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Lowe London needs more than a facelift

Posted in Advertising, Marketing, Branwell Johnson, Latest reporters' blogs November 18th, 2008 by Branwell Johnson

Just how close to capsizing is Lowe London now that John Lewis is up for review?

The review comes hot on the heels of Lowe’s resignation of the Stella Artois account after one of the longer-lasting relationships in ad-land. On a smaller scale there was the recent debacle over the Innocent pitch which must also have undermined morale.

 I suppose saying Lowe is a sinking ship is over-dramatising the situation as it handles international business for global brands. But it’s future as a dynamic creative engine capable of winning domestic business? There’s the question.

The venerable agency has never really righted itself since the loss of Tesco to Sir Frank Lowe’s latest ad agency venture, The Red Brick Road, at the end of 2005 – nearly three years ago.

The Tesco loss was then compounded with the suspension and subsequent departure of Lowe London chief executive Garry Lace. Since then there has been no sense of stability within the London office with the departure of Lace’s replacement Amanda Walsh  after a year and the ousting of the final helmsman, Judy Mitchem, earlie this year.
 
Lowe Worldwide chief Steve Gatfield was meant to be paying more attention to the UK office but he left the network suddenly last month – he was seeing out a notice period originally meant to extend until next April.

Creative chief Ed Morris and chief strategy officer Rebecca Morgan having been doing their best to run the London office but surely Morris’s time is better spent paying attention to doing what he does best – getting the most engaging and effective work out of his team – rather than admin, politics and firefighting.

There is still a chance of retaining John Lewis and Lowe shouldn’t throw in the towel but there is a danger of another agency with an illustrious history in UK advertising going down the tubes (or withering on the vine) to follow CDP and HHCL…