Einav rejoins Murphy and Golding: is there such a thing as gravity-defying account management?

Former adam&eve joint CEO Tammy Einav is teaming up again with James Murphy and David Golding, but this time at Ogilvy which bought Murphy and Golding’s New Commercial Arts venture last year.

Murphy is one of the leading account managers of his era, as was Einav at A&E. Back in the day such folk defied gravity by holding on to business through thick and thin. But all accounts move somewhere else in the end, don’t they? The likes of Sir Frank Lowe and, before him, David Ogilvy didn’t see it that way.

It was Sir Nigel Bogle (maybe knighthoods are another feature of such managers) who famously observed that every agency was only three phone calls from disaster. But this never happened at BBH (although it had its moments before reviving, after a vexed period, under Publicis ownership – it’ll be 50 years old in 2032.) One of the secrets was Bogle’s leadership.

The best creative agencies need the best account management too. AMV BBDO was the UK’s biggest for decades, driven in large part by peerless creative leader David Abbott. But strong account management was also a factor. Clients trusted the agency and, even when it misfired, the damage wasn’t usually terminal. Not always though.

I recall reading an interview (really a discussion) between Cilla Snowball (now a Dame), then UK CEO and another account management star, and the agency’s head BT client – in Campaign’s 50th birthday edition I think. The point being to demonstrate an ideal agency/client relationship. That’s a hostage to fortune I thought and, sure enough, BT departed not that long afterwards. In that instance gravity certainly won out.

Murphy and his strategy pal David Golding certainly enjoy client loyalty. New Commercial Arts hasn’t always thrilled the creative community but it hits the mark for clients: MoneySuperMarket’s sales are said to have risen, Dominic West for Nationwide has spearheaded a popular (with the public) and highly effective campaign.

But there’s the rub, of course. Catherine Kehoe, then at Lloyds Banking Group, hired NCA on day one to work on Halifax and then NCA resigned the chunky Halifax business to follow Kehoe to Nationwide (Murphy, Golding and Einav had worked on Lloyds at A&E.)

Then the NCA deal with WPP’s Ogilvy was done. Unfortunately, for them anyway, Ogilvy had substantial Lloyds CRM business and the likelihood of Nationwide and Lloyds sharing the same agency was rather less than nil. The two split (Nationwide went to Mother), a forced move which both Kehoe and Murphy must have found painful in the extreme. Will Lloyds above-the-line end up at Ogilvy one day? That would take all Murphy’s legendary powers of persuasion. Maybe Einvav can help?

Ogilvy Group in the UK (NCA still operates independently within the group) has a long way to go before it can begin to match the achievements of A&E in Murphy and Golding’s high period, combining big agency solidity with creative firepower headed by, first, Ben Priest and latterly Richard Brim (also now off to start his own agency.)

But trusted and creatively-aware account management was one of A&E’s many strengths and is clearly a big part of the Ogilvy plan, which is why Einav is joining. As with Nationwide, it may not always defy gravity. But it gives you a puncher’s chance.