The MAA Agency of the Year 2024: Mother/The Or

Mother London’s consistent excellence always keeps the bar high for British advertising and in 2024 it has truly been an agency to conjure with: the quality of its work and its people, matched always by an unrivalled business savvy, make it without question MAA’s Creative Agency of the Year. The decision was even more clear cut than it was in 2023.

This year they share the honours with Mother Family agency The Or, which looked like it was going to be an offshoot for smaller clients but has turned out to be an effective player in its own right. Their work for ASOS, Lotus Bakeries, Bloom & Wild and CALM unfailingly steers each brand to new places, leaving us wondering whether The Or is Mother’s younger, cooler sibling – or simply a more evolved version of what an agency can be?

When you think of Mother London, a stream of creative campaigns born of long-term client relationships springs instantly to mind. For Uber, Ikea and KFC in particular, Mother makes the combination of innovation and brand-building look almost effortless. Business from retained clients has grown by 41% and new wins – many of which are under wraps for now but major on tech – have boosted income by about 15%.

The stable team at the top, energised for the last couple of years by the creative and new business force that is CCO Felix Richter, have helped Mother earn a coveted place in the Sunday Times’ “Best Places to Work” this year. When 92% of your people recommend you as an employer, it goes a long way to dispelling the popular myth that Mother can be a difficult place to work.

This year has brought a new head of content (Prachi Virani from Gravity Road) and, significantly, a new head of media in the shape of former Wavemaker star Paul Hutchison. By putting a stake back in the media game while taking the time to consider what’s going to work best, Mother is again demonstrating the business brain that has served it so well over the years. In 2024 there’s been a 13% lift in the proportion of clients working with more than one Mother Family agency. As well as The Or, this includes sports agency Run Deep and bespoke in-house set up, Small World.

Mother has also played a part in Marks & Spencer’s reawakening, helping to bring the brand’s clothing & home mojo back: the 2024 share prices was up 72% by late November, with sales up by 5.3% and profits by 24.4% in the year to March.

Creative highlights:

Ikea Now that TV work has been sucked into a global arrangement, Mother has had to think innovatively about how to keep the brand in the conversation. The co-worker and the Hus of Frakta (below) have done just that, as did the giant walking Ikea store for the click-and-collect service.

Uber The next big TV campaign is scheduled for early 2025, but award wins have kep the “Trains” and “Best Friends” work centre stage this year, while most recently the “Your nearest driver” social campaign (below) displayed all the same class and humour.

KFC’s new “believe” positioning has provided too many highlights to choose from in 2024, but a flash mob celebrating a chicken is a good indication of the overwhelming confidence of the campaign.

Mother is not the only UK agency to have had a strong year in 2024, despite ongoing economic challenges. Saatchi & Saatchi has made consistently memorable work for EE and got the industry talking with the originality of its Waitrose Christmas mystery. Another shop at the centre of the conversation is New Commercial Arts, whose September sale to Ogilvy is still being talked about and came off the back of increasingly strong creative work, particularly for Nationwide.

Like Mother, Uncommon – in its first full year as part of Havas – continues to boost the global reputation of UK creativity. Work like Erling Haarland for Beats by Dre, JD Sports at Christmas, and BA OOH have kept the agency in the headlines despite founder Nils Leonard’s move to focus on the US expansion.

A mention too for adam&eveDDB, which has had a good new business year, topped by Puma global in December, and made plenty of strong work for big clients like Amazon, Aviva, Puma and PlayStation. The question now is will they be able to keep it up without creative chief Rick Brim and strategy supremo Martin Beverley?

Tomorrow: holding company, media agency, US agency, advertiser of the year.