TMW – Preparing For A Bigger Stage

First the big news. Following the acquisition of UNLIMITED Group, TMW has joined the collective might of Accenture Song, bringing with it its deep expertise in human understanding and a breadth of capabilities across comms, digital, marketing, insight and analytics,

Led by UNLIMITED’s CEO Chris Mellish, the deal for the business, agreed in April, sees TMW move into its new parent alongside sister-agencies Walnut, Health Unlimited and Nelson Bostock.

“Ideas are at the heart of everything we do – not just in the award-winning work we produce, but through every part of the agency. Every day, in every way, we’re looking for ideas that make a positive difference to our clients’ businesses,” explains Mellish of the agency’s core mission.

And the addition of the firepower of Accenture behind it is already paying dividends, with TMW winning the CRM business for McDonald’s across the UK and Ireland at the end of the year.

In response, Sohel Aziz, managing director for Accenture Song, United Kingdom, Ireland & Africa, explains: “When we brought TMW and the rest of UNLIMITED into Accenture Song this is exactly the sort of moment we had in mind. The fact that such a landmark win has come at the first time of asking is evidence of the value that TMW brings to Accenture Song. The whole team is enormously proud of this win, and we have no doubt the relationship will lead to some truly special work."

And that work will be continue to be created under the watchful eyes of CCO Graeme Noble and CSO Dan Bowers.

Emma Norman, managing director of TMW, discusses the agency's year:

What have been the major highlights for your business in 2024?

We’ve once again won some of the best and biggest pitches of the year. On the integrated and creative side, we’ve started working with Suzuki, Ehrmann and Greene King; our roster of Government clients continues to grow; whilst we’ve rounded out the year with McDonald’s, the biggest and most exciting CRM opportunity in town.

In terms of work, I don’t think we’ve ever had a stronger year. We recently held a creative showcase in our office, and seeing the sheer breadth and quality of the output of the agency - across brand, customer engagement with Itsu, social, PR and experiential - for a wide arrange of diverse brands like GTR, Itsu, NS&I, Freely… I could go on!

And, of course, joining Accenture Song. We’re a few months into our relationship and both businesses are seeing huge benefits: sharing tools, processes and talent to add even more value to our clients’ businesses.

What is your proudest achievement from the last 12 months?

Those that work closely with me will tell you I am never shy about the fact that we are proudly wired differently as an agency. For me it has always been our secret weapon.

Our journey to integration has been very natural. We evolved out of the CRM space to embrace social and digital, and then, we evolved again - getting our clients to work hard in the mid-funnel space which not only delivered real results but effectively built brands with new audiences.

Able to perfectly blend a real understanding of complex channels and the complexity of the end-to-end customer experience with best in class brand strategy and creativity means our take on any problem is naturally different.

The result? Work that truly works. Everywhere. We call it True Integration - a mid-funnel approach that really is in our DNA, and in the last 12 months, we have truly found our stride and are enjoying the ride.   

What are you most looking forward to next year?

Giving our True Integration approach an even bigger platform, and letting it fly on even bigger challenges.

Picking up McDonald’s at the close of this year is testament to this. An opportunity for us to blend our deep channel expertise, rich insights, tech innovations and big thinking, all wrapped up in a passion for a channel where we refuse to see constraint, only an opportunity to surprise.

Accenture Song trusted us to do what we do best, so I am optimistic going into 2025 that the partnership will not only allow us to build on the current momentum, but paves the way for us to do something pretty exciting together in this space. Opportunities for our brilliant people, our brilliant clients, and our industry too.

What do you feel have been the greatest industry challenges for agencies this year and why?

The biggest challenge for our business - and naturally, opportunity - is change.

As clients continue to evolve how they “do” their marketing, we continue to work hard as an agency to ensure we change with them, pre-empting the change when we can so we can tackle the new landscape together.

There’s no doubt clients are under incredible pressure at the moment, but in those pressurised moments there’s always an opportunity to do something incredible.

Has the addition of any AI solution made the profound impact on your business that was expected? If so – what?

Profound is a strong word! We are definitely seeing big benefits, particularly in our proprietary social listening and data automation tools. But, given the extent of some predictions over the last couple of years, it’s probably important not to overstate the current state of play.

The fundamentals of the business remain the same. But it has offered us some interesting opportunities to play with this new space. We’ve built AI tools within our Human Understanding Lab team for individual clients, which are unlocking valuable content and adding real value to the everyday. The art, as ever, is not losing the human touch and tone in delivery.

I don’t think anyone knows exactly how much AI will shape the industry in the next few years, but having seen a glimpse of the possibilities through our own innovation this year, and being exposed to the sheer scale of investment in this area throughout Accenture, I am confident that all Song agencies are in a uniquely future-proofed position. 

What one change would you most like to see happen in the ad industry next year?

It goes against the grain, but maybe a bit I have often wondered if there was more space for ‘sharing’ in our industry.

I am not naive to the fact that we are competing for clients, for briefs, for talent, but I am always reflective about client’s appetites to meet, learn from, hear from their peers in other businesses and even other sectors. Around the universal challenges we face as a sector, I often wonder if we could be a bit more generous and open and negate a lot of wasted energy, time and pain. There could be real power in coming together in the right moments.

Creative Salon on TMW’s 2024

The year got off to a flying start with TMW winning the keys to the integrated creative account for Suzuki.

It would release its first work for the car marque in August with 'Good Different' - a distinctive campaign in a category that tends to be undynamic that showcases the lengths owners of a Suzuki Swift will go to just to keep it a secret.

There was further work to come out of the traps. May saw the agency develop the launch activity for streaming channel Freely, a new free TV service by the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, and Channel 5. The campaign was entitled ‘Set Yourself Freely’.

In the summer the agency launched a new social, PR and influencer division, named TMW Tomorrow. It is led by Olivia Wedderburn, executive social influence director and Emma Norman, managing director, who would later be joined by Chloe Mitchell, executive comms and PR director, and Fran Payne, associate creative director.

Further new business wins came in November, when the agency expanded its remit with the youth charity King’s Trust (formerly The Prince’s Trust) following a pitch.

It was appointed to lead all digital marketing communications for the charity as it builds brand awareness around its new name. This includes creative development, performance and digital media management. Its new scope of work includes digital marketing for fundraising, focusing on events such as Palace to Palace, a Buckingham Palace to Windsor Castle cycling event.

Speaking of TMW, Sylvia Lowe, King’s Trust director of brand and marketing, said: “They have proved themselves to be a strong strategic and creative partner to our youth marketing team over the past two years and we are thrilled that they will be bringing their knowledge and expertise to our fundraising activity."

June saw the launch of this year’s Pride in London campaign, ‘We Are Everywhere’. It was made up of a powerful series of portraits and a central film aiming to capture the joyful spirit and power of the LGBTQ+ community.

Further new work followed with TMW's production arm Move Studio releasing the 'Where London Life Happens' campaign for pub chain Greene King. The campaign featured the use of poetry to celebrate everyday moments in London, and ran across out-of-home and social media.

In October, TMW released a social-led campaign for sports nutrition brand Bulk to promote its new pre-work out supplement named DOPE.

Entitled 'Enhance Performance, Legally', the campaign’s hero film opened with a focused gym-goer confronting the camera and the question “Why do I take DOPE?”

The icing on the cake came at the end of the year with TMW joining the global roster of McDonald’s as its CRM agency for the UK and Ireland. The agency led Accenture Song’s pitch, the first new business opportunity between the two parties since the deal was concluded.

TMW is now working with McDonald’s across strategy and creative for CRM, responsible for direct-to-customer communications to help build brand love and loyalty. The agency will leverage the scale and technology of Accenture Song while also leveraging the power of generative AI to transform customer experiences and drive growth.

Its Human Understanding Lab will also analyse the brand’s audience, augmented with technical and data support from the wider Accenture Song team.

Michelle Graham-Clare, chief marketing officer for McDonald’s UK and Ireland, said TMW’s “use of customer data, strategic thinking as well as creativity was exceptional”. For his part, Mellish said the combined TMW/Accenture Song win "has demonstrated immediately the scale and potency that we have added to each other’s offerings. We now get the chance to realise that potential – working with an iconic brand that shares our ambition. We can’t wait to create something that genuinely stands apart from the rest of the market".

Creative Salon Says:

The McDonald's win proves that TMW is now able to fight on a bigger stage thanks to its new ownership - it should be a mutually beneficial arrangement. This promises much for the future. Meanwhile, its creative output remains of the highest standard across a range of different sectors as this year's work proved. Onwards!