Agency of the Year 2005: Design Agency of the Year - Landor

part of a global network is no barrier to creativity.

In a year of significant growth and achievement for Landor, a highlight
has been the powerful performance of its consumer brands offering. The
agency set out to strengthen this aspect of its operation and did so
convincingly, winning additional and often uncontested brand
appointments from existing consumer packaged goods clients including
Procter & Gamble, PepsiCo and Diageo.

The result has been an enviable list of brand launches and relaunches
that includes Tropicana, Pepsi Max, Nobby's Nuts and Crisps and Potato
Heads for PepsiCo; coffee machine Tassimo for Kraft Foods; and Ariel and
Daz for P&G.

Ariel, P&G's flagship fabric care brand, last month underwent its first
major design change in 10 years, with a new logo and overhauled
packaging across the range. P&G does not make changes to one of its
billion-dollar brands lightly, so the shift to lifestyle imagery and
away from traditional scientific reassurance is significant and a
central plank of a major marketing programme for Ariel going into
2006.

The nature of its work for Ariel stands in stark contrast to another
major success by Landor this year. Its branding for PepsiCo snack brand
Nobby's Nuts and Crisps demonstrates the agency's ability to launch
irreverent and edgy brands. Since its launch in April Nobby's has become
a £40m brand, the UK's second-biggest food brand launch this year
in sales terms, behind PepsiCo's healthier crisp brand Walkers Potato
Heads, which was also designed by Landor.

Landor now works across all of PepsiCo's UK businesses - Pepsi, Walkers
and Tropicana. This year saw the fruit juice brand's first major
overhaul in 14 years as it faced up to new competition in an already
crowded market.

Landor introduced wraparound photography, giving the brand a more modern
look. Sales rose by 8% to £85m in the year to June 19, according
to TNS Superpanel/Marketing Biggest Brands.

On the new business front Landor has had a storming 12 months, with a
pitch-to-win rate of 77% that has brought in 15 new projects including
HSBC, Danone UK, baby foods giant Numico, KLM-owned travel brand
Transavia, and Traidcraft. In figures shown to Marketing, the WPP-owned
agency achieved strong growth in 2005 turnover, easily surpassing all
growth targets and cementing its position as one of the UK's top five
design agencies by turnover.

In an appointment that was viewed as recognition of the strong
performance of Landor's London office this year, Charlie Wrench,
managing director and president of the EMEA region, was promoted to the
global role of president.

The agency quickly secured the services of Cheryl Giovannoni, formerly
chief executive at rival Coley Porter Bell, as managing director of
Landor London. Her background, working at Ogilvy & Mather and on
accounts for clients including Unilever, BUPA and Associated British
Foods, should stand the agency in good stead as it looks to build on the
success of the past 12 months.

Alongside its management changes, the agency has increased the headcount
at its London office by 18% over the past year.

Landor has also been taking steps to broaden the nature of its work,
helping organisations as diverse as fair-trade brand Traidcraft,
developing branding and packaging for its 60-strong food and drink
product line, and Siberia Airlines. Russia's second-biggest carrier,
Siberia is engaged in a long-term modernisation strategy. Landor created
its new positioning and identity, designing everything from printed
materials to lounges and aircraft livery.

The agency has also been helping Diageo with the branding for its
Johnnie Walker whisky brand's sponsorship of the McLaren Formula One
motor racing team, which it is using to create a more global image.

This drive to challenge itself to do something new, while maintaining
its core values of strong, cohesive branding, has been at the heart of
Landor's success in 2005.

PREVIOUS WINNERS
2004: Williams Murray Hamm
2003: Checkland Kindleysides
2002: Williams Murray Hamm

BEST OF THE REST

The contenders for the accolade of Design Agency of the Year have
undertaken a plethora of interesting and sometimes difficult assignments
for their clients over the past 12 months.

Lambie-Nairn had an exceptional year, winning a raft of incremental
business from clients including O2 and Sainsbury's. It won a Marketing
Design Award for its identity work for the mobile operator.

Moving away from its broadcast background, predominantly creating on-air
idents, Lambie-Nairn's recent account wins have seen it broaden its
business, with branding work for online travel specialist Expedia and
the development of a global corporate identity for Reuters.

Other wins that will come to fruition in 2006 include FIFA. Lambie-Nairn
has been developing a series of guidelines for the use of World Cup
imagery by sponsors as well as an ident sequence that will be seen
repeatedly on our TV screens next summer.

The agency's appointment of Anna Gorman, former head of marketing at BBC
News, as business development director should help Lambie-Nairn's drive
to pull in new business in 2006.

Jones Knowles Ritchie's expertise in the packaging arena has been
acknowledged by soft-drinks company Britvic, which has appointed it to
relaunch Tango next year in an attempt to reverse the brand's poor
sales.

Now in its 15th year in business, JKR's turnover is up 25% to £10.5m following new business wins that include Durex, Scottish Courage
cider brand Strongbow and the global brief for Unilever's Flora. Despite
all this new business, most of the agency's growth has come from
existing clients such as Britvic's J20 brand and Interbrew's Stella
Artois.

Enjoying its fifth successive year of growth, Pearlfisher has won 18 new
clients during the past 12 months, including Scottish Courage, which
entrusted its famous Newcastle Brown Ale brand to the packaging
specialist.

Known as an innovator, the agency has achieved financial growth of 12%
this year and delivered effective results for clients including Waitrose
and Green & Black's.

Pearlfisher's work for the launch of Waitrose's premium toiletries line
umi won a Marketing Design Award and a DBA Design Effectiveness Award
for non-food own-brand packaging. The brand has more than doubled sales
targets of 20%, increasing Waitrose's share of the supermarket skincare
market by 25.4%.

Other new business wins, including Innocent Drinks and King of Shaves,
should stand Pearlfisher in good stead in the year ahead.

Last year's Design Agency of the Year, Williams Murray Hamm, won eight
of the 14 pitches in which it participated over the past 12 months.

It has also done well on the awards front, picking up two Marketing
Design Awards - a packaging gong and the Online and New Media Award,
both for its work for GlaxoSmith-Kline's Horlicks.

Unlike last year, when United Biscuits pulled its Jaffa Cakes brief from
the agency even though its work for the brand won awards, WMH did not
lose any clients this year. Its turnover rose 8% and profits are up
32%.

New business wins include its appointment to the RHM, Reckitt Benckiser
and GlaxoSmithKline rosters. It has also won incremental business
including the design of the Sainsbury's Organics and Basics ranges.

Still privately owned and managed by Richard Williams, Richard Murray
and Garrick Hamm, the agency bought its own building this year, giving
the business increased stability.

Elmwood is an agency that goes about its business quietly but highly
effectively. Financially, 2005 was a strong year, with turnover
increasing 23% to £5.2m, fees up 22% to £33.9m, and profits
up more than 100%. It has transformed itself from a regional to a
national branding consultancy, opening an office in London, and now,
having opened offices in Australia, it has gone international.

The agency has answered criticism that it is too heavily reliant on
business from supermarket chain Asda with a raft of recent wins. The
addition of 19 clients in 2005 speaks volumes about its progress in
building new business, while a BDA Design Effectiveness Award for its
brand identity work for Serious Waste Management is testament to its
quality.

Earlier this year Elmwood won a brief from Lornamead to reposition
iconic hairspray brand Harmony. Key to its fortunes next year could be
its work with retailer Boots, when it will work with senior management
on new strategies to help the chain compete better on the high street.
With two such interesting briefs, Elmwood is an agency to watch in the
year ahead.