Nice to see that Mother US has been awarded Campaign’s gong for global independent agency of the year. British agencies have generally struggled in the US, unable mostly to cope with the sheer scale of the Madison Avenue establishment (and the salaries they pay/paid.)
Mother has retained a foothold in New York but now added Los Angeles to some effect. LA, on the fringes of Silicon Valley, seems more welcoming to smaller, independent shops. Mother’s success is a credit to its NYC and LA management teams and Michael Wall (left), the former Fallon UK founder in its great days and also boss of Lowe Group before it was merged into MullenLowe. Wall is now Mother’s global CEO.
Wins included TripAdvisor’s global creative account, Sonic, the US’s largest drive-in restaurant chain and good old Wrangler.
Why is Wall posing with a duck? Because he’s at determinedly quirky Mother of course which has stuck to its quirky last (and remained independent) for 20 years or more.
As one of Campaign’s CMO judges said: “Admire Mother for their singular focus on who they are and what they do. Translates into strong business results. Too many agencies try to be everything for everyone and lose themselves in the process. This is not the case with Mother.”
