Atkinson: still thinking about his future. Photograph – Paul Hampton @ The Picture House

June 2002 will become renowned as one of the darkest months ever for the Scottish advertising industry as two of the industry’s once most respected advertising agencies close their doors, within weeks of each other, putting more than 25 people out of work.
McCann-Erickson Scotland is to close its doors in Scotland at the end of June making its ten staff redundant.
Close by in Edinburgh, Yellow M, established in Scotland in 1998, has been put into liquidation by its founder Mike Dethick, resulting in the redundancy of its 13 staff, after MBO talks fell through.
McCanns is understood to have been struggling for the last three years, prompting a decision by network bosses to cut its losses by closing the office after a six-month review. The agency has been hit by the departure of a number of clients, such as Highland Spring, but the most recent being Wimpey Homes which transferred its business to Oneagency earlier this month. The two staff employed by the firm’s PR operation will be transferred to Weber Shandwick, the sister company of McCann-Erickson.
Steve Mills, the agency’s former MD, quit the agency in November last year to be replaced by Will Atkinson, the only original partner of Williams Atkinson Mills – Williams having moved to Coltas and then on to The Glasgow Agency last year – which was merged with McCann’s Scottish office in 1998.
McCann’s growth in the UK has been through the Manchester, Birmingham and London offices, and while Sue Little, head of McCann’s regional network, said the Scottish business remained a player in the region, she admitted it had been largely dependent on business run out of McCann-Erickson Central in Birmingham.
Atkinson said: “It is a great disappointment to us all. The staff have been fantastic over the last six months and I cannot praise them highly enough. It is very early days yet and the first thing for me to do, after trying to look after the staff – but that will obviously be very hard to do – is to decide what I really want to do. I have had a few ideas.”
Other ad agencies approaching McCann’s clients, but have been told they do not need an agency sparking some speculation that a new agency could rise out of McCann’s.
Meanwhile Colin Marr has denied that Marr Associates is facing liquidation after press reports last weekend suggested the agency was in trouble.