The Union Advertising Agency in Edinburgh welcomes a series of new client wins which will substantially reduce the effects of the impending departure of the £8 million Intelligent Finance account. The Union, which has over the last three years become Scotland’s most creative advertising agency, and scooped five Scottish IPA Effectiveness Awards this year, has recently won several substantial new assignments from a range of clients. These are worth in excess of £6 million in billings and include work from Scottish Executive, Sterling Furniture Group, Whyte & Mackay and James Hardie (a US building products company). The Union employs over 60 people across its multi-disciplinary divisions in Edinburgh and Leeds. Managing Director Ian McAteer stresses that the recent successes mean the company is in a strong position despite IF’s decision. “It”s fair to say that a year ago, we would have been more reliant on Intelligent Finance from a financial point of view. However, in the face of what has been a tough year for Scottish agencies, we have secured several major new business wins in the last few months, hired a number of high-calibre individuals from top London agencies, and we are optimistic about the future.” Commenting on IF’s decision to progress with an as yet unnamed London agency, McAteer said: “We are very proud of our record on IF. We created the brand, which research has shown has a powerful name, and despite the bank’s IT problems at the outset, we helped the new bank take a significant share of the UK mortgage market. After three years, unlike many other new banks, IF has delivered on its break-even target, and our marketing efforts have been shortlisted for the prestigious Marketing Week Effectiveness Awards this week.” On the pitch itself he commented, “At the presentations we gave our all, and I am very proud of our team. We delivered some top class strategic and creative proposals, which were validated by independent research. We couldn’t have done any more. I was also touched by the number of good wishes we received from across the industry in Scotland. But change is part of our business and we will now move on. We wish the team at IF, and their new agency, great success. It’s a fabulous brand and a great product.”  On the outlook for 2004, McAteer was optimistic. “Despite the downturn, throughout 2002 and 2003 we have resisted cutting staff numbers, as our belief is that our people are our only assets. However we will now have to make some redundancies, but these will be in single figures, thanks to our new wins.”