British agencies have traditionally found it hard to make headway in the US, spells of relatively strong performance undermined by big losses and key personnel departures.
Currently Mother is giving it a good shot, despite losing massive retailer Target a couple of years ago and BBH US seems to be thriving under Publicis ownership. Adam&eveDDB now sits atop the DDB network in the US.
Now VVCP has won Spectrum, the trading name for cable and internet provider Charter Communications, a $450m account. In the same review Spectrum has moved its media business to another indie, Horizon, by far the biggest media independent. VCCP is private equity owned so just about counts as an indie, although ad holding companies might disagree.
VCCP reportedly beat WPP’s VML, Havas’ Arnold and Stagwell in the creative pitch. Horizon won out over Dentsu’s iProspect, WPP’s GroupM and tech-based indie PMG.Spectrum recently used another indie Something Different for a number of campaigns. ID Comms managed the review.
In 2024 VCCP hired former BBDO executive Matt MacDonald as its US CCO. CEO is Brett Edgar and the agency’s accounts include Primark, Más+ by Messi and Mike’s Hard Lemonade.
