DDFH&B Group chairman Jim Donnelly is known in the business as a quietly-spoken man. But while he prefers to whisper than shout, anyone who equates his low tone for a lack of resolve does so at their peril. Not one to suffer fools gladly, his modest almost shy demeanour might be interpreted as a useful disguise amid the louder voices in adland.

The chatter from a group seated in one part of the foyer of the Conrad hotel was a signal to move somewhere less noisy. Trying to decipher what Donnelly has to say can be a strain on the ears at the best of times but having to do so while men in snazzy suits hold high-decibel negotiations within smiling distance seemed a waste of time and coffee.

The interview was to discuss DDFH&B. For some time now, Donnelly & Co shied away from the media glare. Industry matters were out there which Donnelly had taken issue with but he and his colleagues in Christchurch Square chose to hold their fire. DDFH&B has been otherwise preoccupied with clients and their profile had dipped as a result.

Donnelly was joined by Miriam Hughes, managing director of DDFH&B Advertising and Gary Brown, chief executive of RMG Target and the group's below the line division. Decorum restored and coffee served, we began to hear each other. Donnelly, a fan of Manchester United, was still gloating over his team's win over Arsenal the day before. Turning to less contentious matters, Donnelly remarked: “The creative part of the business employs more people and its fortunes don't co-relate exactly to the media spends. Last year our fees wouldn't have declined in proportion to the fall in media spend – lots of different reasons for that but it's a fact. We fell about ten per cent last year.”

Donnelly spoke with a number of agencies, but mostly those from the larger shops and all of them said much the same thing, perhaps with a bit more of a drop than DDFH&B. “Certainly, the ones I spoke to weren't talking about 40 to 50 per cent declines,” he said. “As a rule of thumb, if we don't add 15 per cent of new business every year we'll decline.

“You need 15 per cent to stay still – in the best of times. So for anyone who didn't get new business last year and had their declines, they could be down by 30 or 40 per cent. Those are the people who have tended to be the most vociferous.” Donnelly was criticised for making his point and one person accused him of ‘pissing on everyone else'.

But at the risk of being called old-fashioned he reckons that it is that type of attitude that's “pissing on everyone else” by talking the business down and being irresponsible. Hughes agrees. She said that while pockets in the industry might be down considerably, adland overall has had a tough year, but nothing as bad as some people might suggest.

DD's (or the Alphabet Agency), as it's sometimes casually referred to in the business, has long been regarded as one of adland's best achievers. Set up in 1983 by four former Arrow executives – Donnelly, Padraig Doyle, Ken Flynn and Gerry Hanlon – along with Jerry Brannelly, ex-Lintas, the new agency got off the starting blocks with great gusto.

Nurturing a reputation for new business and creativity, the diminutive Brannelly was its feisty talisman while Donnelly calmly steered operations and sealed deals. The other three directors focused on creative. In the 1990s, DDFH&B won the Marketing Advertising Agency of the Year twice and in most other years was a close runner-up.

The DDFH&B name has been a regular on pitch lists for lucrative accounts, the one exception being government and semi-state business (the agency handled Fine Gael for some years during Brannelly's time but the relationship ended unceremoniously with the infamous ‘Snail' campaign). As with any agency pitching a lot, the strike rate has varied.

But while results have ebbed and flowed, in recent years, DDFH&B has handled such high-profile accounts as Vodafone, National Lottery, Bord G