2024: The Year in Review

It was fitting that 2024 started with the airing of Mr Bates vs The Post Office on ITV and ended with the announcement that Omnicom was merging with Interpublic Group (IPG). This year has been bookended with drama.

While the former TV series showed that there was still life in the old dog of legacy linear media channels (if the commissioners were prepared to take creative risks), the latter revealed that advertising holding companies were wrestling with where their future lies in the face of, among other things, the ascendancy of AI tools.

The parallels don't end there - the story of Alan Bates' David vs Goliath-style battle against the 'big guys' of the Post Office and the establishment is now being played out in reverse.

The establishment big guys in the latter instance are Omnicom and IPG (established in 1986 and 1930 respectively) that are conscious that other players - most notably consultancies - are taking increasingly large bites out of their lunch. It's understandable that they want to consolidate their position and strengths and cut costs.

No wonder the respective CEOs John Wren and Philippe Krakowsky look so happy in their press photograph.

Up until the announcement of the Omnicom/IPG mega-merger (which is in fact an acquisition), another of the biggest agency news stories this year has been WPP's purchase of New Commercial Arts in September, and it becoming part of Ogilvy UK but remaining as a standalone brand.

James Murphy, co-founder of NCA, took over the reins as CEO of Ogilvy UK - a neat circular career move given that he started his advertising career at Ogilvy back in the post room (although you'd never entirely bet against him doing another start-up).

With NCA losing its place on the roster of independent agencies, it was particularly pleasing to see adam&eveDDB's Rick Brim and Martin Beverley decide to launch their own start-up next year. There's always something thrilling about watching new agencies launch, and with the pedigree of this pair it promises much. Brim and Beverley follow in the footsteps of Mat Goff, former adam&eveDDB CEO, who launched Ark Agency with former Anomaly managing director Mike Wilton in June.

In other domestic consolidation news, WPP acquired the remaining shares of T&Pm that it did not already own and Accenture bought UNLIMITED, which became part of Accenture Song and further strengthened its creds in CRM, in particular. T&Pm had been created in March of this year from the merger of The & Partnership and MSix & Partners to create a full-service agency offering.

The UK independent agency sector remains vibrant (despite consolidation further up the corporate food chain and the sad closure of Now in April and the disappearance of Creature), while Pablo produced some particularly memorable work in 2024.

This spot for GiffGaff was just one example of the agency exercising its funny bone to great effect.

BMB also lured the respected Laurent Simon , who previously made his name at adam&eveDDB, the BBC and VML, into its clutches. He was eventually replaced at VML by Ryan McManus, who was only one of a dizzying array of arrivals and departures.

The year also saw its usual merry-go-round of agency moves: with Xav Ress joining AMV as CEO; Droga5 hiring Pelle Sjoenell worldwide CCO; TBWA\London hiring Raquel Chicourel as CSO; Yan Elliott joining Weber Shandwick as CCO; McCann London hiring Lynsey Atkin as CCO; Tammy Einav leaving adam&eveDDB; Natalie Cummins joining EssenceMediacom as CEO; longstanding Michael Pring leaving AMV BBDO; Andre Moreira replacing Toby Allen as CCO at T&PM and Victoria Appleby joining from Channel 4 as its CEO.

Cannes Lions

At this year's Cannes Lions festival, McCann London dominated the many UK winners.

While the total number of UK Grands Prix and Gold Lions were down on last year (alongside fewer entries), McCann London's 'The Everyday Tactician' work for Xbox won the Grands Prix in Direct and Entertainment Lions for Gaming as well as gold in Brand Experience & Activation and a Titanium Lion.

The campaign for the Football Manager 2024 game involved recruiting a real-life tactician to work for Bromley FC and a documentary telling the story of his work for the club.

Other UK winners included adam&eveDDB with a total of 14 Lions; Edelman and Ogilvy UK with 9 each; VML London with 6; AMV BBDO with 5; and Mother and VML London each with 3. You can find out more about all the winners here.

Also at the festival MullenLowe spearheaded an initiative with RNIB and the Cannes organisers to introduce a new Lion that celebrates the use of alternative text in ads. It followed the launch of a MullenLowe partnership with Margate art gallery Turner Contemporary (Turner, famously, having suffered from deteriorating eyesight).

Other awards worthy of mentioning are adam&eveDDB's barnstorming performance at the IPA Effectiveness Awards, where the agency won the Grand Prix and was named Effectiveness Company of the Year.

The new humour category at Cannes Lions didn't leave many sides splitting. Hopefully the UK can own this category next year.

New Labour government, new danger?

At the beginning of the year, Creative Salon published a series of articles that pointed out that 2024 was an election year worldwide.

The accompanying election advertising (in the UK at least) wasn't particularly memorable but we ended up with a change of government, whose first few months have been decidedly shaky. Given their increase in National Insurance contributions from employers, prime minister Keir Starmer's new administration hasn't yet shown that it's particularly business friendly as of yet.

At least the election gave some agencies the opportunity to create some fun tactical work, like these examples from NCA and St Luke's for MoneySuperMarket and Wickes respectively:

The advice from both brands looks more relevant today than when they launched, showing tactical ads don't need to be one-offs if the target can't get its act together.

AI and on and on....

The ascendancy of AI continued to spark fierce debate but quietly many agencies were just getting on and using it rather than posturing in the trade press.

Coca-Cola's Christmas 'Holidays Are Coming' spot, created entirely by AI, might not have been the best example of its use argued some, but there were plenty of examples of it being deployed creatively and effectively.

This summer's Snickers ad created by T&Pm and featuring football manager José Mourinho is a great example. It used an authorised AI clone, ready to coach football fans out of the 'Own Goals' mistakes they score.

A further smart use of AI technology came from VCCP with 'Daisy', a lifelike, state-of-the-art, Conversational AI created for O2.

The AI is designed to speak with scammers and keep them on the phone for as long as possible so they have less time to try and scam real people. Daisy is able to interact in real-time ensuring no suspicions are raised on the other end of the line.

From golfclub to gay club

Mind you, it wasn't just AI-created ads that drew ire. When Tata released an ad that repositioned Jaguar away from its old "gin and Jag:" golfclub heartland, LinkedIn (and news outlets) exploded. In fact, 'Copy Nothing' could have been the moment that LinkedIn became the new Twitter/X. Quite who Tata thinks its new buyers will be we'll have to wait and see when the car goes on sale next year.

While the replacement EV models have not yet been built, the kindest that can be said about the ad is that it got people talking about the brand again - albeit not universally with affection.

Festive box of delights

And as the year drew to a close, the ad industry detonated its festive glitter bomb, which went off with a massive bang showering sparkles and tinsel everywhere.

This year's Christmas TV ad fayre was of a far higher quality than naysayers throughout the year would have you believe - those who thought that the industry was trapped in a death spiral, wrestling the intractable problem of AI and human creative endeavours.

My personal favourite? It has to be Tesco's 'Feed Your Christmas Spirit' by BBH (although System1 probably wouldn't agree....)

And on that uplifting note - despite (or maybe because) of all the changes that this year has seen, we look to 2025 with optimism, as its about to break on the horizon. Let it not be like the Post Office flawed IT system of the same name.