School Reports 2012: Fallon

By Staff, campaignlive.co.uk, Monday, 02 April 2012 12:00AM

Fallon needed to galvanise and shore up its client list after a very difficult 2010. The shop managed to put in a performance that will have surprised those expecting it to come close to collapse after losing its founders.

Recent work from Fallon - Orange

Score: 6

There were losses, but under the leadership of the chief executive, Gail Gallie, the agency also pulled in some strong wins and set about restructuring. The executive creative director of Publicis Spain, Santiago Lucero, joined as a creative partner, then, after the departure of its creative partner, Augusto Sola, the agency rejigged its senior creative line-up. The creative directors Chris Bovill, John Allison, Sam Oliver and Shish Patel all joined the management board.

The management team was also given a shake-up after the departure of its managing director, Magnus Djaba, towards the end of the year to Fallon's sister agency Saatchi & Saatchi. He was replaced by the new joint managing directors, Fallon's head of planning, Gareth Goodall, and the client services director, Katrien De Bauw.

The new structure turned the agency into a different beast altogether. The client list altered along with it. Fallon said goodbye to the BBC, Eurostar, French Connection and Tate, all of which had helped define the old Fallon. In turn, the shop won Axa's £26 million advertising account and a commendably large chunk of the global Nokia business.

The best of its work included a TV spot for Cadbury Twirl Bites, an Orange Gold Spot tie-in with The Muppets film and the Skoda "puzzle" work. The agency is still arguably in a transitional phase, but its first tentative steps under new management are at least making headway.

Score last year: 4

How Fallon rates itself: 7

"In 2011, we remained totally focused on the unreasonable power of creativity. We brought in an array of exciting new creative talent. Produced integrated work on Tate 'movie', Skoda 'puzzle', Cadbury 'spots vs stripes'. Made some lovely film on Orange, Cadbury Dairy Milk, Twirl. Won Nokia, Axa, House of Fraser, MTV, Roundhouse and grew Kraft. Went global with work in Africa, Latin America and South-East Asia on Nokia. And had the most beards per square foot in adland."

Return to the School Reports 2012 A-Z directory

This article was first published on campaignlive.co.uk