Adam&eveDDB has supplanted its Omnicom stablemate AMV BBDO at the top of the Campaign/ Nielsen UK creative agency billings in 2019, bringing to an end decades of AMV at number one.
One might dispute the importance of such rankings when creative agencies no longer buy media. It’s also increasingly the case that the creative agencies with the biggest supermarket accounts occupy the top spots (McCann with Aldi is fourth) even though such accounts are handled on the thinnest of margins. Adam&eve, which has earned more income than AMV recently (not included in these computations, McCann earns the most according to Kingston Smith numbers) has, in a way, won top spot with one hand tied behind its back as its supermarket client is Waitrose, not one of the bigger spenders.
AMV lost Sainsbury’s to Wieden+Kennedy a couple of years ago and that was bound to tell. It has, though, since won Asda, for whom it’s made a lively debut so may bounce back.
But topping the table is a big feather in adam&eve’s well-stuffed cap. It’s been by far the strongest all-round creative agency performer in the UK and, maybe, the world for the past decade. As the Campaign table shows, its 2019 performance (big wins included Camelot) is stunning.
Full details are in Campaign’s 2020 School Reports (subscription required.)
Next year’s billings table should be even more interesting (possibly alarming) as that will include the depredations of Covid-19. There may well be a top 20 and nothing else besides. The end of a creative agency era?
