Dubai | 17 March 2019 – PHD, part of Omnicom Media Group, has been named as Campaign’s inaugural EMEA Media Network of the Year, following a year that saw the agency win 132 pitches across the region, onboard 275 new employees and win 73 industry awards.
The international advertising publication Campaign created a new Media Network of the Year award for Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA). It evaluated agency performance based on clients and work, business performance, talent and leadership.
Described by Campaign as “a clear winner for Campaign’s EMEA Media Network of the Year”, PHD closed a stellar 2018, winning over $700m in new business across EMEA, including HSBC, Oatly, VF Corporation Europe (including the Timberland, The North Face and Vans brands) and Unilever across Sub-Saharan Africa. Additionally, PHD offices across EMEA picked up 73 industry awards, including five local Agency of the Year accolades in France, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands and Spain, and Campaign’s inaugural UK Media Leader of the Year for PHD Worldwide CEO, Mike Cooper. Since submission, PHD has also been named Media Network of the Year at Eurobest and Cristal Festival. PHD is also celebrating its second runner-up status for the Media Network of the Year title at the 2019 Dubai Lynx, as well as a bronze win in the Media category for its campaign with Arla Foods. The addition of 275 employees and three new offices, including Egypt, has seen PHD EMEA grow to 2,630 across 58 offices in 47 countries all operating under the mantra of “finding a better way”.
Rather than striving to be the biggest agency, PHD has focused on brilliant strategic thinking to drive client growth. Its success in industry awards underlines its reputation as one of the smartest and creative media networks in the world. One example is the launch of the Volkswagen T-Roc, which saw offices across EMEA localise the global comms strapline of “born confident” with great success in the UK, Italy, Spain and Ireland.
PHD’s strong culture also received high praised from the judging panel at Campaign, describing the agency’s employee engagement strategy as “on point”. The key themes of openness and inclusion focused on initiatives around mental health awareness and disability awareness training, ensuring PHD is operating as an inclusive agency, attracting the more diverse, creative and strategic talent in the industry.
PHD EMEA CEO Ian Clarke says: “It is a great honour to be recognised by Campaign. 2018 has been phenomenal year for PHD EMEA. We are immensely proud of our continued business growth and would like to thank all our employees, our clients and partners for their belief and commitment in PHD. At the heart of our acceleration is PHD’s mantra, vision, our culture of finding a better way in all that we do. Our outstanding year is testament to all our PHD EMEA talent who aspire to do exactly this for our clients every single day.”
“PHD is known throughout the industry as a challenger brand and achieving accolades like Campaign’s inaugural EMEA Media Network of the Year demonstrates the acuity of our vision to our clients and beyond,” states PHD MENA’s CEO, Elda Choucair. “This immersive culture of challenging the status quo and bravery is something that proudly rings true and resides throughout the network.”
