DDB Worldwide

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DDB Worldwide Communications Group Inc, a part of Omnicom Group Inc., is the advertising agency company with highest revenue in the world at US$12.69 billion, according to Advertising Age's agency rankings (April 2008)^[1]. DDB is also cited as one of the leading creative agencies in the world by The Gunn Report (November 2007), The International Advertising Festival (June 2008), Campaign (November 2007), and Businessweek (February 2008). It has more than 200 offices in over 90 countries.

The DDB network serves a range of multinational clients, among them McDonald’s, Volkswagen, Royal Philips Electronics, Clorox, Anheuser-Busch, Johnson & Johnson, Henkel and ExxonMobil. DDB offers a range of services from traditional advertising to direct marketing, sales promotion, strategic consulting and digital marketing, through such business units as Rapp Collins, TracyLocke and Tribal DDB.

History

DDB was founded June 1, 1949, by James "Ned" Doyle, Maxwell (Mac) Dane, and William Bernbach as Doyle Dane Bernbach.

When the agency opened, it had a staff of 14, including Phyllis K. Robinson (who had previously worked with Ned Doyle at Grey Advertising), who was named 'Copy Chief'. Bill Bernbach is often credited with starting what came to be known in advertising circles as the Creative Revolution - primarily because of his previously unknown policy of creating creative teams consisting of both copywriter and art director. Prior to this, writers were chiefly responsible for creating the advertisements, who then handed their copy off to the art director, who would create the layout for the ad independently. With the closer integration of the art director, the ads themselves were able to become bolder, and with larger, more dramatic concepts.

DDB's "Daisy" ad is considered a factor in Lyndon B. Johnson's defeat of Barry Goldwater in the 1964 presidential election^[2] and landed Maxwell Dane on Nixon's Enemies List.

Notable output from DDB included 1959's "Think Small" Volkswagen advertisements, which was voted the No. 1 campaign of all time in Advertising Age’s 1999 “The Century of Advertising."^[3] DDB was the only agency to appear twice in the top ten; their 1963 campaign for Avis ("We Try Harder") was ranked tenth. In the 1970s, DDB also produced the "Mikey" ad for Life cereal, and the series of Polaroid One-Step Camera ads featuring the affectionate banter of James Garner and Mariette Hartley.

In 1986 DDB merged with Needham Harper Worldwide to form DDB Needham Worldwide, and in 1999 shortened its name to DDB Worldwide. (Needham Harper had done the 5th-ranked ad campaign of the century, McDonald’s “You Deserve a Break Today.”) Needham Harper's former CEO Keith Reinhard became the chairman and CEO of DDB, a position he held until 2002.

Recent work includes "Energizer" by DDB South Africa, "Whassup" and "Real Men of Genius" for Anheuser Busch, "shaveeverywhere.com" by Tribal DDB and DDB for Philips and "Monopoly Live" by DDB and Tribal DDB.

Controversy

In mid 2009, DDB Brazil was involved in an ad that depicted the September 11 attacks in contrast to a message from the World Wide Fund for Nature.^[4]

References

1. ^ Advertising Age's AGENCY FAMILY TREES 2008
2. ^ http://www.conelrad.com/daisy/daisy3.php
3. ^ http://www.weshow.com/top10/en/advertising/top-10-best-american-advertising-campaigns-of-the-20th-century
4. ^ http://industry.bnet.com/advertising/10003803/wwf-ad-shows-jets-about-to-hit-world-trade-center-towers-controversy-ensues/

External links

• Official site of DDB
• Site of Tribal DDB, the interactive agency of DDB Worldwide
• Official site of the U.S. DDB Offices
• DDB's creative work and company info