Italian agency Armando Testa has reshaped its London operation around ex-AMV BBDO staffers Walter Campbell, Sean Doyle and David Dye.

Campbell is known for his heavy creative hitting for Guinness, with nifty ads like "Surfer" and "Bet On Black" (with ex-partner, now director Tom Carty) and "Dream Club" under his well-tooled belt.

The new arm of the expanding Armando Testa network will be known as CDD Testa and will also comprise Stefan Hohmann, ex of Legas Delaney, Alison Hoad from Lowe, and former AMV new business director Caspar Thykier.

Armando Testa, owned by Marco Testa is an established shop in Italy and has recently begun to roll out over Europe, opening offices in Paris, Frankfurt, Brussels, Madrid and Athens in the last two years.

"The reason we were able to do this is that the philosophy of Testa and the philosophy of this team of people are very similar, based on high quality creativity, strategic thinking and client service," says director of international operations David Gray of the new London operation.

"If you talk about large networks, everyone is in frantic acquisition or merger mode, on one hand, and on the other hand, particularly in the UK, there have been a lot of independent start-ups. We believe there is a position in the middle of that in Europe and globally for a high quality network."