Design moves up the agenda at adam&eveDDB, Lubar joins network from McCann
Chris Chapman (below) has joined adam&eveDDB as the agency’s first creative director of design, reporting to CCO Richard Brim. Chapman joins from Droga5 after stints at London agencies including Wieden+Kennedy, Grey, where he worked on award-winning Volvo and Saatchi & Saatchi.
At the same time DDB Worldwide has recruited Alex Lubar (below) from McCann Worldgroup as its new COO. Lubar was head of McCann North America after periods in London, where he was CEO, and Asia. He began his career at DDB owner Omnicom’s Rapp.
Designer Chapman won a number of awards for his Coal Drop Yard work at D5 (below.) He says: “Adam&eveDDB is the greatest agency in London for creative opportunities and I’m very excited about getting involved.”
CCO Brim says: “Design needs to be at the centre of everything we do and there’s no one better than Chris to make that happen. We’re so excited to have someone as talented as him join the team.”
At DDB HQ it looks as though Lubar’s job is to help pull the network together, using various parts of the network to work on the same client in different markets. DDB, as a global network, has never been quite as unified as McCann.
Lubar says: “If something worked particularly well in Seoul, there’s no reason why it can’t work in Brazil or the Western US. A lot of the time our clients might be doing great things but they need the help of a global partner to identify and help them bubble to the top.”
Lubar is a talented executive and a loss to McCann and owner IPG. McCann lost its global CCO Rob Reilly to WPP last year.
As for adam&eve’s Chapman, design rather lost its place in agencies as print declined in relative importance but is returning strongly as an increasing number of commercials and videos eschew dialogue for a combo of design and music.
