PHD received top honours at the Campaign Agency of the Year Awards where it was named EMEA Media Network of the Year and UK Media Agency of the Year.
The judges highlighted PHD EMEA’s strong talent management, thought leadership and client-agency relationships, which led to the network achieving its highest-ever client advocacy scores. PHD UK was applauded for its incredible business success for clients, with a judge commenting, “If the agency can do all this in a pandemic year, just think what PHD might achieve in 2021.”
Campaign’s EMEA Network of the Year award was introduced in 2018. PHD won the title in the inaugural year, followed by a shortlist in 2019 and now a return to its winning title for 2020. This also marks PHD UK’s 12th consecutive Media Agency of the Year nomination and third win.
This year’s awards covered a turbulent 12 months when the global pandemic’s fallout rocked the ad industry. Despite the challenging year, PHD has celebrated huge wins as a network, including receiving two Network of the Year titles at M&M Global and Festival of Media North America.
PHD UK’s 2020 highlights included working with Channel 4 and the British Heart Foundation to create a special one-off episode of 24 Hours in A&E, developing media executions to boost Confused.com’s standing in the motor insurance comparison market and helping McCain outperform its category by 26% in lockdown.
In early January, PHD UK also took the top spot on Campaign’s media new-business rankings for 2020, adding £51m in net billings from two big account wins, including drinks giant Diageo.
PHD EMEA’s output in 2020 has been impressive, recording 115 pitch wins across a range of clients, including Diageo’s global media planning and buying account. It ended the year with a higher headcount than 2019. It also expanded its product offering, with developments to its proprietary planning system Omni Studio, introduced machine-learning to improve clients’ ROI and expanded its creative and eCommerce capabilities.
Click here to view the full list of winners.
