AdvertisersAgenciesCreativeFinance

MullenLowe buys 101 in quick fix for London

MullenLowe UK has indeed bought independent agency 101, appointing 101 founders Laurence Green (left) and Phil Rumbol as “executive partners” and Mark Elwood as ECD.

The top 101 crew are on three-year earn-outs it seems, which suggests this is something of a quick fix for MullenLowe which has lost most of its senior management since Interpublic merged Boston-based Mullen with Lowe.

Lowe has also been hit, along with other agencies, by biggest client Unilever reducing its spend.

Prior to Mullen and Lowe merging, Lowe in London was built around another agency acquisition, DLKW from Creston. That waxed and then waned as big accounts Halifax and Morrisons left.

101 has nothing of equivalent scale although it recently won Subaru in the UK.

One Comment

  1. More churn and burn from IPG.

    They keep buying agencies, merging them, losing the new management once the buyout is complete, and having to start over.

    They also like to burden these mergers with names which mean very little outside their home cities. Mullen, for example. And Draft. Even the change from Lintas to Lowe.

    (I seem to recall this caused no end of trouble in India, where the agency was called Lintas Standard Advertising, and was faced with the prospect of becomng Lowe Standard Advertising. Oh dear!)

    IPG management seems to be based on the Bourbons. They have learned nothing, but forgotten nothing.

Back to top button