Close-Up: Live issue - A noticeable lack of high-points in a Lowe year

Not those one-time clients who have exited in dismay at the power
struggles and perpetual senior management changes that have bedevilled
Lowe in recent years.

And not even Ed Morris, its executive creative director, who is
reverting to a consultancy role because he is said to want to move away
from direct involvement in an agency decimated by huge account losses
and sustained mostly by globally aligned business.

Others argue that Morris' altered status is simply a reflection of the
extent of the changes at Lowe since he accepted a three-year "golden
handcuffs" financial package worth more than £1 million for not
following the £50 million Tesco business into Sir Frank Lowe's The
Red Brick Road in 2005.

That agreement, described as "madness" by one ex-Lowe senior manager,
expires at the end of the month, leaving him free to effectively do what
he wants.

The most pressing priority for Morris in his new position will be to try
to stop the £20 million John Lewis account, currently up for
pitch, from leaving the agency.

This will be far from easy. Not least because the retailer is known to
be very close to Morris and wants affirmation of his continued presence
at the agency - something his new title doesn't offer - but because it
is also concerned about the agency's instability, its infighting and its
lack of clear leadership. It hasn't even had a chief executive for the
past year after it parted company with Amanda Walsh.

Recently, an insider says, focus on globally aligned clients such as
Unilever and Johnson & Johnson has caused UK businesses such as Twinings
to pull the plug, fearful that their business was no longer seen as
sufficiently important.

Steve Gatfield, the outgoing Lowe Worldwide chief executive, even said
in a piece in Campaign earlier in the year that the real money was in
the network clients, so it's hardly surprising if domestic business felt
undervalued.

Vauxhall, owned by the troubled General Motors, the Rugby Football Union
and modest amounts of COI work - which will come up for review in
February - are the only domestic accounts remaining at the agency.

It has also been the victim of its often vicious internal politics with
the infighting reaching a crescendo in the fractious relationship
between Walsh and Tony Wright, the network's chairman and the pivotal
link with Unilever. "The two took an instant dislike to each other," an
insider says. Another claims Walsh "underestimated the sensitivity of
the global set-up".

Much of the friction is believed to have been sparked by the power of
the Unilever global account directors reporting directly either to
Wright or Gatfield and not the London management team.

"We operated as two agencies in competition with each other," a former
senior staffer recalls. "Those running the agency who thought they were
responsible for business actually found that they weren't."

This sort of thinking has led to loss of talent. Another ex-Lowe staffer
adds: "They just get chewed up by the system and spat out."

Many see the management revolving door of recent years and the lack of
clear leadership as the main reasons why talent and business have left
the building.

Sharing the front-of-house roles between Morris and Rebecca Morgan, the
agency's planning chief, does not, it is claimed, make up for the lack
of a chief executive to act as the clients' lightning conductor, while
persistent rumours of their plans to launch a start-up have done nothing
to steady the ship.

Despite all of its problems, Lowe network chiefs are indicating that the
managerial gap will be filled early next year in a raft of measures to
restore Lowe London's equilibrium. However, they insist that the agency
will be re-engineered to regain its key role in what is now a profitable
network eager to win domestic business as well as service globally
aligned clients.

"We're committed to having a successful and creatively strong agency in
London," Wright says. "In the first quarter of next year, we'll unveil
plans to that end."

This could coincide with the announcement of Gatfield's successor. Two
candidates are understood to be in the frame for the role.

With a host of names already said to have turned the job down, it seems
filling it is proving more problematic than initially thought.

For the moment, the London agency's future looks to be shaped by two
events. One is the John Lewis pitch. The other is the contest for
Unilever's £100 million worldwide Knorr business.

Lowe sources claim that were the network to capture Unilever's biggest
global brand, which would be run out of London, the revenue would fill
the hole created by the split with Stella Artois and the catastrophic
loss of the £100 million Nokia N-Series business to Wieden
&Kennedy.

Whether or not Morris will remain to see all this through is open to
question. He has admitted to friends that he is asking himself serious
questions about his future in an agency whose global clientele hold
little interest for him.

"Ed is a talented creative but he's not a creative director," a Lowe
source says. "He doesn't like working on global accounts or complex
pieces of local business."

Another ex-Lowe senior staffer questions whether there is room for him
at all now. "Ed is an outstanding creative but if John Lewis goes, you
have to wonder if there will be a role for him. The global management
teams do a difficult job and would have liked more help from Ed.But he's
of no value to them and he hates travelling."

The big question is what will happen to the agency if no client offers a
"Get out of jail" card.

One intriguing idea being considered by the top brass is to take the
London agency back to its hotshop roots and have it focus on domestic
business, while a separate network operation in London services the
global accounts.

This new "old" Lowe, not dissimilar to Lowe Howard-Spink, would have the
same emphasis on creativity as its predecessor, insiders explain, but be
more attuned to a communications world much changed since its
heyday.

However, there seems little likelihood now of a merger between the
agency and its Interpublic stablemate Draftfcb, which was rumoured
strongly.

Bringing the two together under one roof could save between £3
million and £4 million a year, according to one estimate. What's
more, Draftfcb has the digital expertise that Lowe lacks.

But there are also drawbacks. Could Unilever and Johnson & Johnson share
an agency with SC Johnson, Kraft and Biersdorf, all big Draftfcb
clients?

There are several options for Lowe London. But, as events of the past
year have proved, doing nothing isn't one of them.

LOWE'S WOES

January: Amanda Walsh is forced out as the chief executive after 15
months. Rebecca Morgan, the chief strategy officer, and Ed Morris, the
executive creative director, take over in the interim.

February: Innocent moves its £4 million account out.

March: Twinings reviews its £3 million above-the-line account out
of the agency.

August: Mother beats Lowe to launch the new 4% Stella Artois variant in
the UK. Stella Artois reviews its main ad account and Lowe doesn't
repitch.

September: Lowe announces eight redundancies across its creative and
production departments.

October: Steve Gatfield confirms he will quit as the worldwide chief
executive next April.

November: Lowe loses £100 million global account for Nokia's
N-Series to Wieden & Kennedy. John Lewis reviews its £20 million
account out of the agency. Morris agrees to a new contract working four
days a week in a consultancy capacity.