The Conservative party’s “pocket Miliband” ad campaign and landing the task of rehabilitating Malaysian Airlines’s battered image helped ad agency M&C Saatchi to double digit profit growth in the first half.
The agency, which created attack ads on Labour featuring Ed Miliband in the pockets of Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon ahead of the general election, reported adjusted profits before tax up 13% to £9.6m in the first half.
Chief executive David Kershaw said that the attack advertising strategy employed by the agency, which also created the 1997 Tony Blair “demon eyes” poster, played a part in pushing the Tories.
“We are very pleased,” he said. “I think the strategy coming from [the Conservative party] was good. We then really focussed on the Labour/Scottish National Party relationship. I think it probably played a part. Attack advertising played a part.”
The agency also won a number of key accounts including the global brief to rehabilitate Malaysian Airlines’s image, following two crashes last year.
“The brief is specifically in light of what has happened in recent times,” he said, adding that the launch campaign would be some way off given the “sensitive” nature of the tragedies.
Kershaw said that the agency, which saw revenues rise 6% to £87.5m in the first half, expected a bumper second half fuelled by accounts related to the Rugby World Cup.
He said the agency’s sports and entertainment arm, which counts England rugby sponsor O2 as a major client, is set to have its most profitable half ever.
“The Rugby World Cup will be very good for us,” he said. “We do a lot of work for O2 including all the activation around the “Wear the Rose” campaign. We don’t give the size of individual contracts but I have no doubt that sport and entertainment will have its best half ever, and the World Cup will be a big part of that.”
