State of the Nation
06
Rob Morrice (bottom left) left Scotland
Advertising Scotland making MD John Dalziel redundant.
to concentrate on IAS in the north of
England; while (below right) David
Taking a retrospective glance back at the last As the New Year arrived, so did a new joint
Aylesbury joined Frame from The 12 months, it was before the winter break – at creative director for Frame. David Aylesbury
Union the end of 2007 – when the Scottish ad scene completed his move to the Glasgow-based
welcomed the return of Stuart Anderson, who agency after revealing his decision to leave The
joined Merle as joint creative director. Anderson, Union. Aylesbury, a former senior art director
previously a creative at The Union, arrived after at The Union, arrived to work alongside Angus
a spell in Leeds with Propaganda. Less than a Walker on accounts such as Subway and
year later, Anderson’s former creative partner at Bulmer’s.
Propaganda, John Dean, also joined Merle in a
But as new partnerships were forming, others
joint creative director role.
were disbanding, with the announcement that
There was less to celebrate for The Leith Agency IAS Smarts co-founders Pete Martin and Rob
at the end of 2007, with the news that Standard Morrice had decided to go their separate ways.
Life had switched its advertising business into Under the stewardship of Media Square, IAS
London’s Saatchi & Saatchi. The Edinburgh Smarts’ parent company, two new agencies
agency, which retained the financial institution’s were formed, helmed individually by Martin and
DM business, bounced back, however, in 2008 Morrice. While Morrice headed to England’s
with major projects for Coors Light and Irn Bru. north to focus on PR with IAS, Martin remained in
The close of 2007 also brought about the
Scotland to spearhead creative communications
beginning and the end of eras for two well-
at new enterprise The Gate Worldwide.
established Scottish agencies. Glasgow-based The Scottish Government put its creative
Red Cell, part of the WPP Group, announced services out to tender in January and would
its plans to close, with the agency never able to later be forced to delay a decision due to
fully recover from the CALA Homes loss earlier the overwhelming number of applications it
in the year. However, the agency’s managing received.
director, Simon McQuarrie, went on to return this
It proved to be a harsh winter for Edinburgh’s
year with new venture, Creative Cell.
1576, which called in receivers at the beginning
Meanwhile, UK-wide RLA became part of the of February. Bosses said the situation, which
AIM-listed marketing group, theMission, after saw two of its former directors leave but remain
an acquisition was completed for the initial shareholders of the company, had prevented
consideration of £9.5m, before pulling out of the current management team from making the
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