Focus, Omnicom U.K. Ally Acquire Shell Chemicals

The Focus Agency here and pitch partner Maher Bird Associates of London topped three other finalists to land advertising duties for Shell Chemicals.
Sources said Focus received word of its selection last Wednesday and will meet with Shell executives in coming weeks to begin mapping out strategic issues and preliminary advertising plans. Annual billings are undisclosed but will likely exceed $10 million.
Focus president Mark Miller referred calls to the client in London. Shell officials could not be reached, and review consultant Ann Iverson of Creating Selling Opportunities in Houston did not return calls.
Left behind were three other American shops and their London-area partners: Bates Southwest, Houston, with Bates Dorland; BBDO South, Atlanta, with Clarke Hooper Consulting; and Ketchum Advertising, Pittsburgh, with TBWA Payne Stracey.
Initial spending in this country will likely be $5-10 million–the figure proposed last year when the client began shopping what was then a U.S.-only