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Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO has signed BMP DDB’s award-winning senior

creative team, Dave Dye and Sean Doyle, as part of moves to secure the

agency’s creative status in the post-David Abbott era.

Dye, who was BMP’s joint head of art, and Doyle, his copywriting

partner, are expected to join AMV within the next two weeks when Dye

will take over as head of art.

On arrival they are expected to be thrown straight into the pitch for

Sony’s pounds 50 million pan-European network, which BBDO is trying to

prise from its DDB incumbent.

Dye’s appointment marks him as the eventual successor to Ron Brown,

Abbott’s long-serving former art director and current head of art, who

becomes executive head of art.

Brown, 62, who worked with Abbott for more than 20 years, is committed

to remaining at the agency for at least another 18 months.

Peter Souter, AMV’s executive creative director, said: ’If I can keep

Ron until he is 94 I will. I just want to make his working life as

comfortable as possible and I wouldn’t be a good manager if I wasn’t

planning for the future.’

AMV, along with M&C Saatchi, had been vying for the signatures of Dye

and Doyle since they quit BMP last month (±±¾©Èü³µpk10, 18 June). ’It’s a

huge coup for us,’ Andrew Robertson, AMV’s managing director,

commented.

The pair, who had abortive talks about a start-up, said they had not

planned to leave BMP until a succession of approaches caused them to

consider their futures.

’We had no problem with BMP, where we had a great time,’ Dye said. ’But

AMV is the Manchester United of advertising. Its work for Guinness and

Dulux indicates that the agency is really on the up and it’s good for

anybody to work in that environment.’

Dye and Doyle joined BMP from Leagas Delaney in April 1997. During their

time there, they produced much of the agency’s award-winning work for

Sony and London Transport.