The ad-man cometh

On paper, it was a match made in hell: two of London's most established advertising agencies forced into a reluctant union by their parent company, Interpublic.

On paper, it was a match made in hell: two of London's most established advertising agencies forced into a reluctant union by their parent company, Interpublic.

Lowe Howard-Spink had a reputation as a highly political agency who tended to value the aesthetic high ground over clients' deadlines and budgets.

Ammirati Puris Lintas, meanwhile, was known as a dull agency that, despite obliging its clients' every whim, had managed to lose some of its biggest accounts. Without a merger, its survival was in doubt.

So, when Lowe met Lintas to form London's second-biggest agency a year ago, sparks were bound to fly. But no one expected those sparks to ignite the creative and business success that, last week, earned the merged agency, Lowe Lintas, the coveted accolade of Campaign's agency of the year.

Charles Inge is the creative brains behind the new agency. His personal portfolio is among the best in the business and includes such gems as the Tesco "Every little helps" campaign and the Stella Artois "Reassuringly expensive" television work.

But it is as a creative leader that he has really made his mark. Last year, against the odds, his department churned out a series of advertising gems that left the competition standing. The "Withabix"/ "Withoutabix" campaign for Weetabix helped the brand to beat Kellogg's Corn Flakes to become the UK's number one cereal; Tesco won the IPA grand prix for advertising effectiveness; and Stella Artois won the print grand prix at the Cannes Advertising Festival for the second year in a row.

The year ended on a high, with the new Reebok "Whatever your goal" advert (the one with the giant, disembodied beer belly chasing a jogger), which brought the brand back to life after years in the shade.

Inge, who has worked at Lowe for 15 years, had first to overcome his own prejudices about Lintas. "I wouldn't have hired people from Lintas before the merger, and I wouldn't have wanted to work for the agency myself," he admits. "But I was scrupulously fair about giving everyone the same opportunities, and the Lintas people turned out to be some of my best teams."

There's nothing like a forced merger to knock the arrogance out of you. He told his department: "I don't want to hear anything about the past. We are a new agency. If we focus on the work, everything else will come." And in true advertising style, his first move was to take all 50 employees to the pub and get them plastered.

On day one, every member of staff was given a box containing a sample of every brand on the client list. "It's like a sweetshop for creatives here," Inge says, "there are so many brands to play with."

Inge, who has the quiet good manners and subdued dress of an academic, works on one basic principle: "We don't try to be different; we try to be better."

His beliefs will be put to the test in the spring, when the agency's new work for Orange - the £30m account that they won after a gruelling six-month pitch last year - appears on our screens. "Orange has a strong tone of voice, but the ads don't really say anything," Inge reasons. "We will make them mean something."

Last year's goal was to build the agency. This year, the goal is to make the work excellent on every account - Lowe Lintas certainly didn't win the Campaign prize for its universally irritating Vauxhall ads starring Griff Rhys Jones. "That's one of the tasks for this year," he mumbles; "it will stop."

There is still a queue of famous brands waiting for the Inge magic: Quality Street, Aero, Saab and Birds Eye Wall's are all Lowe Lintas clients with mediocre ad campaigns.

"You could spend a century getting all the ads as good as the brands they promote," Inge admits, in a tone that makes it quite clear what his plans are for the next 100 years.

Not that he has always been this dedicated to advertising. Inge left Oxford with a first-class degree in fine art, set for the Royal College of Art and life as a painter. But his girlfriend (now his wife) wanted to be an advertising copywriter, and she needed an art director quickly.

Inge obligingly filled the void and found he enjoyed it. "Being a painter is lonely and directionless," he says. "It's up to you what you draw, and no one cares if you don't do it. I like the structure and discipline of advertising - it's like being a court painter."

Suddenly, he volunteers: "Because we are so big, we have a duty to do good ads. An agency this size gets into people's living-rooms so much that we have to do good work. Every good ad is good for our business, and every bad ad is a chip off the block of advertising."

Inge has set himself a hard task, but he is determined to keep the Lowe Lintas momentum going. He concludes: "In 15 years, Lowes has never felt so dynamic. It would have been an interesting year however it had gone, but I have been pleasantly surprised. Change is good."