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Bartle Bogle Hegarty (BBH)
IndustryAdvertising
FoundedSoho, London (1982)
FounderJohn Bartle, Sir Nigel Bogle, Sir John Hegarty[1][2]
Number of locations
London, New York, Singapore, Shanghai, Mumbai, Los Angeles, Stockholm
Key people
Neil Munn, Global chief executive officer Joakim Borgström, Worldwide Chief Creative Officer
ParentPublicis
Websitewww.bartleboglehegarty.com Edit this at Wikidata

Bartle Bogle Hegarty (BBH) is a British global advertising agency. Founded in 1982[3] by British ad men John Bartle, Nigel Bogle, and John Hegarty,[4][5] BBH has offices in London, New York City, Singapore, Shanghai, Mumbai, Stockholm and Los Angeles and employs more than 1,000 staff worldwide. The company is part of international agency group Publicis. In 2018 BBH was named the IPA Effectiveness Company of the Year.[6]

History

The agency's first ad was for Levi's and it showed a black sheep going against the herd. It became the agency icon and spawned the phrase, "when the world zigs, zag". The Levi's black sheep poster was not an easy ad to buy because at the time all jeans ads had people in them, but it proved successful.[7]

Over the next 28 years, BBH went on to produce many award-winning films for Levi's. "Launderette"[8] featured Nick Kamen and was set to Marvin Gaye's recording of 'I Heard It Through the Grapevine'. Levi's sold over 2 million boxer shorts in one year.[9] In 1991, BBH cast the then-unknown Brad Pitt in the Levi's commercial titled "Camera."[10] Other classic work includes "Drugstore",[11] "Creek", "Flatbeat"[12] featuring Flat Eric – a small yellow puppet, "Clayman"[13] and "Odyssey"[14] which was directed by Jonathan Glazer. The 28-year relationship resulted in a total of seven number one singles in Europe.[15]

Beyond Levi's, the company been responsible for creating long-running campaigns for other global brands, such as "Vorsprung durch Technik" for Audi which John Hegarty coined in 1984,[citation needed] "The Lynx Effect" for Unilever which propelled the male body spray into the number one spot globally[16] and "Keep Walking" for Johnnie Walker which bought the brand sales up from 13% of the global market when the campaign broke in 2000, to over 20% at the end of 2013 according to IWSR.[17]

In 1997, Leo Burnett Worldwide purchased a 49% share in BBH; that share was then held by the Publicis advertising group.[18] In July 2012, a final 51% share in BBH previously attributed to the agency's co-founders was bought out by part-owners Publicis.[19]

BBH has also worked with brands including Google and Absolut.[20]

In 2006, the agency launched ZAG,[21] a branding and venturing division[22] and in 2014 the agency created BBH Sport, bringing BBH brand strategy and creativity to the world of sport.[23] Also in 2006, BBT's deputy chairman Guy Murphy left the company to join JWT as global planning director.[24]

Labor disputes

On September 20, 2018, the American labor union SAG-AFTRA called a strike against Bartle Bogle Hegarty, and instructed its members not to accept work from the US agency.[25]

In early September, BBH US announced that it had withdrawn from its SAG-AFTRA Commercials Contract, first entered into in 1999.[25]

BBH had contended that the union's contractual terms, which do not permit the use of non-union actors and provide for compensation minimums and residuals, put the agency at a competitive disadvantage, stating that "Many of our peer agencies are not signatories."[26]

SAG-AFTRA countered that it had added certain waivers for low-budget commercials, among other provisions, to its contract language, in response to concerns about profitability.[27] The union also said that the strike was against BBH US only, and not other subsidiaries of the Publicis Group, including Leo Burnett and Saatchi & Saatchi, who are themselves signatories of the contract at issue.[25]

Awards

BBH has won the Queen's Award for Export twice.

John Hegarty was knighted in the 2007 Queen's Birthday Honours and Nigel Bogle was knighted in the 2013 list.[28]

BBH has been Agency of the Year twice at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival, first awarded in 1993, and BBH founder Sir John Hegarty also won the first "Lion of St Mark" award.[29]

BBH London was Campaign magazine's UK Agency of the Year in 1986, 1993, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2011 and 2012.[30] and Creativity's "Innovators of the year" in 2014.[31]

BBH also became Effectiveness Agency of the Year for 2008 at both the IPA and APG awards, the first agency to achieve this feat.[citation needed]

BBH was awarded the British Academy Film Award for Home in 2017.[32]

BBH Singapore was awarded Ad Age's 2018 ‘International Agency of the Year’.[33]

BBH was named Effectiveness Company of the Year at the 2018 IPA Effectiveness Awards, winning the Grand Prix for Audi alongside six other awards: a gold for Audi, three silvers for Barclays, Virgin Media and Weetabix and a bronze for IAG Cargo.[6]

BBH has been named in the "Sunday Times 100 Best Companies to Work For", for the past 11 years and in 2019 received a three star accreditation rating.[34]

References

  1. ^ Staff. "BBH's John Bartle, Nigel Bogle and John Hegarty: our MAA blasts from the past". More About Advertising. Retrieved 14 May 2020.
  2. ^ Gibbs, Alexandra (4 July 2018). "Ad legend John Hegarty reveals the first lesson he learned in the working world: 'Don't chase the money'". CNBC. Retrieved 14 May 2020.
  3. ^ "Company Overview of Bartle Bogle Hegarty Ltd". Bloomberg. Retrieved 9 April 2018.
  4. ^ Staff. "BBH's John Bartle, Nigel Bogle and John Hegarty: our MAA blasts from the past". More About Advertising. Retrieved 14 May 2020.
  5. ^ Gibbs, Alexandra (4 July 2018). "Ad legend John Hegarty reveals the first lesson he learned in the working world: 'Don't chase the money'". CNBC. Retrieved 14 May 2020.
  6. ^ a b "IPA | 2018 IPA Effectiveness Award winners announced". ipa.co.uk. Retrieved 8 May 2019.
  7. ^ "Close-Up: Why Levi's proved to be such a good fit for BBH". Retrieved 11 September 2015.
  8. ^ "Levi's Laundrette Advert (1985)". Archived from the original on 7 March 2016. Retrieved 11 September 2015.
  9. ^ "6 ads that made... Bartle Bogle Hegarty". Retrieved 2 June 2017.
  10. ^ "Brad Pitt". IMDb. Retrieved 2 June 2017.
  11. ^ "Levi's: Drug Store – Video – Creativity Online". Retrieved 11 September 2015.
  12. ^ "Flat Eric | Special reports | guardian.co.uk". The Guardian. Retrieved 11 September 2015.
  13. ^ Levi's 501 commercial (Clayman) (1995), archived from the original on 10 March 2016, retrieved 11 September 2015
  14. ^ Cozens, Claire. "Levi's engineers a reversal of fortune". The Guardian. Retrieved 11 September 2015.
  15. ^ Sweney, Mark (15 July 2010). "Bartle Bogle Hegarty parts company with Levi's after 28 years of ads". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2 June 2017.
  16. ^ "Case Study: Lynx Pulse". D&AD. Retrieved 2 June 2017.
  17. ^ "After 15 Years With BBH, Johnnie Walker Picks a New Agency". Retrieved 2 June 2017.
  18. ^ Patel, Kunur. (5 July 2012) Publicis Groupe Acquires Remaining Stake in Bartle Bogle Hegarty | Agency News – Advertising Age. Advertising Age. Retrieved 16 July 2013.
  19. ^ Publicis takes full control of BBH | Media | guardian.co.uk. The Guardian. Retrieved 16 July 2013.
  20. ^ "Bartle Bogle Hegarty – Clients – Creativebrief Profile". adforum.com. Retrieved 2 June 2017.
  21. ^ "ZAG | ZAG is a branding agency that ventures. We build powerful brands for clients. And we invest our branding skills and resources into ventures with partners". www.zaginvention.com. Retrieved 15 September 2015.
  22. ^ "BBH branches into brand creation with Zag launch". Retrieved 15 September 2015.
  23. ^ "BBH launches sport division with Lawrence Dallaglio". www.campaignlive.co.uk. Retrieved 8 May 2019.
  24. ^ Sweney, Mark (19 October 2006). "Bartle Bogle Hegarty suffers series of setbacks". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 18 October 2019.
  25. ^ a b c McNary, Dave (20 September 2018). "SAG-AFTRA Calls a Strike Against Ad Agency Bartle Bogle Hegarty in the US". Variety. Retrieved 20 September 2018.
  26. ^ (TNS), David Ng Los Angeles Times. "SAG-AFTRA clashes with ad industry over rise in nonunion commercial production". Virginian-Pilot. Retrieved 20 September 2018.
  27. ^ Robb, David (6 September 2018). "SAG-AFTRA Accuses Bartle Bogle Hegarty Ad Agency Of Lying To Actors About Commercials Pact". Deadline. Retrieved 20 September 2018.
  28. ^ "Bogle becomes second BBH founder to be knighted". Retrieved 15 September 2015.
  29. ^ "CANNES LIONS HONOURS SIR JOHN HEGARTY WITH FIRST LION OF ST. MARK". Archived from the original on 19 March 2015. Retrieved 10 March 2015.
  30. ^ "Advertising Agency of the Year: Bartle Bogle Hegarty". Campaign. 13 December 2012. Retrieved 9 August 2014.
  31. ^ "Creativity Innovators of the Year: BBH London". Advertising Age. 15 January 2015.
  32. ^ "Campaign: BBH production arm and Somesuch scoop Bafta" Campaign, 13 February 2017 (Retrieved 14 April 2017)
  33. ^ "BBH Singapore Is Ad Age's 2018 International Agency of the Year". Retrieved 19 February 2018.
  34. ^ "BBH London Named in The Sunday Times Best Companies to Work for List | LBBOnline". lbbonline.com. Retrieved 8 May 2019.

Further reading

External links

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