DDB Worldwide
Encyclopedia
DDB Worldwide Communications Group Inc., known internationally as DDB, is a worldwide marketing communications network. It is owned by Omnicom Group Inc, one of the world's largest advertising holding companies (revenues US$12.69B according to Advertising Age
in April 2008). The owners of the international advertising agency groups Doyle Dane Bernbach, Needham Harper and BBDO
merged their shareholdings in 1986 to form the holding company Omnicom. At that point Doyle Dane Bernbach and Needham Harper merged their worldwide network agency operations to become DDB Needham. Since 1996 that network has been known as DDB Worldwide. DDB has been cited as one of the leading creative agencies in the world by the Gunn Report
(Nov 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010), the International Advertising Festival (June 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011), Campaign (Nov 2007, Nov 2010), Spikes Asia (September 2010) Campaign Asia Pacific (December 2010, Businessweek (Feb 2008) and Global Effies/WARC (June 2011)as well as European AME awards (2011).
worked together at Grey Advertising in New York where Bernbach was Creative Director. In 1949 they teamed up with Mac Dane
who was running a tiny agency and together they started Doyle Dane Bernbach in Manhattan
. Dane ran the administrative and promotional aspects of the business; Doyle had a client focus and Bernbach played an integral role in the writing of advertising, serving as the creative engine of the agency.
The agency's first ads were for Ohrbach's department store and they typified the new "soft-sell" approach using catchy slogans and witty humour in contrast to the repetition and hard-sell advertising that was in vogue until then. The new agency was initially successful in winning business for clients with small budgets. Their campaigns for Volkswagen throughout the 1950s and 1960s were said to have revolutionized advertising. Notable campaigns included the 1959 Think Small
series of Volkswagen
advertisements, which was voted the No. 1 campaign of all time in Advertising Age’s 1999 The Century of Advertising. In 1960 the agency won the account of Avis, then the number-two auto rental company. The tongue-in-cheek approach "We Try Harder Because We're Number 2" was a major success.The DDB Daisy ad is considered a significant factor in Lyndon B. Johnson
's defeat of Barry Goldwater
in the 1964 presidential election and landed Maxwell Dane on the infamous Nixon's Enemies List
. 1972's Little Mikey
commercial for Quaker Oats ran continuously in the U.S for twelve years.
A branch office was opened in Los Angeles in 1954. In 1961 DDB opened its first international office in West Germany to service Volkswagen. Significant growth came in the mid-sixties after the firm signed Mobil Oil and the available budgets grew materially. Offices in London and other European locations were opened. Bernbach was appointed Chairman and Chief Executive Officer in 1968 when the agency was publicly listed; he became Chairman of the Executive Committee in 1976.
The impact of Doyle Dane Bernbach's creativity on advertising around the world, and the history of management crises that led to merger in 1986, are detailed in the book Nobody's Perfect: Bill Bernbach and the Golden Age of Advertising. Written by journalist Doris Willens, who served as DDB's Director of Public Relations for 18 years, the book is based on oral histories and interviews with the three founders, the line of the agency's presidents, and key creative and account people. By 1986, four years after Bernbach's death, the agency group had worldwide billings of US$1.67B, 54 offices in 19 countries and 3,400 employees but showed profits declining 30% on the prior year.
account and had opened a Hollywood office to service its clients' network radio program production needs.
In 1951 the agency opened a New York office to concentrate on the rapidly expanding television industry. That office merged with Doherty, Clifford, Steers and Shenfield in 1965 and changed its name to Needham, Harper & Steers. The Chicago office grew with accounts such as the Morton Company, Household Finance Corporation, General Mills
and Frigidaire
. The firm won the Oklahoma gasoline account (later Esso, today ExxonMobil
) after research indicated that American drivers wanted both power and play, and copywriter Sandy Sulcer
working with psychologist Ernest Dichter
chose the tiger
to symbolize that desire which led to the campaign Put a Tiger in Your Tank. In 1966 the agency opened a Los Angeles
office to handle the Continental Airlines
business. An office was opened in Washington D.C in 1971 initially to service some local McDonald's
business. Soon this agency was winning government and media business and an "Issues and Images" division was opened to service corporate public relations. This business would eventually become Biederman & Company. The agency worked on public service campaign
s called Buckle Up for Safety as well as a traffic safety campaign entitled Watch Out For The Other Guy for the Advertising Council
.
Keith L. Reinhard came from Chicago to head the worldwide firm in 1982 and by 1986 there were thirty two offices outside the US; American offices in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Washington, Boston Phoenix, Sacramento, San Diego, Baltimore and Dayton, Ohio; and diversification in Porter Novelli
, Biederman & Company and the international direct-response agency DR Group, Inc.
president Allen Rosenshine about a merger and included the then fragile Doyle Dane Bernbach business in the discussions. The three networks agreed to merge into the Omnicom Group which would act as a holding company becoming at that time the world's largest global advertising agency group. BBDO remained separate and retained its network. Needham Harper had a good presence in midwest USA and was complemented by Doyle Dane Bernbach's strength in New York and Europe. Reinhard became Chairman and CEO of the merged DDB Needham Worldwide. The merged group suffered some initial account losses due to conflicts (DDB's Volkswagen was retained and Needham's Honda account lost while DDB's RJR Nabisco was lost in favour of Needham's General Mills) and some senior staff losses as Reinhard set about combining the two disparate cultures, but by 1988 the firm was having success in winning significant new business and has continued to grow since then.
In 1998 (having by then dropped the Needham from its name) DDB Worldwide was named Advertising Age's first-ever "Global Network of the Year". In 2003 it earned that same accolade from both Advertising Age and Adweek and again from Adweek in 2004. Subsequently, its operating unit Tribal DDB became the first digital agency to be named Global Network of the Year by Advertising Age. As of 2011 DDB Worldwide has more than 200 offices in 95 countries. Its worldwide CEO since 2006 is Tenneseean, Charles E Brymer, author of "The Nature of Marketing, Marketing to the Herd as well as the Swarm."
, NH&S acquired the Benson interest in the Australian operation resulting in a name change to USP Needham from 1972. The 1986 creation of the Omnicom holding company saw a worldwide merger of Needham and the Doyle Dane Bernbach operations (in Australia a merger between USP Needham and the DDB operation "Magnus Nankervis & Curl/DDB") with the operation becoming known as DDB Needham from 1986, and later as DDB Worldwide from 1998.
Australian agencies acquired by USP Needham or Doyle Dane Bernbach and which can trace their lineage to today's DDB Australian group operation include: the Sydney agencies SPASM; Bartlett, Murphy and McKenzie; Harriman and Hill; Beeby Advertising; Magnus, Nankervis & Curl and the Melbourne agencies Hyde Everett Fuller Kutt; Leonardi & Curtis; Walker Herbert & Associates; Nowland, Robinson & Perret; Kuczynski & Zeigler; Whybin Dery Barnes.
Advertising Age
Advertising Age is a magazine, delivering news, analysis and data on marketing and media. The magazine was started as a broadsheet newspaper in Chicago in 1930...
in April 2008). The owners of the international advertising agency groups Doyle Dane Bernbach, Needham Harper and BBDO
BBDO
BBDO is a worldwide advertising agency network, with its headquarters in New York City. The agency began in 1891 with George Batten's Batten Company, and later in 1928, through a merger of BDO and Batten Co. the agency became BBDO...
merged their shareholdings in 1986 to form the holding company Omnicom. At that point Doyle Dane Bernbach and Needham Harper merged their worldwide network agency operations to become DDB Needham. Since 1996 that network has been known as DDB Worldwide. DDB has been cited as one of the leading creative agencies in the world by the Gunn Report
Gunn Report
The Gunn Report and Showreel of the Year is an annual publication detailing the most successful print and television advertising campaigns of the year. It is authored by Donald Gunn and Emma Wilkie...
(Nov 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010), the International Advertising Festival (June 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011), Campaign (Nov 2007, Nov 2010), Spikes Asia (September 2010) Campaign Asia Pacific (December 2010, Businessweek (Feb 2008) and Global Effies/WARC (June 2011)as well as European AME awards (2011).
Doyle Dane Bernbach
Bill Bernbach and Ned DoyleJames Edwin Doyle
James Edwin "Ned" Doyle was an American advertising executive and a co-founder of the Doyle Dane Bernbach agency established in Manhattan in 1949 and known as DDB. This agency, which he founded with Mac Dane and Bill Bernbach, bears the initials of the last name of each...
worked together at Grey Advertising in New York where Bernbach was Creative Director. In 1949 they teamed up with Mac Dane
Maxwell Dane
Maxwell "Mac" Dane was an American advertising executive and co-founder of the Doyle Dane Bernbach agency, known as DDB, that was established in Manhattan in 1949. For advertising against U.S...
who was running a tiny agency and together they started Doyle Dane Bernbach in Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
. Dane ran the administrative and promotional aspects of the business; Doyle had a client focus and Bernbach played an integral role in the writing of advertising, serving as the creative engine of the agency.
The agency's first ads were for Ohrbach's department store and they typified the new "soft-sell" approach using catchy slogans and witty humour in contrast to the repetition and hard-sell advertising that was in vogue until then. The new agency was initially successful in winning business for clients with small budgets. Their campaigns for Volkswagen throughout the 1950s and 1960s were said to have revolutionized advertising. Notable campaigns included the 1959 Think Small
Think Small
Think Small was an advertising campaign for the Volkswagen Beetle, created by Julian Koenig at the Doyle Dane Bernbach agency in the 1950s. It was ranked as the best advertising campaign of the twentieth century by Ad Age, in a survey of North American advertisements...
series of Volkswagen
Volkswagen
Volkswagen is a German automobile manufacturer and is the original and biggest-selling marque of the Volkswagen Group, which now also owns the Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, SEAT, and Škoda marques and the truck manufacturer Scania.Volkswagen means "people's car" in German, where it is...
advertisements, which was voted the No. 1 campaign of all time in Advertising Age’s 1999 The Century of Advertising. In 1960 the agency won the account of Avis, then the number-two auto rental company. The tongue-in-cheek approach "We Try Harder Because We're Number 2" was a major success.The DDB Daisy ad is considered a significant factor in Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon Baines Johnson , often referred to as LBJ, was the 36th President of the United States after his service as the 37th Vice President of the United States...
's defeat of Barry Goldwater
Barry Goldwater
Barry Morris Goldwater was a five-term United States Senator from Arizona and the Republican Party's nominee for President in the 1964 election. An articulate and charismatic figure during the first half of the 1960s, he was known as "Mr...
in the 1964 presidential election and landed Maxwell Dane on the infamous Nixon's Enemies List
Nixon's Enemies List
Nixon’s Enemies List is the informal name of what started as a list of President of the United States Richard Nixon’s major political opponents compiled by Charles Colson, written by George T. Bell , and sent in memorandum form to John Dean on September 9, 1971...
. 1972's Little Mikey
Little Mikey
Little Mikey was a character of a young boy played by John Gilchrist in an American television commercial created by art director Bob Gage and copywriter Edie Mann of the Doyle Dane Bernbach agency for Quaker Oats to promote their breakfast cereal, Life.First airing in 1972, the popular commercial...
commercial for Quaker Oats ran continuously in the U.S for twelve years.
A branch office was opened in Los Angeles in 1954. In 1961 DDB opened its first international office in West Germany to service Volkswagen. Significant growth came in the mid-sixties after the firm signed Mobil Oil and the available budgets grew materially. Offices in London and other European locations were opened. Bernbach was appointed Chairman and Chief Executive Officer in 1968 when the agency was publicly listed; he became Chairman of the Executive Committee in 1976.
The impact of Doyle Dane Bernbach's creativity on advertising around the world, and the history of management crises that led to merger in 1986, are detailed in the book Nobody's Perfect: Bill Bernbach and the Golden Age of Advertising. Written by journalist Doris Willens, who served as DDB's Director of Public Relations for 18 years, the book is based on oral histories and interviews with the three founders, the line of the agency's presidents, and key creative and account people. By 1986, four years after Bernbach's death, the agency group had worldwide billings of US$1.67B, 54 offices in 19 countries and 3,400 employees but showed profits declining 30% on the prior year.
Needham Harper & Steers
Needham Harper Worldwide started in Chicago in 1925 as Maurice H. Needham Co with two clients and billings totaling $270,000. By 1934 it was named Needham, Louis and Brorby, Inc. with billings of $1 million, had signed the Kraft FoodsKraft Foods
Kraft Foods Inc. is an American confectionery, food and beverage conglomerate. It markets many brands in more than 170 countries. 12 of its brands annually earn more than $1 billion worldwide: Cadbury, Jacobs, Kraft, LU, Maxwell House, Milka, Nabisco, Oscar Mayer, Philadelphia, Trident, Tang...
account and had opened a Hollywood office to service its clients' network radio program production needs.
In 1951 the agency opened a New York office to concentrate on the rapidly expanding television industry. That office merged with Doherty, Clifford, Steers and Shenfield in 1965 and changed its name to Needham, Harper & Steers. The Chicago office grew with accounts such as the Morton Company, Household Finance Corporation, General Mills
General Mills
General Mills, Inc. is an American Fortune 500 corporation, primarily concerned with food products, which is headquartered in Golden Valley, Minnesota, a suburb of Minneapolis. The company markets many well-known brands, such as Betty Crocker, Yoplait, Colombo, Totinos, Jeno's, Pillsbury, Green...
and Frigidaire
Frigidaire
Frigidaire is a brand of consumer and commercial appliances. Frigidaire was founded as the Guardian Frigerator Company in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and developed the first self-contained refrigerator in 1916. In 1918, William C...
. The firm won the Oklahoma gasoline account (later Esso, today ExxonMobil
ExxonMobil
Exxon Mobil Corporation or ExxonMobil, is an American multinational oil and gas corporation. It is a direct descendant of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil company, and was formed on November 30, 1999, by the merger of Exxon and Mobil. Its headquarters are in Irving, Texas...
) after research indicated that American drivers wanted both power and play, and copywriter Sandy Sulcer
Frederick D. Sulcer
Frederick Durham Sulcer, known as Sandy Sulcer, was an American advertising agency copywriter and executive notable for creating the 1960s Put a Tiger in Your Tank advertising theme for Esso gasoline, now known as ExxonMobil.-Early years:...
working with psychologist Ernest Dichter
Ernest Dichter
Ernest Dichter was an American-based psychologist and marketing expert who is often considered to be the "father of motivational research."...
chose the tiger
Tiger
The tiger is the largest cat species, reaching a total body length of up to and weighing up to . Their most recognizable feature is a pattern of dark vertical stripes on reddish-orange fur with lighter underparts...
to symbolize that desire which led to the campaign Put a Tiger in Your Tank. In 1966 the agency opened a Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
office to handle the Continental Airlines
Continental Airlines
Continental Airlines was a major American airline now merged with United Airlines. On May 3, 2010, Continental Airlines, Inc. and UAL, Inc. announced a merger via a stock swap, and on October 1, 2010, the merger closed and UAL changed its name to United Continental Holdings, Inc...
business. An office was opened in Washington D.C in 1971 initially to service some local McDonald's
McDonald's
McDonald's Corporation is the world's largest chain of hamburger fast food restaurants, serving around 64 million customers daily in 119 countries. Headquartered in the United States, the company began in 1940 as a barbecue restaurant operated by the eponymous Richard and Maurice McDonald; in 1948...
business. Soon this agency was winning government and media business and an "Issues and Images" division was opened to service corporate public relations. This business would eventually become Biederman & Company. The agency worked on public service campaign
Public service announcement
A public service announcement or public service ad is a type of advertisement featured on television, radio, print or other media...
s called Buckle Up for Safety as well as a traffic safety campaign entitled Watch Out For The Other Guy for the Advertising Council
Ad Council
The Advertising Council, commonly known as the Ad Council, is an American non-profit organization that distributes public service announcements on behalf of various sponsors, including non-profit organizations and agencies of the United States government....
.
Keith L. Reinhard came from Chicago to head the worldwide firm in 1982 and by 1986 there were thirty two offices outside the US; American offices in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Washington, Boston Phoenix, Sacramento, San Diego, Baltimore and Dayton, Ohio; and diversification in Porter Novelli
Porter Novelli
Porter Novelli is a public relations firm that is part of Omnicom Group. Its original clients were primarily social causes and nonprofit organizations. Today, the company works in crisis management, health care, technology, corporate affairs, consumer marketing, and more. The company has...
, Biederman & Company and the international direct-response agency DR Group, Inc.
DDB Needham merger and the formation of Omnicom
Concerned by the swathe of hostile public company takeovers in the US the 1980s Reinhard started discussions with BBDOBBDO
BBDO is a worldwide advertising agency network, with its headquarters in New York City. The agency began in 1891 with George Batten's Batten Company, and later in 1928, through a merger of BDO and Batten Co. the agency became BBDO...
president Allen Rosenshine about a merger and included the then fragile Doyle Dane Bernbach business in the discussions. The three networks agreed to merge into the Omnicom Group which would act as a holding company becoming at that time the world's largest global advertising agency group. BBDO remained separate and retained its network. Needham Harper had a good presence in midwest USA and was complemented by Doyle Dane Bernbach's strength in New York and Europe. Reinhard became Chairman and CEO of the merged DDB Needham Worldwide. The merged group suffered some initial account losses due to conflicts (DDB's Volkswagen was retained and Needham's Honda account lost while DDB's RJR Nabisco was lost in favour of Needham's General Mills) and some senior staff losses as Reinhard set about combining the two disparate cultures, but by 1988 the firm was having success in winning significant new business and has continued to grow since then.
In 1998 (having by then dropped the Needham from its name) DDB Worldwide was named Advertising Age's first-ever "Global Network of the Year". In 2003 it earned that same accolade from both Advertising Age and Adweek and again from Adweek in 2004. Subsequently, its operating unit Tribal DDB became the first digital agency to be named Global Network of the Year by Advertising Age. As of 2011 DDB Worldwide has more than 200 offices in 95 countries. Its worldwide CEO since 2006 is Tenneseean, Charles E Brymer, author of "The Nature of Marketing, Marketing to the Herd as well as the Swarm."
DDB in Australia
In Australia in 2011 DDB operates from Sydney and Melbourne with both offices tracing their history to the post-war foundation of United Services Publicity, an agency started in Melbourne in 1945 by ex-servicemen rebuilding careers at the end of hostilities. John F. Barnes was the founder of the agency and he and some other foundation staff had worked between the wars at the large Melbourne agency Samson Clark Price-Berry, a subsidiary of Samson Clark of the UK which closed its Australian arm during the war . United Services Publicity grew successfully in Melbourne and in 1961 established international links via a sale of 25% of its equity to the SH Benson group of the UK, at that point becoming USP Benson and opening a Sydney office. In 1967 the US group Needham, Harper & Steers bought into USP Benson and later in 1971 when SH Benson, UK was bought out by Ogilvy & MatherOgilvy & Mather
Ogilvy & Mather is an international advertising, marketing and public relations agency based in Manhattan and owned by the WPP Group. The company operates 497 offices in 125 countries with approximately 16,000 employees.-History:...
, NH&S acquired the Benson interest in the Australian operation resulting in a name change to USP Needham from 1972. The 1986 creation of the Omnicom holding company saw a worldwide merger of Needham and the Doyle Dane Bernbach operations (in Australia a merger between USP Needham and the DDB operation "Magnus Nankervis & Curl/DDB") with the operation becoming known as DDB Needham from 1986, and later as DDB Worldwide from 1998.
Australian agencies acquired by USP Needham or Doyle Dane Bernbach and which can trace their lineage to today's DDB Australian group operation include: the Sydney agencies SPASM; Bartlett, Murphy and McKenzie; Harriman and Hill; Beeby Advertising; Magnus, Nankervis & Curl and the Melbourne agencies Hyde Everett Fuller Kutt; Leonardi & Curtis; Walker Herbert & Associates; Nowland, Robinson & Perret; Kuczynski & Zeigler; Whybin Dery Barnes.
External links
- Official site of DDB
- http://www.tribalddb.com/Site of Tribal DDBTribal DDBTribal DDB is a worldwide network of interactive agencies, established in 2000, when the advertising giant DDB integrated all its interactive-web properties under the Tribal brand....
, an interactive agency of DDB Worldwide] - Official site of the U.S. DDB Offices
- DDB's creative work and company info
- DDB Needham company history