Perhaps the best demonstration of how integrated

Perhaps the best demonstration of how integrated Butler, Shine’s model is came in the form of a somewhat backhanded compliment last year from executives at Coca-Cola’s Sprite: Having been awarded the interactive agency-of-record assignment for the brand in May 2005, the client “didn’t even know we had a traditional side of the business,” recalls Greg Stern, the shop’s chief executive.

But it was also proof that the strategy Butler, Shine had employed to build on its interactive expertise had worked: In 2003 it bought online specialist SF Interactive, then kept the brand alive, in name at least.