"A visual style is very much an Italian style in the sense that we don't have fantastic ideas over here," says managing director Federico Fasolino. "Everybody relies on execution. If [the ideas] are not so good, we make them beautiful."

Work for clients like Campari and BMW are indicative of the company's deft visual skills. "The Duel" for Campari, directed by Tarsem, is a well-orchestrated cinematic spot wherein two would-be lovers fight over a beautiful woman in a limo and her Campari. Beautiful people are also the pivotal aspect of "Hair" for Audi A 2. And "Face Lifting" for BMW Serie 3 is a picturesque urban journey, though a little light in concept, both by Federico Brugia.

However, recent work for MTV (directed by Pino Rozzi and Roberto Bataglia) and Posta Prioritaria stand out as concept - and visual-heavy, as does the Pena di Morte PSA. "Businessman" for Post Prioritaria, directed by Alessandro D'Alatri, weaves a tale of a man who is jarred from his busy schedule when he opens an apparent ransom note from his son demanding that he return home, underlining the point that the post is still an effective way to communicate. In a similarly narrative way, a PSA against the death penalty effectively points out the finality of the punishment as an already-dead prisoner narrates the story of his wrongful conviction. The MTV work is oddly didactic in that social outcasts demonstrate ways of staying unpopular - like rubbing a dead fish over one's body as cologne ("Fish") or hermetically sealing a kitchen before indulging in a very large pot of baked beans ("Beans").

As a company, BRW produces nearly 100 commercials per year, and along with fellow production powerhouse Filmmaster, takes up a large portion of the Italian spot market share. It represents six Italian directors worldwide and has a large roster of foreign directors it represents for the Italian market.

European expansion plans are on the horizon for BRW, says Fasolino. In the wake of Propaganda US's demise, BRW gained full ownership of Propaganda UK - it formerly held a 51 per cent stake - and is creating a new company (though no name was available at press time) that will be a combination of Propaganda UK, German production company Petersen Naumann, of which BRW has 100 per cent ownership, and will have an additional office in Paris.

Despite plans to take the company public last year, BRW maintains private ownership. Fasolino says BRW decided to hold off on its IPO when the market started to fall, a move that proved prudent in hindsight, though he says plans to go public still exist, if market conditions are right.

"The plan to go public is still there," he continues. "We are ready to go if the market returns to some sense of normality. Otherwise, we will keep on waiting."

In the meantime, BRW's dance card is busy with several new projects in the offing, including a Barila campaign to be shot in South Africa by Wim Wenders, a BMW 5 Serie project with Tony Kaye, a new worldwide Pirelli campaign to be directed by Lourens van Rensburg and work for Mitsubishi with Italian directing team Bosi and Sironi.