent’s Scottish Cup campaign. The agency further secured its creative reputation by winning more awards than any other agency at this year’s Roses Advertising Awards in May. Newhaven has also added new business in recent months with Radio Forth and paint manufacturer Craig & Rose.
Other developments in have included 1576’s acquisition of Carnegie Worldwide to launch a new sponsorship and events division. Meanwhile, Glasgow-based design agency Curious Oranj acquired advertising agency Coltas. Along with CuriousArchitecture, the two businesses have been relinquished to make way for the launch of the Curious Group.
Meanwhile RLA Group, previously working across offices in Belfast and Bournemouth, has expanded its presence into Scotland with a new Edinburgh base. The marketing agency appointed consultant John Dalziel to head up the operation as regional managing director. Glasgow-based Frame has also been busy in the personnel stakes with the appointment of David Miller, a former managing director of Weiden + Kennedy Amsterdam, to take on the same role.
In terms of new business, Glasgow City Marketing Bureau finalised its agency roster to five firms. Working across the £1.83m ‘Glasgow: Scotland with style’ account are Maguire Advertising (advertising and design), Feather Brooksbank (media), TNS Travel and Tourism (monitoring and evaluation), Orb International (promotional goods) and BD-NTWK (web design).
In other news, The Leith Agency began 2006 playing down the imminent departure of Coors’ £7million Carling account from its London office as chairman and co-founder John Denholm left the business. Despite the Edinburgh base being called in to pitch, it was Leith London suffered redundancies when the account moved to Beattie McGuinness Bungay.
It hasn’t been all bad news for Leith, however, as its Leithal Thinking arm continued to grow quickly. In March the brand consultancy arm of the business recruited Stand’s Alan Ainsley as head of design. He now works alongside Paul Stallard, head of Leithal Thinking, who joined from Leeds’ PWLC. Leith also picked up the Grand Prix award at the aforementioned Scottish Advertising Awards.
Third Eye Design proved that it is now in contention with the larger design houses in Scotland, being named the Robert Horne Scottish Design Consultancy of the Year, following a successful launch into the New York market last year. The agency also picked up the Young Designer of the Year prize, with Oskar Kron being awarded the title. Meanwhile Graphical House picked up the Grand Prix at this year’s Scottish Design Awards for its BBC work, with the Glasgow-based consultancy’s designer, Daniel Ibbotson, picking up the Designer of the Year title.
And finally, in PR-related news, Graham Isdale, one of the founders of Glasgow-based Big Partnership, left the agency earlier this year and is rumoured to be setting up on his own. Meanwhile Jeremy Hamilton, former marketing director at the Milk Marketing Board, was appointed as Harrison Cowley’s Scottish MD. PR stalwart Graeme jack, formerly UK Regions MD, left Trimedia to take up the marketing director role at Wiseman Dairy, and will be replaced by Nicky Hawkins. Finally, Fopp founder Peter Ellen took on a non-executive director role at Glasgow-based PR agency Burt Greener.
Phew, and that is a whirlwind whistle-stop tour of the Scottish market over the past six months. Life’s certainly not been quiet in the agency market, and it certainly makes the landscape that much more interesting.