Backer Spielvogel Bates Worldwide, a unit of Saatchi & Saatchi, has dropped Backer Spielvogel and returned to basics as Bates Worldwide.

Bill Whitehead, chairman and chief executive officer of Bates Canada, says, that ‘going back to Bates, our heritage in Canada, makes us a more logically branded product than we were selling before.

‘While it was a huge agency in the u.s., there was no equity in the Backer & Spielvogel name in Canada,’ Whitehead says.

‘There wasn’t a Backer & Spielvogel here, but there was a Ted Bates, and our clients have always called us Bates,’ he says.

The recognition factor was the primary reason for the switch around the world.

About eight years ago, Saatchi bought u.s. agency Backer & Spielvogel and the larger Ted Bates Worldwide and merged them.

Although the company tried hard to establish the bsb brand, as in Canada, the Bates name persisted in having a higher recognition value outside of the u.s.

Bates has 185 offices in 65 countries, with annual billings totalling nearly $5.2 billion.