Grey wins 8m Allergan account

Grey Advertising has won the 8m advertising account for Allergan contact lens solutions across Europe.

The win follows a two-way pitch, which also involved Saatchi & Saatchi’s healthcare division. The incumbent, London-based Innovation Advertising, had held the account for over two years.

Grey chief executive Steve Blamer says: “I can confirm that we are in final contractual negotiations with Allergan.”

The company has not done much advertising in the UK recently – it spent about 250,000 in 1997. The new campaign is expected to break at the beginning of next year.

Ogilvy & Mather won the 2m Allergan northern European account in 1994 after a two-way pitch against incumbent WCRS. However, the account was handed to Innovations about a year later.

Grey announced plans to merge with subsidiary agency Mellors Reay & Partners last week and has made 20 staff at Grey redundant this week.

Grey’s operations director Chris Loizides, is one of the casualties. Loizides was appointed to serve on the executive management committee alongside executive creative director Paul Smith and four other directors last year. Smith has been axed to make way for Tim Mellors, the creative head of Mellors Reay.

The rest of the 20 redundancies are from the administration and IT departments.

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