Nielsen billings 2017: n/s
Declared income: £18.7m
Total accounts at year end: 31
Accounts won: 7 (biggest: GSK)
Accounts lost: 0
Number of staff: 180 (+5%)
Key personnel: Nicky Bullard, chairwoman and chief creative officer; Oliver Foot, chief executive; Matt Conner, managing director; Darren Burnett, chief strategy officer; Ian Parsonson, chief financial officer
Star player: Jon Ball, business director
MRM Meteorite likens 2017 to "changing the tyre in the fast lane", and it certainly faced a tricky task. Its team of drivers underwent a reshuffle as the agency parted company in June with joint chief executive Chris Whitson, just seven months after the agency restructured to create a "triumvirate" leadership team. No exact reason for his departure (he joined Iris in October) was given, although agency boss Nicky Bullard was eager to stress: "There are no hard feelings between us."
As a result, the agency ended the year with a revamped managerial front line. Oliver Foot became sole chief executive, Matt Conner was promoted from managing partner to managing director, Darren Burnett, former EMEA planning director at Proximity, arrived as chief strategy officer and Steve Garside joined from VCCP to spearhead MRM Meteorite’s business development.
All this might have been reason enough for the agency to take its eye off the road. Fortunately, that did not prove to be the case. Quite the reverse, in fact, as the agency grew both its new services and its bottom line. Indeed, it was able to report an 11% leap in revenue growth from existing clients last year compared with 2016, having significantly developed its TSB, Direct Line, P&O and GM/Vauxhall clients.
For the latter, the agency produced some innovative work for Vauxhall’s Mokka X. To demonstrate the vehicle’s Wi-Fi, the agency asked a writer, designer and coder to create, build and send an email from inside it.
If the agency can do all this during a time of significant senior upheaval, what might it achieve when it has settled down?
SCORE THIS YEAR |
SCORE LAST YEAR |
SELF RATING |
| 6 | n/a | 7 |
Agency's year in a tweet
While the world went a bit crazy, we’ve had 12 months of fantastic growth, awards and wins. Our 180 brilliant people are ready for anything.
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
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*indicates where agencies claim the corporate governance constraints of the Sarbanes-Oxley legislation
