1986
Staffan Forsman, Sven-Olof Bodenfors, Mikko Timonen and Jonas Enghage start F&B in Gothenburg with the dream to build an agency that can measure itself against the best in the country.
1988
The Gothenburg Post becomes a new client. Today, 20 years later, it is still one of our most vital and successful collaborations.
1989
F&B achieves the (nearly) impossible and wins a client in Stockholm. It was Semper that disregarded geography and gave us the Frödinge Ostkaka (cheesecake) account. Kalles Caviar, a Swedish icon, was another important success.
1990
The campaign for Frödinge Ostkaka wins a Golden Egg and suddenly we're on the map. About the same time (somewhat shockingly) we become the lead agency for Volvo in Scandinavia.
1991
Our very first film advertising (for Frödinge Ostkaka) debuts at the movies. We resign from the Volvo account and win instead Renault and the Milk Council.
1992
We get the first Scandinavian account for Lindex, the agency's biggest project to date. In addition we win Mer, Toy and a big portion of Swedish Post. At the end of the year we have 22 employees.
1993
We become the lead agency for both Arla and Swedish Post. The Stockholm barrier is definitely broken. At the end of the year the sale campaign for Heland Wetterling Gallery shakes up the Swedish art world.
1994
F&B becomes lead agency for Volvo Cars in Sweden with Olle Söderberg as head. At the Golden Egg we get Golds for both Wetterling and MER. At the end of the year we're for the first time awarded best agency in Sweden by Monthly Affairs magazine.
1995
"Raped by a Prince", the campaign for A Smoke-free Generation, makes headlines both at home and in Denmark - it becomes Sweden's most reported-on advertising ever. The campaigns for Volvo and Wetterling win Golden Eggs and by the end of the year the agency's revenues have risen 40 percent in a single calendar year.
1996
The agency (finally) gets a chance to be lead agency for IKEA, and gets a veritable shower of prizes from around the world thanks to (among others) Arla and Volvo. For the third year in a row we are ranked as number one in Sweden and in addition are able to open a tactical sister company - Force.
1997
Libero diapers (SCA Hygiene Products) becomes our first large international account - we have responsibility for all of Europe. After successes in Sweden Volvo also gives us an international assignment with a European focus. We go from 8 to 13 equal partners and at the end of the year we start-up the Happy/F&B design agency.
1998
A creative world breakthrough, you could say. Six Lions in Cannes (two of them gold) and a whole host of other honors through the year make a big splash. Revenues continue to rise at a good pace - topping 167 million Swedish crowns.
1999
In tough competition with among others BBH and Abbot Mead Vickers in London we win the European account for Libresse pads (SCA Hygiene Products). Volvo chooses two agencies to take charge of global communications, MBVMS in New York and F&B in Gothenburg. Shortly thereafter we are chosen Scandinavian Agency by the newly started insurance company If and we win Comviq's mobile communications account. In Golden Eggs we achieve an all-time high of 37 nominations - not to mention a Gold to the folk hero Lotto-Åke. On New Year's Day revenues are up to 212 million Swedish crowns, a 27 percent increase.
2000
The outstanding success of Libero diapers gets rewarded. We get Gold at the EuroEffie for the year's most effective multi-national campaign, the best prize we've ever gotten. We also decide to resign from the international Volvo account (our largest client) as it has gotten to be more about politics than effective communications. We part as friends, however and F&B continues with the Scandinavian Volvo account. In the fall we launch another sister company, F&B Kollo, which works with retail strategy.
2001
Campaign magazine describes its own global dream network and names F&B be the agency of choice in Scandinavia. Here at home we're chosen as Sweden's best agency for the eighth year in a row. We (finally) open an office in Stockholm, the group of partners grows to 23 and we win a number of new accounts: JC, Bon Aqua, IKEA in Holland and Tele2 in Scandinavia (an expansion of our collaboration with Comviq).
2002
Dagens Industri chooses (with help from a survey of marketing heads) F&B for best Swedish company in the marketing category. Systembolaget, Poolia and Spero Spel are new clients. Internationally it's our best year yet. We get second place in European Agency of the Year and the Gunn Report ranks us as the 12th best agency globally. No Swedish agency has previously gotten close.
2003
The launch campaign for Volvo XC90 is awarded with a Gold Lion and wins the Grand Prize at both the Cannes Lions and New York Festivals. Our tactical tool at F&B Force is folded into the agency to increase the integration of our operations. We separate from Libresse and take on new clients Gothenburg Film Festival, Swedish Television, AMF and Statoil. We place again in the Gunn Report and now are just one of 15 agencies that have showed up every year since the start. In November we grow the company's leadership - after 17 years Sven-Olof Bodenfors takes a step back, Filip Nilsson becomes the new chairman of the board, and Erik Sollenberg takes over as CEO.
2004
In April we move in to our Stockholm digs at Kungsgatan and finally have room to grow. Now there are 14 of us on board in Stockholm - we take on new collaborations with Wasa bread and Specsavers, among others. Economically, it is one of our strongest years to date.
2005
Two new clients are welcomed: Swedish Radio and Specsavers Holland - at the same time we separate from the relatively big accounts JC and If insurance. In spite of this we're in a big growth phase and become over 80 employees at F&B.
2006
We're proud to add both Apoteket and Ving to our client list. In addition, our account with Tele2 expands to include all of Europe. In The Golden Egg we get our best results ever, 3 Golds and 6 Silvers. Almost as great is that The One Report ranks us as the world's fifth best web agency - even though we're not a web agency. And at the end of the year we start the SMFB agency in Oslo together with a number of Norwegian colleagues. The long-term goal is to build one of Norway's best agencies.
2007
The IKEA account grows as we take on more international projects, including in the U.S. By the end of the year we're more than 100 employees working at the agency and approximately 150 if we count all the F&B companies. It's a boom in Sweden and the rest of the world and economically we're doing better than ever. Turnover rises 27% to 329 million Swedish crowns and revenue is up 10 percent to 146 million Swedish crowns. NCC, Bris and Parlino are new clients. F&B is ranked as the world's third best web agency by both The One Report and The Gunn Report. And even at Cannes we're awarded third-best agency, we're pretty pleased.
2008
We install ourselves in our new, wonderful and practically totally orange digs in both Gothenburg and Stockholm. It's like a huge daily dose of vitamins. At the Golden Egg we don't take home gold, but we're rewarded instead with a Grand Prix at Cannes for AMF's MMS campaign. Together with Anders Björkqvist we start F&B Inhouse, a new F&B subsidiary. Svenska Spel, COOP, and Västtrafik are new assignments for us.
2009
We launch the new fb.se. The site quickly draws attention and wins several awards. Silver at Cannes for example.
For the third consecutive year Thenetworkone and Campaign appoints 16 agencies as "The World's Leading Independent Agencies." F&B is one of those agencies. Other international achievements are Grand Prix and Gold in Epica for the Swedish Church's Campaign for Prayers.
Our campaign for Apoteket and Apoliva raises strong emotions, especially on Facebook where groups with several thousand members is formed.
New customers during the year is Komplett.se, Frödinge, Preem, EON, KappAhl, Collector and Triss.
2010
This is the year when we are appointed as the world's best digital agency by The Gunn Report. According to Cannes we are the world's third best independent agency. And it is a good year. Especially for IKEA Facebook Showroom which wins both Gold and Titanium in Cannes and gold in The One Show and Eurobest.
We take a walk down that good old memory lane when IKEA dream kitchen is rated as one of the world's top ten digital campaigns throughout the decade by The One Club.
We start to work with Akademiska Hus, Findus and we welcome If back as a client again.