Ah, the U.S., where big budgets roam, but where a cheeky British agency may need a translator

• Published in: The New York times
• Main Author: Elliott, Stuart
• Format: Newspaper Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York, N.Y New York Times Company 27.06.2003
• Edition: Late Edition (East Coast)
• Subjects: Advertising agencies; Expansion; Market entry; United States; UK; United Kingdom; US
• ISSN: 0362-4331

For instance, M&C Saatchi, the London agency founded by Maurice and Charles Saatchi, has struggled to gain additional accounts for its New York outpost beyond its initial client, British Airways, and changed executive creative directors there twice from September 1998 to December 2000. Leagas Delaney, another British agency, has lost large clients like Virgin Mobile, a joint venture of the Virgin Group and the Sprint Corporation, at its San Francisco office and suffered the walkout of the office's four top executives in 2001 in a dispute over the direction of the agency. One reason for Mr. [Robert Saville]'s reticence to comment is that Mr. [Andrew Deitchman] is still under contract to Red Cell, part of the WPP Group, where his title is global director for marketing communications strategy and business development. Sir Martin Sorrell, chief executive at WPP, is legendary for the zeal with which he enforces executive contracts. Also, according to Campaign, Sir Martin has long been thought to be interested in acquiring Mother. Assuming that Mr. Deitchman quickly finds a way to free himself from his commitment to WPP, his duties for Mother would center on coordinating the myriad tasks that are involved in opening the New York office, which would include hiring a staff. It is unclear whether Mr. Deitchman, an American, would actually head the office or step aside for New York-based executives to serve as the senior management.