TBWA was first hired by the Labour Party in 2000 for the 2001 General Election, in a process overseen by former minister and Labour image mastermind Peter Mandelson and polling guru Philip Gould. Mandelson also oversaw the most recent pitch.
The agency, part of the Omnicom Group, won the account in 2000 after a pitch that included WPP Group's J Walter Thompson, and Saatchi & Saatchi, the agency behind the "Labour isn't working" campaign that helped Margaret Thatcher and the Conservative Party into power in 1979.
One of the most memorable images the agency came up with for the 2001 election was a picture of then-Tory leader William Hague's face with Margaret Thatcher's hair superimposed on his head.
Both Mandelson and Gould had a long association with Trevor Beattie, TBWA\London's creative chief and agency chairman. In addition, TBWA\GGT Direct chairman Peter Herd had worked on the Labour Party account previously at BMP DDB. It was at BMP DDB that the election-winning strategy for the 1997 campaign, which saw Labour return to power after 17 years in opposition, was created.
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