WHEN The Brand Agency won two of the top gongs at the Campaign Brief Awards this week it was strangely reminiscent of Steven Bradbury’s extraordinary gold medal win at the Winter Olympics.
While there’s no suggestion The Brand Agency picked up any of the new business accounts it won this year by default, as the finish line loomed there wasn’t really any competition for the agency of the year award.
The Brand Agency had an extraordinary 2001, which began with its successful bid for the Burswood Resort Casino business, followed by Wesfarmers’ successful bid for the Howard Smith hardware business.
The year ended with a couple of new, multi million dollar accounts on the books.
The Brand Agency scored the $6 million Burswood International Resort Casino account, the Asgard financial services group account worth $3 million, and the $10 million BankWest account.
The Brand Agency account director Steve Harris said the win was important for the agency in that it was recognition of the hard work of all the staff and clients. Despite the agency’s phenomenal growth during the past 12 months, The Brand Agency is determined to maintain the high level of service and creative product. To achieve this the agency is shutting its doors, for at least six months.
“We are not getting involved in any new business for the next six months,” Mr Harris said.
“Until at least July we’re just not interested.
“It’s very important after a period of growth to consolidate, that way the service standards and creative continue to be delivered.”
The Brand Agency last won the agency of the year award in 1993.
Looking down the list of winners over the past decade is a good reminder of the cyclical and sometimes fickle nature of the advertising industry.
303 picked up the title in 2000 but, since that point, it has lost a number of high-profile accounts, including HBF, which was picked up by Adam Barker and Lori Canalini’s newly established agency Gatecrasher.
