LONDON, UK – AMV BBDO is making changes in its strategy line up as it seeks to place increased focus on delivering business-driving creativity through data-powered customer experience.
The agency already leads the industry in using data to prove the effectiveness of campaigns*, but the development lies in how data is used as the catalyst to inspire and drive the work.
This shift sees Tom White, AMV Joint Head of Strategy and Head of New Business Strategy, become Chief Strategy Officer and David Edwards, AMV Joint Head of Strategy, take on the newly created role of Chief Customer Officer.
TOM WHITE
- Tom is in his 12th year at AMV
- He was named one of Management Today’s Agents of Change in 2020
- He has led much of the agency’s most high profile and awarded work of the past decade winning the inaugural Cannes Effectiveness Grand Prix, IPA Golds & the WARC Grand Prix for Social Strategy for PepsiCo
- Further awards include multiple Cannes Gold and APG awards for Guinness, The Department of Transport and the Metropolitan Police
- He currently oversees the agency’s much celebrated Essity business
- He led the recent repositioning of Macmillan Cancer Support whose new campaign broke earlier this month
DAVID EDWARDS
- David joined AMV 9 years ago
- He led Mercedes-Benz towards socially driven ideas such as Escape the Map and YouDrive which won IPA Effectiveness Gold and a WARC Innovation award
- He developed the strategy behind the award-winning Jeff Goldblum campaign for CurrysPCWorld
- He spent 4 years on Guinness continuing the tradition of culturally relevant, iconic work and winning a further IPA Effectiveness Gold
- He led the strategy for the launch of the Guinness Six Nations sponsorship and the Guinness Clear responsible drinking campaign which scooped a Cannes Gold Lion for Brand Experience & Activation and Gold at the Marketing Society Brave Awards
David’s promotion follows the appointment last November of Mark Bell as Head of Experience Planning, reporting to Edwards.
Sarah Douglas, AMV BBDO CEO, said: “Client needs have accelerated rapidly across the past 12 months and we have evolved to match. In Tom and David, we have two world-class brains with a breadth of experience solving different types of problems across the CX journey. They are supersmart, modern thinkers with the skills and tenacity to deliver creatively innovative results-orientated solutions for clients and this is a very exciting moment in our ongoing evolution to sustain and augment our performance as a world-class creative company by getting even closer to our client’s customers.”
Craig Mawdsley and Bridget Angear will be stepping down as Joint Chief Strategy Officers to set up their own strategy consultancy whilst continuing to work with AMV on key clients and special projects. This is an innovative new relationship which gives Mawdsley and Angear the flexibility to create and run a new independent business whilst maintaining a connection to the agency where they have overseen strategy for over a decade.
Sarah Douglas, AMV BBDO CEO, said: “Craig and Bridget are both professional legends and personal friends who have made a huge contribution to AMV over the years. This new portfolio approach is an exciting step in our evolution as an agency and for them as they look to deploy their talents across a greater diversity of challenges whilst remaining ongoing partners to us and our clients.”
Mawdsley and Angear said: “We’re really grateful to Sarah and AMV for helping us create this new and innovative arrangement. It’s exciting to be launching into the world on our own whilst still staying very close to the best agency in town.”
Mawdsley and Angear have been named Campaign’s number one strategists six times in the last decade, in addition to leading the department to numerous IPA, APG and Cannes strategy awards. They are amongst the industry’s most awarded strategic leaders.
*AMV has won Gold at every IPA Effectiveness Awards since 2008 – the longest unbroken run of Golds in IPA history.
AMV has won more Marketing Society Effectiveness Grand Prix than any other agency in the past decade – 2013 (Sainsbury’s), 2015 (EDF Energy), 2018 Bodyform), 2020 (Guinness).
AMV won the inaugural Cannes Lions Grand Prix for effectiveness (Walkers).
AMV is ranked the #2 agency in the world in the WARC Effective 100.
