DDB Worldwide has announced a merger. Its DDB New York office will merge with adam&eveNYC to form adam&eveDDB, an agency “with the heart of a start up and the capabilities of a world-class full-service creative agency”. Both agencies will come together under one roof with new leadership in a new office space. The agency will be led by newly hired chief executive officer, Caroline Winterton.
Winterton joins adam&eveDDB from Digitas New York where she is president of the Atlanta and New York offices. At Digitas, Winterton has been leading a team of 600 across clients including Crocs, Delta, Goldman Sachs and many others. She has led accounts and built incredible teams for clients such as Proctor & Gamble, Kraft, and McDonald’s, that have won many creative and effectiveness awards. She also previously served as the chief executive officer of Barton F. Graf and as a partner at Grey, where she oversaw creative campaigns for Coca-Cola, Welch’s, Pringles, Febreze, Downy, Bose, and Walgreens.
“I have always been a massively huge fan of DDB’s and adam&eveDDB’s world-class creativity. It is both an honour and absolute thrill to be leading this incredible new agency along with the super talented teams coming together under one roof. We have huge creative ambition and I can’t wait to bring that ambition to reality,” Winterton commented.
Rick Brim, chief creative officer, adam&eveDDB, added, “adam&eveNYC has seen immense growth since we launched in 2017 and I don’t underestimate the honour of being part of the next chapter for ‘Bill’s Agency’, a responsibility all involved do not take lightly. To that end, we need to find the best people we can and Caroline is exactly that–she brings a ton of positive energy, strategic magic, and champions creativity. I’m very excited with Caroline onboard to see where we can take this.”
adam&eveDDB has a longstanding legacy of working with some of the world’s most creatively driven clients, most notably its work for clients like John Lewis, Marmite, Peloton, CALM, and PlayStation, that have won top awards at creative and effective shows globally. In the US, the agency has worked with an impressive array of clients such as Samsung, PepsiCo, Netflix, Facebook, NBA2K, PlayStation & JetBlue. It has been named Cannes Agency of the Year twice in the last eight years as well as Ad Age’s International Agency of the Year in 2020.
Alex Lubar, global president and chief operating officer, DDB Worldwide, stated, “Our ambition is to continue raising the bar on everything we do as one of the world’s most creative networks. There is true power in unity. With these two agencies coming together under the spark of Caroline’s leadership and Rick Brim’s creative oversight while we finalise plans to announce the hiring of a new CCO to partner with Caroline, our capabilities and creative offering will be world class, igniting our business, inspiring our people, and super-charging our clients’ growth. We will have the energy and agility of a start-up, with the power and resource of a global network.”
The new agency is truly full-service, covering brand and communications strategy, creative, integrated production, design, CX, and experiential as well as housing a state-of-the-art internal production company and fully staffed production team. Alex Lubar and Rick Brim are currently searching for a New York chief creative officer to partner with Winterton along with James Rowe, current adam&eveDDB managing director, who will report into Winterton and run the agency until her arrival in early fall.
The new agency will move into its new home in the West Village this month.
