New Year Honours
Best Appointment - Alan Ainsley, Leithal Thinking
Last year was a year of much posturing, when agencies made many high-profile appointments. Former Citigate Smarts staffer, Juliet Simpson, returned from Australia to set up Stripe, while Leith also lured Pete Burns to launch Blonde. It wasn’t all East coast activity. Glasgow-based Barkers finally appointed Carter Anderson as its new creative director. Family hired Michael Fraser and Pete Bastiman while Carolyn Laing joined Good Creative, then defected to Arc. Third Eye hired Alexia Cox as creative director for its New York office and former Third Eye director Victor Brierley joined The Hub. Mike Lynch arrived at Nevis from Navyblue and Richard Sowerby became non exec director at Frame, joining from client Gala. But it was Alan Ainsley’s appointment at Leithal Thinking, following time at Navyblue, Elmwood and Stand, that stood out as this year’s most interesting appointment.
Best Account win - Bulmers
Frame’s win of the Bulmers account narrowly beat Newhaven’s Scottish Power account win to the New Year Honour. Not only was it a huge account for Scotland, it was a fresh account - new business and a relaunched brand for the UK - proving that Scottish agencies really can still attract big name brands and compete on a national scale.
Best agency website - Good Creative
Agency websites can be like cobblers’ children. Often they concentrate on preaching the importance of communication while neglecting their own. Websites are now the first point of contact with potential clients, yet - if many agency websites are anything to go by - the role that was once filled by the receptionist would now have a job advert looking for a replacement. Good’s site is straight forward yet informative, while giving the user a quirky insight into the agency.
Best Website – Oscar and Fitch (SO Creative)
SO Creative’s site for Oscar and Fitch is an easily navigated, visually delightful piece of work that ended up taking the Best Writing award at the Scottish Advertising Awards, as well as the Best Website accolade, a prize which it shared with Dog Digital’s Egobots – another great site, by the way.
New Media agency of the Year – Line
Scotland has an abundance of online talent - (just ask Dog Digital, Realise, DC Interact, Whitespace, Civic, Lightershade, Spider Online). There is also a plethora of new firms (Blonde, to name but one) and firms that have had a progressive 2006 (Spring Corp joining forces with Newhaven, for example). However, one agency has stepped out from the pack this year.
Line has worked on a number of high-profile new accounts (Tennent’s, Boudiche, Turcan Connell, Shepherd + Wedderburn, Money Quest, Think Scotland and Craig & Rose) while continuing work with the likes of BBC, Edinburgh International Film Festival and CCL Compliance.
The agency also completed a buy-out from its parent company Future19 in October and hired IAS Smarts former head of digital Malky Brown.
Industry Stalwart – John Denholm
Winner of the Lifetime Achievement Award at 2006’s Scottish Advertising Awards, John Denholm has been one of the most important figures in Scottish advertising for a long time. Having co-founded The Leith Agency following his departure from Halls over two decades ago, he remains high profile in the industry with non-executive director roles at The Leith Agency and at recruitment company, Denholm Associates.
Deal of the Year - BigMouthMedia
The online search firm merged with Global Media in a £50million deal, which will see it open new offices across the US and in Dubai, while Global Media will also rebrand offices in Manchester and London to BigMouth. Pretty good business it would seem.
Ones to watch - Curious Group
This category covered a wide range of agencies - from new starts (like Omnia, which recently opened in Scotland) to those, more established that might have done better. However, the honour goes to a recently merged group - The Curious Group... One of the biggest stories last year was the merger of Glasgow stalwarts Coltas and Curious Oranj. 2007 should see the group build on past successes. Together.
Advertising Agency of the Year - The Union
and Advertising MD of the Year - Ian Mcateer
Sweeping the board at the Scottish Advertising Awards, it was hard to look beyond The Union for Agency of the Year. The Union also retained Miller Homes, and took on the STV.tv account while investing in price comparison site peopleschampion.com. Meanwhile, the agency continued to produce some outstanding work for its clients including Historic Scotland and Baxters. It does seem true that things do improve with age. On that note, Ian McAteer, the agency’s MD was voted by his peers as Advertising MD of the Year, topping off a hugely successful year for the agency.
Media Buying agency and MD of the Year –
Feather brooksbank
Feather Brooksbank takes the joint honour after a positive year for the agency. Having won both big awards and accounts, Feather Brooksbank has continued to strengthen its position in the market despite the continued rise of Mediacom Scotland. Over the last year, the agency has won a number of high-profile clients, including, the £4m News Corp Group account; National Galleries of Scotland; Craig & Rose; Setanta; Vardy Motor Group; Aberdeenshire Council recruitment advertising; and the £1m Freixenet wines business. To top off a good year, the Edinburgh office moved to a new, (much) larger location in the centre of Edinburgh.
PR agency of the Year – 3X1
Now in its sixth year, Glasgow-based PR consultancy 3X1 has picked-up several awards and clients throughout 2006 as it continues to develop. Founders Cameron Grant and Julie McGarvey run a tight ship for a number of high profile clients such as Highland Spring and Scottish and Newcastle.
Client of the year – Tennent’s
As one of the iconic brand names in Scotland, the company continued to flex its marketing muscles with a hugely effective marketing campaign. From the continued success of the Black Magic TV work by Newhaven to tie-ins to the World Cup and capitalisation on the strength of T in the Park, the lager brand continues to raise the bar.
Designer of the Year – Daniel Ibbotson, Graphical House
Graphical House’s Daniel Ibbotson beat the previous year’s winner, Stuart Gilmour, to take the Designer of the Year gong at the 2006 Scottish Design Awards. At the same ceremony, Graphical House also took the Design Grand Prix for ‘The Last Laugh History of Swearing’ created for the BBC.
Design Knighthood – Ian McIlory
McIlroy was clearly moved to receive his Lifetime Achievement award last year. And well deserved it was too, having become one of Scotland’s most respected graphic designers over the last decade.
Marketer of the Year – Chris Dempsey, Scottish Executive
Chris Dempsey has overseen some extremely high profile campaigns at the Scottish Executive, including the smoking ban, an anti binge-drinking campaign while battling against bigotry and racism with the One Scotland campaign and cutting the inches off a nation’s waistline. A modern day, public sector Superman for the causes of good?
Best print house - Summerhall Press
Having moved to a new Edinburgh address in Leith, SummerHall Press has continued to enjoy the challenges (and subsequent successes) set by paper and ink, at a time when succeeding in the print industry is becoming more of a battle.
Cover of the Year- David Boni
We chose this ashtray cover by David Boni as not only was it a striking image (chosen from his exhibition of ashtray portraits), but also because it represented a historic moment in Scotland with the introduction of the smoking ban.
Best Viral – ‘Practice your Surprise Face’ – Frame/The Gate Films
Promoting this year’s Scottish Advertising Awards (we’re not biased, it was genuinely that good), Frame and The Gate Films came up with this inspired viral. Featuring a host of Scotland’s top creatives, the starring role went to Leith’s Gerry Farrell who bonked a busty blonde in his boardroom. He really is a martyr for his craft.
Design Agency of the Year and Design MD of the Year – Third Eye Design
Third Eye Design continues to outdo itself. Having opened an office in New York in 2005, the Glasgow-based agency opened in London in 2006 through the acquisition of George and Vera. MD Mark Noë bolstered his team with some high-profile creative appointments in New York, adding to its digital offering and hiring a group design director as well as consistently winning business and producing inspiring work.
B-T-L Agency of the Year – BOB Marketing
BOB experienced a busy 2006. With a majority of the major btl networked offices pulling out of Scotland, it has been left to the local agencies to take control of the market - a job that has been enthusiastically leapt upon. The likes of Jump, BD-Network, Multiply, Navigator, Blue Chip, WWAV Scotland, Arc and Ignition have all undertaken a sterling job. However, BOB really embraced the conditions of the marketplace with a number of high-profile wins and appointments, making a name for itself throughout the UK.
Young Marketer of the Year – Sera Holland
Sera Holland won last year’s Marketing Excellence Awards’, Young Marketer of the Year accolade; a title that few would debate. A founding partner in Material Marketing & Communications, she has overseen the company’s growth to an annual turnover exceeding £2m with a fulltime staff of 14. Material executes several high profile projects for clients including Bank of Scotland Premierleague, Bank of Scotland Fireworks Concert, Tennent’s Scottish Cup and T in the Park. The agency also works with MTV/VHI, The List and Orange, Hoegaarden and BAFTA Scotland Awards.
Most pro-active Public Sector client – Interactive Tayside
Interactive Tayside is a partnership between public, private and academic sectors to develop and promote Tayside's digital media industry. Digital media represents a key part of Tayside's economy and through Interactive Tayside, a local delivery mechanism has been established that aims to build the digital media industry in the area and encourage higher levels of collaboration.
Copywriter of the year – Simon Platt
There once was a day when agencies would employ a photographer. They would utilise in-house illustrators and they would have skilled, specialist copywriters. Now, more often than not, they are all absent from the agency payroll.
Yet, there will always be a freelance available to add that touch of magic to your work, or even just help you out of a tight squeeze. Copywriter Simon Platt has helped out many agencies over the last year.
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01Frame’s Bulmers advert 02 Alan Ainsley of Leithal Thinking 03 Good’s own agency website 04 Oscar and Fitch website by SO Creative 05 John Denholm from Denholm Associates 06 The Drum’s March cover, image by David Boni 07 Ian McIlroy
08 Newhaven’s work for Tennent’s, as the new sponsors of the Scottish National Football team 09 Third Eye Design team 10 & 14 Tennent’s ‘Black Magic’ ad 11 Sera Holland of Material Marketing and Communications 12 The Union’s Historic Scotland bus 13 Derek The Cukoo from IRN BRU 32 ad 15 The Leith Agency’s Christmas ad for Irn Bru.
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