Are the big ad holding companies serious about creativity? A recent series elsewhere has had the heads of most of them talking creativity before Cannes Lions but what they’ve mostly done is bang on about AI, which isn’t the same thing at all.
Omnicom, even though it’s biggest acquisition to date is tech operator Flywheel, seems to have serious ambitions for adam&eveDDB, for which it forked out £120m for a decade ago. It’s now adding a fourth office, San Francisco, to New York, Germany and the UK. Admittedly just 20 or so people at the moment but it’s something.
Adam&EveDDB West will be headed by New York boss Caroline Winterton and is already working for clients including Sony PlayStation, Mars, Unilever, SharkNinja and the International Olympic Committee. Seems sensible enough as the West coast is where the big money is these days, tech especially. Miranda Hipwell is the new London and Berlin CEO.
Alongside this is a new agency mantra ‘Feeling first’ (and a new identity) which pretty well sums up the way global CCO Richard Brim (below with Hipwell and Winterton) sees these things.
Brim says: “At A&E, we always talk about work giving us a ‘punch in the feels’ – when it’s right, it connects on a deeper level getting to the soul of a brand.”
Winterton says: “We’re almost a year into adam&eveDDB in the US and it’s been pretty epic. We’ve been on quite the new business tear welcoming eight brands to the family and have been hiring fantastic talent to keep up with the growth and creative ambition. Our bi-coastal offering in North America gives us access to tremendous talent to deliver against all of our client’s ambitions.”
