Starcom MediaVest Group
The Publicis-owned shop started the decade as the AdweekMedia’s first Media Agency of the Year, an award bestowed after the organization— technically two shops that operate separately but also collaborate on key accounts such as Procter & Gamble—won General Motors’ landmark $2.9 billion planning assignment. Huge wins from Kraft, Coca-Cola and Mars followed. More importantly, they all remain SMG clients today. Beyond a good defense, SMG also possesses offensive skills such as cutting-edge measurement (second-by-second TV ratings, the A.C.E. and PROOF print evaluation tools), cross-platform integration (MediaVest’s crossathletes program) and a deep bench (VivaKi managing partner Jack Klues, Denuo’s innovations guru Rishad Tobaccowala and SMG head Laura Desmond, shown here, to name just a few). Now if it could just work on improving its new companies’ names. —Steve McClellan
