Report by Simon Bolton, worldwide chief executive officer, Brand Union and FITCH, Lois Jacobs, chief executive officer, Landor Associates and Rob Horjus, chief finance officer and chief operating officer, B to D Group
Rob Horjus, chief finance officer and chief operating officer, B to D Group
Early in 2014, Landor, FITCH and Lambie-Nairn welcomed new leadership, who introduced more relevant ways of going to market.
Landor launched its agile brands platform. FITCH, under common leadership with Brand Union, combined its retail offering with Brand Union’s ‘experience belief’. Lambie-Nairn refocused its offer around a philosophy of dynamic brands, with motion graphic identity design for screen-based media, and repositioned its brand guardianship to that of brand optimization.
Performance results were mixed, highlighted by revenue and profit growth in Lambie-Nairn, VBAT and The Partners.
Many respected brands added the B to D Group to their rosters, including Azerfon, Siemens, ChevronTexaco, Lowe’s, CBRE, Banco Popular, Intercontinental Hotels Group, Tata, Maybelline, Philips, SunGard, British Land and Novartis.
Jim Prior, chief executive officer, Lambie-Nairn and chief executive officer, The Partners
As a group, we are committed to addressing our client’s needs by expanding our offer and developing new markets. To do this we will seek out and hire the best talent and supplement our broad base of services by acquiring complementary businesses.
Addison Group
Addison Group continued to expand its capabilities beyond its core strengths in corporate communications. Projects throughout the year included corporate branding, advertising and promotions, sports marketing and digital publishing.
Lambie-Nairn
With a new CEO and a refocused offer, Lambie-Nairn had strong top- and bottom-line growth. There were several high-profile creative projects, including the award-winning work for Invictus Games, while key client relationships have been strengthened across all markets.
Landor
Read the Landor report by Lois Jacobs, chief executive officer.
The Partners
The Partners’ expansion into South-east Asia is showing dividends with several high-profile pieces of work launching, contributing to the company’s growth in 2014. Ranking No.1 in the brand category in the Design Week creative survey reaffirms The Partners’ market position as the leading creative agency in its space, and was a highlight in the company’s second best year ever for creative awards won.
PeclersParis
2014 was another year of top-line growth for Peclers, driven by a double-digit increase in trend books sales, new beauty and cosmetic clients and new consulting business in China. A milestone was reached with the launch of Peclers(+), a unique digital platform providing curated trends and insights online to fuel designers’ creativity.
VBAT
VBAT’s performance improved in 2014, with steady growth in the second half of the year. The retail business in particular has shown a significant increase, with international projects for ABC (Lebanon) and Woolworths (Australia). Relationships with key clients Heineken Company and Friesland Campina continue to prosper along with significant new business from Philips.