Neil Griffiths, chief executive of BDH\\TBWA, has dramatically left the agency, following decisions by both Morrisons and ATS Euromaster to move their accounts out of the Manchester-based agency.
TBWA\\Manchester’s group business development director, Carol Smith has also left the business.
Griffiths has since been replaced by TBWA\\London’s client services director, Robert Harwood-Matthews, who has taken over with immediate effect. In the role, Harwood-Matthews will work closely with managing director Nick Brookes and chairman Martin Kemp, who hailed the appointment as signalling \"an exciting new era for BDH.\"
He added: \"I am confident his dynamism and strategic input will be beneficial to the whole TBWA\\Manchester group and out clients alike.\"
Harwood-Matthews, 35, has held senior positions with both Publicis and JWT, but is looking forward to his new challenge. \"I want to make BDH famous. The agency hasn’t been shouting loud enough recently. We should be holding conversations about what’s going on in the industry and that’s what I intend to do.\"
Harwood-Matthews was responsible for a team of 55 in London and was responsible for the Playstation account. However, he’s enthusiastic about the offer his new agency provides. He said: \"I’ve been very impressed with the level of creativity in BDH. Coming from Playstation tup to Manchester you think you’d be be doing a lot of retail work but no. The strength of ideas and the level of polish on the executions is really impressive. We’ve got a great reel\"