1. Tamara Ingram joins McCann-Erickson
Cut her and she would bleed Saatchi & Saatchi, they said of Tamara
Ingram. Alas, the Charlotte Street haemorrhaging proved too much and the
executive chairman took everybody by surprise by agreeing to walk across
the road to McCann-Erickson.
2. All-star London agency launch by Testa
As ad budgets began dropping through the floor, the last thing anybody
expected was a start-up by a group of suits and creatives from three top
London agencies. However, the venture quickly went pearshaped when the
founding partners decided against jumping into bed with their Italian
backer.
3. Egg ditches HHCL & Partners for Mother
A bolt from the blue by the online financial service, which opted to
move its £16 million account without a pitch. "We're absolutely
baffled by it all," Simon Burridge, HHCL's chairman, confessed. So was
everybody else.
4. Interpublic poaches Brian Brooks from WPP
The life of Brian got even more interesting in November this year when
WPP's board member and chief human resources director was lured to
arch-rival Interpublic in the same role. Anyone wonder if he stills
keeps a memento of WPP - a supermarket shopping basket - in his holiday
home? No, we don't either.
5. Saatchi & Saatchi axes 10 per cent of its staff
Everybody knew that the arrival of James Hall as chief executive would
result in a dose of truly nasty medicine. But nobody thought the New
Zealander would act so quickly, trimming numbers by almost 50 within
five weeks of stepping off the plane.
6. Neil Dawson's sudden exit from Miles Calcraft Briginshaw Duffy
The departure of the MCBD stakeholder Dawson to become TBWA/London's
executive planning director took everybody by surprise. Not least Jeremy
Miles, the MCBD chairman, who first learned of his partner's decision
from a Campaign journalist.
7. Paul Hammersley quits Lowe Lintas to go Stateside
Lots of speculation that the chief executive of Campaign's Agency of the
Year was heading for a senior role with Young & Rubicam in New York. But
he confounded everybody by becoming the chief executive of Lowe Lintas
in New York.
8. Bartle Bogle Hegarty wins Barclays
Leagas Delaney's "big" campaign wasn't helped by the bank's 172 branch
closures within a fortnight of it breaking. However, nobody expected the
move of the £15 million account into BBH would be the price to be
paid.
9. Derek Bowden steps down after 20 years
Death, taxes and Bowden at the heart of Saatchis used to be life's only
cast-iron certainties. Not any more. The European chairman, cushioned by
a substantial payment following the Publicis takeover, wants to try
something new.
10. ASBOF
That's the Advertising Standards Board of Finance. Probably the
industry's best kept secret since its founding in the 70s. Its task; to
collect the levy on ad campaigns to finance the self-regulatory system.
So now you know.
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