About Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO

Over the last 12 months, the agency have carried out three large company-wide team building events which have encouraged agency collaboration and engagement. AMV BBDGO was a large-scale fundraising event led by their internal group ‘Bud’, which seeks to grow charity in the agency. The event was a gigantic 842 mile and 24 leg relay from John O’Groats to the AMV London office and took place over six days. 412 AMVers took part, and 24 enthusiastic Team Leaders ensured each leg was completed, whether it was a 120 mile cycle through the Scottish hills, a 2.5 mile open water swim across Lake Windermere or a five mile doggy dash through Richmond Park. The whole event was shared with everyone in the agency via Twitter and Storyfy and resulted in an impressive £32,000 being raised for Brain Tumour Research. It also won the Employee Engagement case study in the Marketing Society awards.

AMV Grow saw 102 of their employees transform a neglected urban site into a community market garden over a two week period. This involved demolishing three garages, shifting 17 tonnes of soil and two tonnes of gravel, using 85 scaffold boards, 25 oil drums, 39 planters and planting over 380 plants. The project was in aid of the charity Tomorrow’s People, who work to rehabilitate ex-offenders and help the unemployed into work. Tomorrow’s People have now begun to place young people in horticultural training programmes on site. Secondly, AMV's charitable programme ‘Bud’ encourages AMVers to make a difference to the world we live in, by helping others realise their potential. Over the past 12 months, this has included working with school pupils to guide them with their career choices, providing work placements for disadvantaged young people, and providing interview and job application advice to homeless clients of charity Crisis. Coordinating large-scale fundraising events, such as AMV BBDGO – 412 AMVers took part in a long-distance relay which involved the entire agency and raised over £30,000 for Brain Tumour Research. Pro-bono brand consultancy for charities such as The Prince’s Trust and Mediatrust. AMV have a long-standing commitment to The Big House - a unique residential facility for London’s long term homeless. This ‘second stage house’ facilitates the final step back into mainstream society and is the result of a fifteen year innovative partnership between AMV and the West London Mission. AMV now act as an independent advisor for Social Work Mission and help with fundraising and branding advice.

Allowing the people of AMV to have a voice, is embedded in the company's culture. They have several processes in place to enable people to feedback ideas and suggestions. One example is the Account Management department suggestion box, in which everyone within that department is encouraged to post suggestions for improvements. The box is regularly checked and all suggestions are considered. Secondly, all employees at AMV have a free voice. It is engrained in their culture and everyone is supported and encouraged to share their ideas, thoughts and feedback to members of the management team. Thirdly, AMV use Survey Monkey surveys to conduct reviews of particular AMV offerings, which provides everyone with the opportunity to share anonymous feedback and insights and to share their thoughts on possible improvements.