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Anomaly hires new MD Lawson for some BBH magic

Anomaly London has hired BBH head of account management Richard Lawson as managing director. Which is interesting for two reasons.

216f56cIt shows Anomaly’s ambition, despite the recent travails of owner MDC Partners, and its new status as the preferred home for some big Diageo brands (Johnnie Walker and Gordon’s) formerly at BBH. Lawson (left) worked on Johnnie Walker at BBH as well as British Airways and Barclays.

And it seems further evidence of something of a clear out in the upper echelons of BBH. One-time BBH MD Charlie Rudd left to take over as CEO of Ogilvy London recently. The two trends probably aren’t unrelated. Anomaly’s UK clients include Diageo, Budweiser, Trainline, Cancer Research UK, P&G and Universal Music.

Anomaly CEO Camilla Harrisson says: “Anomaly was set up to provide progressive solutions to challenging business problems in a changing world and Richard’s role in this will be critical – he’ll be deeply involved in our clients’ businesses day in day out, not some guy who appears for a ‘Happy Christmas’ handshake.”

“BBH has delivered excellence over decades and is, without doubt, one of the agency brands I most admire – I feel very lucky that, in Richard, we have someone with such an exceptional pedigree. Not only does he have that rare blend of intelligence, experience and curiosity we were looking for, but Richard is one of the nicest guys one could wish to work with.”

Brothers and Sisters’ Matt Charlton wrote recently that one reason former BBH suits have often seemed to struggle when they leave the mother ship is that, for years, BBH has had a ‘magic phone’ – that is, clients ring them up rather than the other way round.

Anomaly seems to have its own magic phone at the moment. Now it has to show it can produce BBH quality work too.

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