PHD named Adweek’s ‘Global Agency of the Year 2012’

The Unilever appointment sees PHD as responsible for the planning on the majority (over 90%) of its categories including foods, personal care, home care, refreshments as well as buying in a number of markets in Central and Eastern Europe and Asia, including key market China.  To service Unilever’s global communications planning PHD has launched a new unit of 40 people in London and Singapore, led by Mark Holden, worldwide strategy and planning director, Robert Ray, managing director and heads of strategy Toby Roberts and Guy Cousins.

 

Significant regional new business wins included The Economist, Sleep Number and Swatch Group in the US; Bayer, Pernod Ricard, Experian, Bosch and Siemens BSH in Europe; 20th Century Fox and Applebee’s in LATAM and Hotels.com, Ikea, Siemens and Esprit in APAC.

 

Mike Cooper, worldwide CEO of PHD said, “Being named Adweek’s Global Media Agency of the Year is great recognition of the whole network’s achievements in 2012. We have an outstandingly talented team of people at PHD around the world and it’s thanks to everyone across the agency that we have attracted great clients, produced great work and continued to punch above our weight in awards and thought leadership. We’re grateful to all our clients and partners and would like to thank them for their support over the last twelve months”.

 

Talent attraction and retention remained a focus for PHD in 2012. In the US, the agency strengthened its management team with the appointment of Monica Karo, who came on board as CEO, having previously been Omnicom Media Group president of integrated accounts. Steve Williams was also announced as the president of PHD New York, moving from his role in the UK where he was CEO of OMD. Their appointments coincided with the promotion of PHD’s Craig Atkinson, who was named chief operating officer in addition to his role as chief digital officer of PHD US.

 

Other significant hires included Malcolm Devoy, appointed International strategy director when he joined from Arena Media and Kel Hook, who joined as head of strategy and communications planning at PHD China, having been managing director of Wieden+Kennedy for the past five years.

 

PHD also built on its heritage in communications planning and strategy with the unveiling and road-testing of its new proprietary planning system ‘Source’, which is the result of two years of development. The system, which officially launched network wide in January this year, harnesses gamification to encourage participation and collaboration across the network and allows for integrated global planning.

 

The agency won a significant number of awards in 2012 for its work, including four Cannes Lions, and the end of the year was marked by more "Media Agency of the Year" accolades than any other network, with 19 being awarded in various markets in all regions. 

 

PHD also continued to invest in thought leadership, launching its fourth book "Overthrow: Ten Ways to Tell a Challenger Story", co-written with Adam Morgan of eatbigfish, and an app of the same name, allowing marketers to find out what challenger type they are.

 

The network also expanded with office launches in Melbourne, Switzerland, Indonesia and a strategic partnership in South Africa.