Dubai: Doyle Dane Bernbach Communications (DDB), a US-based marketing agency, announced yesterday it had merged its three Dubai units to form a single entity.
The new unit, which is called DDB FZLLC, has been created through the merger of Brandcom Middle East, TD&A.DDB and Gulf Promoaction.
DDB Worldwide also announced its acquisition of a minority equity stake in Promoaction DDB, its long-term affiliate in Saudi Arabia, as it looks to strengthen its operations across the Middle East and Africa.
Chuck Brymer, President and CEO of DDB Worldwide Communications Group, said the company had put together an aggressive strategy to optimise its output in the region.
"Dubai is an increasingly important place to be in the marketing communications industry and it was clearly suboptimal for DDB to be operating through multiple units. Through this new single unit, in which we have a majority stake, we send a clear message to our clients, our staff and our business partners that we are serious about our presence, operations and growth in the Middle East and Africa region," Brymer said.
DDB Worldwide's acquisitions in Dubai and in Saudi Arabia add to its earlier investments in the region, in Egypt and South Africa.
"By bringing the company together, we strengthen our talent pool, integrate services in a deeper way and we create a more formidable business that does better work than we have produced in the past," Brymer added.
Profile
DDB Worldwide, a part of Omnicom Group Incorporated, is one of the world's largest advertising and marketing agencies. The new unit, DDB FZLLC, operates with a staff of just under a hundred from offices in Dubai Media City.
Patrick Ehringer, DDB's President for Middle East and Africa, said the company needed to build a regional centre of excellence to support its clients.
"DDB Dubai will not only continue to produce inspired, innovative work for our clients but will also mentor and support our wide network of affiliates across the Middle East and Africa region," he said.
"In this venture, our office here in Dubai will have full access to and full support from all of DDB'S global resources," he added.
Brymer also discussed DDB Worldwide's philosophy of "social creativity", which he says involves looking at communication as the six degrees of separation, as opposed to a 360 degree marketing approach where people are constantly bombarded with information.
Social creativity entails creating an idea or experience that consumers then pass on to others. "We wanted to move from a singular monologue to a greater level of engagement with consumers. In the past, companies would create a commercial and take it to the public," Brymer said."Today, people are just the beginning as they take information forward and pass it on to their friends and family. It is about producing your own content; not just receiving it," he added.
Strategy: Improving quality
The Middle East's advertising industry lags behind the West in terms of the quality of work being produced, DDB Worldwide's President and CEO said yesterday on the sidelines of a press conference in Dubai.
However, Chuck Brymer also said the gap was not large enough for it to be a serious concern.
"The type of work being produced in the Middle East is good. But I think it will get better. As the region matures and we continue to move people in and out of this market, we are going to see an improvement in creativity," Brymer said.
"The region is behind the United States and Europe but I don't think it is such a large gap that it cannot be closed. I think it will take an investment of talent and that is something that we are doing at DDB Worldwide; we are looking to train people so that we can produce better work," he added.
