MediaVest Manchester is subsuming MindShare North - pounds 15
million worth of clients and half its staff - after a rocky year for the
WPP-owned operation.
CIA Media Solutions had been trying to take over MindShare’s business
itself, but the faltering operation preferred MediaVest Manchester’s
terms.
MindShare North’s broadcast manager Rebecca McIndoe, media manager
Deborah Usher and media executive Catrina Page joined their new agency
on Friday, alongside key clients Gala Bingo, Hogs and Argos. Three staff
have been made redundant.
Andrew Stothert, J. Walter Thompson Manchester’s chief executive said:
’We have been approached by many media companies and feel that MediaVest
is the best solution for both Manchester MindShare and our clients.’
With billings of over pounds 76 million, MediaVest Manchester is now the
largest media shop outside London, though most of its clients are
national.
A Manchester Evening News report compiled by Ernst & Young has just
named the agency as one of the fastest growing large businesses in the
north.
Its key clients are Northern Rock, Britannia Music, Holland and Barrett,
Marks & Spencer Financial Services and Norwich Union. MediaVest owns a
19.9 per cent stake in the agency, and the remainder is owned by its
three directors.
MindShare Manchester was formed two years ago after WPP merged the media
operations of JWT and Ogilvy & Mather. When this happened, JWT
Manchester media director Beth Atkin left because she did not want to
work for a media dependent. She was replaced by her deputy, Jill Thomas,
who left in the summer.
The agency had also lost its business directors, Marcus Hall and Tamsin
Winstanley, and recent account losses included Greenalls and Plumbs.
