How Brett and Lee won the Olympics for McCann

A lot of people must be asking, how on earth did ill-favoured  McCann Erickson manage to beat the mighty WPP to Locog's prestigious 2012 Olympics advertising account? Not least among them, Sir Martin Sorrell, WPP's nettled chief executive.

The short answer is: Brett Gosper, McCann Worldgroup EMEA president and his secret weapon, Lee Daley.

It can be no coincidence that, weeks after McCann Worldgroup appointed the somewhat tarnished, but nevertheless clever, former Saatchi & Saatchi chief executive to the newly created role of EMEA chief strategist (reporting directly to Gosper), McCann walks away with the Olympics prize.

Another non-coincidence is Gosper's familiarity with the workings of Olympics committees. He happens to be the son of Richard Kevan Gosper. Ring a bell? Then I'll refresh your memory. Gosper senior is a former Australian athlete of some renown, and more to the point, a former IOC vice-president of 20 years standing at the venerable body which holds supreme sway over the Olympic Games.

Just for the record, Kevan – as he prefers to be called  – won an Olympics silver medal for the men's 400m relay in 1956, and managed to take in being Shell chief executive and chairman Down Under during his long and successful career. So he's not lacking influential political connections. He's practically a national hero. What you might call Gosper junior's inside track, in fact.

One other non-coincidence is Daley's own brief and colourful connection with high octane sport. Remember his four-month stint at Manchester United? He'd probably rather you didn't. But by the law of unintended consequences, it has served him well in the end.

Sorrell pipped at the post in Olympics pitch

Much consternation in Farm Street, Mayfair, as McCann-Erickson, backed by IPG, wrests the Locog advertising account from its 'rightful' owner, WPP.

From the beginning of the pitch, WPP had looked a shoo-in. It was one of a remarkably small circle of contenders that had the power and scale to handle what in effect is a piece of global business. True, the much smaller Chime beat it in the duel for the initial 1-year marketing communications package. But that was a blip. Chime (even if it is part-owned by WPP) simply didn't have the resources to win part 2   – the much bigger bit of business spanning 3 years to the Games themselves.  And it showed when it was one of two to be dropped from the frame last week, leaving McCann and WPP.

At the time, no one much rated McCann's chances of success. WPP, now the world's largest marketing services network, is a much stronger organisation than Interpublic – which has been severely weakened over the past few years. In addition, WPP's boss, Sir Martin Sorrell had invested a lot of personal energy in winning the account. The fact that he was personally present in Singapore when the British team, featuring David Magliano and Sir Keith Mills, won the bid to hold the Olympics in London gives the flavour. For WPP, it would have been a way of juxtaposing one very British success story with another – its own.

Why did it lose? The devil is in the detail. Locog's is no ordinary ad account. Though worth a notional £10m over 3 years, this £10m is in fact a benchmark figure for which competing agencies had to tender (as did other services, such as the Locog accountants, Deloitte, and the Locog solicitors, Freshfields). Agencies were invited to provide ad valorem services – such a media buying, content, creative ads, sponsorship. If Locog spent over £10m, the winning agency would be quids in, because it would be conventionally rewarded. If, on the other hand, Locog underspent, the winning agency would have to underwrite the difference, and that would mean coming up with cash. 

It can readily be seen this is an expensive but finely judged gamble, and one which will be heavily disruptive of a marketing services network's normal commercial activities. Though there is glory in winning the business – and a tier 3 sponsorship thrown in – the account could easily turn into a poison chalice. Sorrell was prepared to take that chance, but was incensed that Locog had spun off the more profitable research part of the business (worth another '£10m') as a separate account (for which, by the way, WPP is not competing).

Failure to strike a deal over this vexed issue was the main reason that WPP lost out in the final pitch. It may come not to regret that mistake in the next few years.

Paul Lawson plots Burnett breakaway

Spring and we've already had the first cuckoo in adland, with news of the Garry Lace Robert Campbell start-up  – which opens its doors on May Day.

Of more substance, if it gets off the ground, is a breakaway being hatched at Leo Burnett. This features Paul Lawson, group managing director of Burnett and Arc, plus his executive creative director Jon Burley. The aim is to set up a full service agency offering advertising, planning and buying 'solutions'.

This is hardly an original formula. Indeed, it bears an uncanny resemblance to Hurrell & Dawson, the agency set up by M&C Saatchi alumnus Nick Hurrell and former TBWA\London chairman Neil Dawson in 2006. Despite its distinguished pedigree and a name-change, the new agency has not exactly covered itself in glory.

There are some reasons for believing the foul-mouthed but capable Lawson may be more successful, however. Lawson's attachment to media has more to it than a strategic conviction that agencies must, once again, put the 'full' back into 'service' by reuniting creativity and media under one roof. He was once a media planner himself, at Allen Brady & Marsh, before deciding, like many before him such as Tim Bell and Rick Bendel, that account management was a better route to the top.

The immediate reason for the breakaway seems to be growing disenchantment with Burnett grupenfuhrer Andrew Edwards. Lawson lost out to Australian outsider Edwards in the duel for the top job after Bruce Haines left 18 months ago. Edwards, it seems, is strong on 'below-the-line' but not much else; and the personal chemistry isn't great either.

So what's holding Lawson and Burley back? Absence of a planner – a professional one, that is. Edwards Groom Saunders might have fitted the bill perfectly. It had talent, in the form of Jez Groom, Peter Edwards and Will Saunders, but lacked traction as an independent communications agency. Unluckily for Lawson, it was snapped up by Engine in February.

Mind you, there's always Mark Cranmer, the former Starcom MediaVest EMEA ceo, currently consulting at Aegis. He's said to be looking for a new challenge. More of that soon...