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Microsoft's Xbox kicked off a renaissance year for Bartle Bogle

Hegarty, as speculation over the destination of the £52.6m launch

task kept the industry awake through what was otherwise a non-starter

for new-business. BBH finishes the year having just picked up the much

smaller but equally prestigious ITV account.

In terms of client endorsement, topping and tailing a year such as 2001

with such wins proved impossible to beat. Yet that's not the reason BBH

has taken the honours as Marketing's Agency of the Year.

The decision of another client altogether proved that as an agency BBH

has become a far more business-oriented proposition - and we mean that

in a good way. Barclays moved its £15m account into BBH from

Leagas Delaney in August without a pitch. It's unlikely that such a

coupling would have occurred in an earlier decade.

Equally, BBH's strengths in building brand fame are back to full power,

with two revitalisation stories in particular moving up a gear in

2001.

The award-winning 'twisted' ad was the year's most visible element in

the ongoing reversal of Levi's fortunes. The agency's consistently

strong creative work on the account has seen Levi's Engineered Jeans

exceed expected volume sales, post significant increases in ROI and

profit margin, and raise Levi's overall market share in a stable

market.

Global efforts

Johnnie Walker - like Levi's a category winner in the 2001 Marketing

Society Awards - also owes its turnaround to BBH's global efforts. The

TV ad featuring Italian footballer Roberto Baggio continued the

BBH-devised 'Keep Walking' strategy in early 2001. The brand's logo has

been redesigned, showing a 'more progressive' character. Sales for the

brand are up 11% in the markets where the ads are running, reversing a

long-term decline.

Despite heavy discounting by rival whisky brands, Johnnie Walker has

achieved this alongside a 5% price premium.

Creative highlights this year include the award-winning 'Ideal woman' ad

for Lever Faberge's Lynx brand. The agency subsequently secured the

client's Impulse account, plus work for a Lynx fragrance launch.

Other significant wins in 2001 were the World Gold Council's £50m

international account, the £100m global consumer account for

Ericsson, the Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications joint venture, and

Unilever Bestfoods' Bertolli olive oil brand.

In a year when many agencies suffered, BBH impressed by managing to

limit its losses. Scottish Power moved its £5m corporate account

into The Bridge in June. More worrying was the rebrand of One 2 One as

T-Mobile, announced in September. While BBH is still producing work for

the client, its hold on the £27m UK account looks uncertain.

The breakaway of five senior BBH directors to form Soul in May 1999

appears not to have had the damaging effect that many, including the

remaining BBH management, were anticipating. With John Bartle also no

longer on the scene, BBH has moved beyond the cult of its founding

partners. The new management - including deputy chairman Jim Carroll,

group managing director Simon Sherwood and managing director Gwyn Jones

- proved in 2001 that they have what it takes to keep BBH at the top of

the tree.

BATES UK

Bates UK fitted the last piece into the management jigsaw when it

appointed Chris Herd, group director of e-brands at WCRS, as its

managing director in August. By that time, however, a pretty clear

picture of just what Bates can pull off had already begun to emerge.

Group chief executive Toby Hoare, who had put a rocket under Bates with

a major management reorganisation last September, has long complained

that the agency didn't get the credit it was due. A major win - ideally

not another retailer - was needed. In 2001, Bates pulled in three.

BSkyB picked Bates for its £40m Sky Channels account in February,

adding another £10m for TiVO just weeks later. In April Wella's

£7m UK business moved into Bates from Abbott Mead Vickers.

Allied Domecq gave Bates' parent, Cordiant, a huge boost in October with

the assignment of a host of spirits brands. Bates UK is creating work

for Tia Maria and Ballantine's, while strategy is being led by its

integrated specialist 141.

A creative highlight was Royal Mail's £5m Christmas campaign

starring Sir Elton John.

Despite being knocked off the COI creative roster, Bates was added to

the DM and sponsorship rosters. In September Bates scooped a brand

consultancy brief from the National Employers Liaison Committee. A month

later it picked up Esporta.

AMV BBDO

A consistently strong performance from Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO ensures

its place at the top of the billings table.

In October, AMV caused a ripple of shock in adland by making 18 job

cuts, having been one of the few agencies not to do so in the last

recession.

Yet it has had a solid year for new business, most recently securing

BBDO's grip on the £160m worldwide account for the demerged BT

mobile phone brand O2.

Other wins include the global account for Guinness; the £10m brief

to relaunch St Ivel Shape; the £6m launch of Henkel's Glist; the

£9m Campbell's Soups and Sauces work and Gillette's £3m Oral

Care brief.

In terms of creative work, AMV picked up a Silver Pencil for The

Economist at the ±±¾©Èü³µpk10 Poster Awards and continues to receive praise

for its iconic Guinness work.

Sainsbury's has cited the agency as being key to its turnaround thanks

to the Jamie Oliver campaign which has added £2m extra sales per

week.

On the downside, AMV saw key client BT drop its ET campaign in favour of

St Luke's new creative idea. It also parted company with Gossard, and

lost places on the Wella and Weetabix rosters.

Chief executive Andrew Robertson departed for BBDO North America, but

has left the agency in the capable hands of managing director Cilla

Snowball and chairman Michael Baulk.

TBWA/LONDON

It won an election, the massive Hutchison 3G account, and managed to

turn many of the ad industry's traditionalists puce with rage at fcuk's

escalating faux-profanities. TBWA/London had a great year, which is not

easy to achieve when your chief executive and joint managing director

exit halfway through.

Yet, almost without breaking stride, TBWA/London filled the considerable

gap left by Simon Clemmow and Johnny Hornby when they left to set up

their own agency. Trevor Beattie moved up to chairman, Garry Lace became

chief-executive, and Andrew McGuinness was made managing director.

By August, the agency was in good enough shape to pick up the £30m

Hutchison 3G account. Creatively, TBWA/London continued to deliver, for

PlayStation with its 'The Third Place' ads and, dare we say it, fcuk. In

March, when French Connection founder Stephen Marks unveiled profits up

20.7%, he credited TBWA's campaign.

Yet, as with any enfant terrible, there were black spots. It was dumped

off the COI roster, lost NatWest's £30m account and saw £37m

of Nissan business shifted into the Paris office. All TBWA's fcuk

posters must now be pre-vetted, following fcukinkybugger.com, and it was

slammed for the Eurostar poster 'From up for it to out of it via all the

clubs in Paris'.

TOP 20 CREATIVE AGENCIES

Rank Billings to Billings to % chg

Sept 01 (pounds) Sept 00 (pounds)

1 Abbott Mead

Vickers BBDO 385,860,000 399,300,000 -3.36

2 Lowe Lintas 251,940,000 233,910,000 7.7

3 J Walter Thompson 248,310,000 284,640,000 -12.76

4 Publicis 242,980,000 255,730,000 -4.98

5 Ogilvy & Mather 236,540,000 219,010,000 8

6 Saatchi & Saatchi 233,650,000 225,990,000 3.38

7 McCann-Erickson

Advertising 224,221,000 227,190,000 -1.3

8 M&C Saatchi 219,590,000 243,880,000 -9.95

9 Rainey Kelly

Campbell Roalfe 218,800,000 214,240,000 2.12

10 Bates UK 206,470,000 195,840,000 5.42

11 BMP DDB 202,120,000 320,700,000 -36.97

12 TBWA London 179,530,000 205,660,000 -12.7

13 Euro RSCG Wnek Gosper 168,720,000 168,290,000 0.25

14 D'Arcy 160,310,000 195,110,000 -17.83

15 Grey Advertising 152,030,000 172,450,000 -11.84

16 WCRS 145,530,000 164,050,000 -11.28

17 HHCL and Partners 113,560,000 111,140,000 2.17

18 Leo Burnett Ltd 105,140,000 131,540,000 -20.06

19 Bartle Bogle Hegarty 105,010,000 136,960,000 -23.32

20 Banks Hoggins O'Shea/

FCB Ltd 82,930,000 95,340,000 -13.01

Source: ACNielsen MMS

LEO BURNETT

Leo Burnett was the most-awarded agency network in 2001, while the

London office was the second most-awarded agency. The transformation of

Leo Burnett's creative reputation, and its ability to hold on to the

people who transformed it, has been exceptional.

The work it produced for two clients were industry creative high points

in 2001: 'Bear' for John West Salmon and McDonald's '99p' campaign.

Leo Burnett managed to retain executive creative director Nick Bell,

despite a concerted attempt by Lowe Lintas to poach him. Mark Tutsell,

the other half of the six-year, multi-award-winning partnership, took a

top role at the Chicago HQ.

MCCANN-ERICKSON

As the world's largest advertising agency, there will always be those

who snipe at McCann-Erickson and its predominantly large corporate

client base. But the UK agency has turned in another powerful year.

McCann should be particularly proud of its work for Bacardi Breezer.

The introduction of the housecat 'Tom' to its advertising has given the

brand higher spontaneous consumer awareness than Budweiser, according to

a recent Millward Brown study. Sales of Bacardi Breezer have increased

211% year on year. McCann has also launched effective campaigns for

Nestle Snack Stop, MasterCard and UPS.

Notable wins in the UK include Sainsbury's Bank and the entire

Mothercare account, while globally the agency pulled in the £70m

Siemens Mobile business and the rest of Unilever's £52.6m global

ice cream account

A rejuvenated youth marketing arm - Magic Hat - has picked up Cobra

beer, Kickers and Fat Face.

On the downside, the agency was recently forced to resign the huge

Reckitt Benckiser account due to conflict with SC Johnson, a client of

parent Interpublic Group.

But with UK chief Ben Langdon moving up to chief-executive for EMEA, and

poaching Saatchi & Saatchi chairman Tamara Ingram to fill his shoes, you

would not bet against an equally strong 2002.

M&C SAATCHI

M&C Saatchi is regularly praised for its tenacious new business

approach - and 2001 was no exception. When many other agencies were

bemoaning the lack of account opportunities this year, M&C was busy

getting itself onto a host of pitch lists.

It says something that M&C uses the full range of the alphabet to list

its wins, whereas others could use the fingers of one hand: Apax,

Beck's, Coutts, Holmes Place, Inland Revenue, NatWest, Nestle, All

Stars, Thomas Pink, Reuters, RBS, Sunday Business, Transport for London

and Travelex.

Clients that have been particularly well-served by M&C this year include

Police Recruitment (COI Communications) and Thomas Pink shirts. The

Police Recruitment work, including one execution featuring boxer Lennox

Lewis, generated 120,000 responses and 35,000 applications - 11 times

the target for the year.

The appearance of former London gangsters Freddie 'The Undertaker'

Foreman and Tony Lambrianou in a £1m poster campaign for Thomas

Pink was a hit with consumers. The 170's shirt range they were

advertising sold out instantly.

M&C was in the news in 2001 for other, less positive, reasons. British

Airways slashed its £15m adspend following the terrorist attacks

of September 11. BT also shifted a £15m chunk of business out of

M&C to St Luke's in September.