UK trade mag The Drum has inquired of its readers who the movers and shakers in British advertising are (a so-called Adverati) – and it’s a rum old list.
This may reflect The Drum’s origins as a mag based in the provinces but it’s surprising to find WPP’s Sir Martin Sorrell down at number seven, below the likes of Quiet Storm’s Trevor Robinson, and no place in the top 100 at all for adam&eveDDB CEO James Murphy. It may have escaped Drum readers’ attention that a&e has had a pretty good year with wins like Virgin Atlantic, Sony and McCain and so many awards that it’s selling them off on the pavement in Bishop’s Bridge Road.
For the record, the top three are Rory Sutherland (left) of Ogilvy (UK adland’s uncle-in-chief), Camilla Harrisson of Anomaly (until recently M&C Saatchi) and Chris Hirst of Grey.
The Drum also weighs up agencies via a number of metrics including financial performance (Saatchi & Saatchi comes top here), creative performance (not sure who that was) and client satisfaction. Here the winner is Dave Trott’s The Gate – which may keep its clients happy but there aren’t that many of them.
Overall winner is Wieden+Kennedy for scoring highly in all categories; which is a useful reminder that the agency is firing on all cylinders despite the nightmare that is Tesco.
These polls are always problematic (our Agency of the Year musings are hardly scientific).
I’ve just taken another look: Quiet Storm’s Robinson appears in the list garlanded with an OBE While John Hegarty’s knighthood (which most people are aware of) has been overlooked. Something fishy in the voting?
