Score: 5
Last year: 7
How the agency rates itself: 7
IProspect, in common with the other Dentsu Aegis media agencies, fell victim to big-spending brands reviewing their accounts in 2016.
The shock loss of Asda to Publicis Media’s Blue 449 early in the year was followed by a further 15 departures, including British Gas and Adidas. Working with Carat, iProspect fared better with Kellogg and Diageo, which were retained in June and September respectively.
iProspect also managed to bring in 24 new clients, including John Lewis, The Economist, Huawei, Eurosport and the Post Office. iProspect says the wins have made up for the losses, citing 22% year-on-year growth from new business, cross-selling and up-selling.
Mirroring the new-business highs and lows, iProspect’s management team also shuffled around after Matt Adams – who became managing director in early 2015 just ten months after joining the agency in 2014 – left to join Havas Media as chief executive.
In came Carat head of digital Felicity Long as managing director in November and Zenith global chief digital officer Stefan Bardega arrived as chief executive in January this year. Despite all the changes, iProspect still managed to promote 20% of staff.
iProspect also found time to embed a new proposition for clients, which it calls "intelligent content" or performance content and editorial. This includes a consultancy division offering marketing technology, experiences and audience activation; engagement, which brings PR and events together with data; and a co-op arm to manage the whole process.
Big account reviews and top people leaving a business can often result in a bad year, but iProspect has shown it is strong enough to fight against such problems and mitigate some of these effects.
How the agency describes its year in a tweet
2016: driving business performance in a year of excitement, enjoyment and evolution for @iProspectUK.
Score key: 9 Outstanding 8 Excellent 7 Good 6 Satisfactory 5 Adequate 4 Below average 3 Poor 2 A year to forget 1 Survival in question