Lovett remains top of The Drum's Power 100
A profile of the last year for The Drum's most powerful figure in regional marketing services delivery, Dean Lovett, chief executive of McCann Erickson Birmingham.
It’s been a highly successful year for the agency in Solihull, picking up not one, but two large marketing accounts with Vauxhall - the largest in the agency's history.
It won further business for house builder Persimmon in a hard fought battle with Fuse8, while also relaunching car brand Lotus.
During the last year Lovett also brought in highly respected creative Billy Mawhinney to fill in while hunting for a creative chief for the agency to replace Gary Setchell. The hunt made it as far as Australia, with Vince McSweeney being named executive creative director, joining from McCann Sydney. Meanwhile Gray Dudek was also brought in to head up the agency’s digital operations.
However, the agency also lost Stu Perry, who joined Wolverhampton agency Connect as head of design.
As much as the agency has had a hugely successful year in terms of business, Lovett and his company have also recently dealt with the loss of Neil Rodgers, group account director, who died on 14 February. Lovett, alongside Stu Perry and Jamie Heath, embarked on a 2,400 mile journey on Harley Davidsons in a charity drive.
The trip, raising over £11,000 for hospice Marie Curie Cancer Care, saw them ride through Europe even managing to stop and catch the England v Slovenia game while traveling through France.
“We came out of the recession well and were the most successful McCann’s agency for the second year running in Europe in terms of new business, although, like most agencies, we were impacted by Government cuts. Despite that, we’ve managed more than replaced what we have lost, and with Vauxhall and Persimmon, we’ve grown our staff levels by 15 percent,” commented Lovett on the last year.
“I’m more confident going into this year than I’ve been in a long time. We’ve got a really strong pipeline, with 20 new pieces of business already this year. Vince’s appointment is also starting pay off too and I’m really excited by the work I’m starting to see and the job that he’s doing with the team here,” he continued.
Go to the website for The Drum Power 100 to see the full list for this year.