HOMETOWN LONDON
The paucity of stories about Hometown London last year bore out Campaign’s prediction that the agency wouldn’t be capturing too many headlines.
Nothing wrong with that, of course. In fact, it may be the logical result of what’s still a relatively young agency quietly going about its business while it defines May5be its offering.
this helps explain a somewhat eclectic list of clients, ranging from pharmaceuticals company Perrigo, which last year appointed the agency to handle its psoriasis treatment Dermalex, to Yas, the man-made island in Abu Dhabi, and GLH, the owneroperator hotel chain.
Other recent arrivals offer the agency the opportunity to flex some creative muscle. Hometown joined the Whyte & Mackay roster in May with an assignment to promote its Jura whisky brand in the UK and the US using new and traditional media.
At the same time, the agency put down a significant TV marker at the year’s end with “Where extraordinary happens”, part of a multimillion- pound, multimedia push by Royal Caribbean, the cruise ship operator that dropped anchor at Hometown in 2015.
Perhaps the agency could now use a bit of help in reaching the next level. Hometown had hoped Mac Macdonald, former president and partner of Sid Lee Amsterdam, might be the one to help. He started as group chief executive of Start Group, which has a minority stake in Hometown, and then consulted with the agency towards the latter part of the year but it was not to be.
Based in London, Macdonald has been focusing initially on “developing opportunities” for the agencies under the Start wing.
Hometown regards 2016 as the year it grew up and prepared itself for “big school”. Whether or not big school is ready for Hometown remains to be seen.