DDB Worldwide appoints Alex Lubar as global president
McCann’s North America President Alex Lubar has been appointed as DDB Worldwide’s first global president and global chief operating officer. Lubar assumes his new role in October, reporting to DDB Worldwide CEO Marty O’ Halloran.
Lubar, who has been with McCann for over 12 years, took over the North America role in July 2021 following Devika Bulchandani’s departure to WPP’s Ogilvy. Prior to that, Lubar served in multiple leadership positions at the Interpublic Group of Cos. agency, including president of McCann’s Asia Pacific region and CEO of McCann London.
“There was an immediate simpatico between the two of us and whenever you take on a job, especially of this scale that level of connectivity that you have especially with the individual that’s bringing you in is imperative,” said Lubar. “The second piece is DDB is just a fabulous organization and, and has a fantastic creative heritage and an opportunity like this doesn’t come up very often.”
Given the Omnicom network has around 10,000 employees in 63 countries, Lubar’s global leadership history was a key selling point for O’ Halloran.
“This is a global role, so the fact he’s worked in Asia, Europe, and North America that’s really important, because a lot of people in North America sort of look at everything through a North American lens and don’t really understand the cultures around the world,” O’ Halloran said. “We have to actually make sure that we are really diverse in terms of our thinking.”
‘Transformation journey’
O’ Halloran also will look to Lubar to help him in what he says has been a “transformation journey” over the last couple of years for DDB, which has included putting a focus on integration and building up the network’s digital, data, experiential and consulting expertise. This is a strategy O’ Halloran helped implement as CEO of DDB Australia, where he said “almost 50%” of the staff had a “data technology or experiential sort of background.”
“We’ve totally transformed the way Mars [Wrigley] looks at us because we’ve brought consultants on our team, we’ve got data analysts and data strategists and ecommerce experts,” said O’ Halloran. As an example, he cited the digital components of DDB’s recent Skittles campaign in which the brand went on an apology tour to make amends to fans for ditching its original lime flavor.
in Asia, Europe, and North America that’s really important, because a lot of people in North America sort of look at everything through a North American lens and don’t really understand the cultures around the world,” O’ Halloran said. “We have to actually make sure that we are really diverse in terms of our thinking.”
‘Transformation journey’
O’ Halloran also will look to Lubar to help him in what he says has been a “transformation journey” over the last couple of years for DDB, which has included putting a focus on integration and building up the network’s digital, data, experiential and consulting expertise. This is a strategy O’ Halloran helped implement as CEO of DDB Australia, where he said “almost 50%” of the staff had a “data technology or experiential sort of background.”
“We’ve totally transformed the way Mars [Wrigley] looks at us because we’ve brought consultants on our team, we’ve got data analysts and data strategists and ecommerce experts,” said O’ Halloran. As an example, he cited the digital components of DDB’s recent Skittles campaign in which the brand went on an apology tour to make amends to fans for ditching its original lime flavor.
“We’ve done a lot of innovative work in the digital area” for Skittles, said O’ Halloran. “We work with McDonald’s in 46 countries, and almost 40% of our revenue with McDonald’s is all related to loyalty data, digital, and experiential,” he added.
He said DDB has also been focused on its internal platform built last year, called “The Brain,” which is used globally to store and disseminate pitch decks, data, research, category information, training programs, marketing assets and more. The Brain can be used to help share insights from local clients, for example, to assist global clients.
“If we had clients asking about what’s the role of [brand] value in a recession, we can respond within 24 hours to those clients and say, well in 16 markets, here are some of the studies we’ve got, here’s points of view, here are examples of what we’ve done for this retailer in Manila, this what we are doing in France.”
New positioning
Among its other ongoing changes: A new positioning for the agency, called “Unexpected Works” that launched in May 2021. In June, DDB reopened its Brazilian agency DM9.
Lubar is just the latest addition of talent at the DDB network. Last week, VMLY&R vet Tomas Gonsorcik took on the role of chief strategy officer of DDB North America. In February, DDB made three senior hires for its North America team, which included bringing on Christine Lane as head of experience. In May, Pradeep Kumar was named chief data officer of DDB North America. In April, the founder of DDB agency Alma, Luis-Miguel Messianu, shifted to the role of global chief creative officer for DDB’s McDonald’s account.
O’ Halloran believes there is still “lots of opportunity” in the U.S., which he confirms makes up 25% of the network’s overall revenue. Some of DDB’s biggest clients include McDonald’s, Molson Coors, Unilever, the U.S. Army, and Mars Wrigley.
While there have been changes in the network over the past few years, Lubar said it will continue to prioritize the agency brands within DDB.
“I think the challenge that networks face—and Omnicom and IPG have taken a very clear perspective on this—is the role of the agency brands,” Lubar said. “I like that perspective, because there’s a lot of power in the agency brands and I think what some of our competitor networks have done is they’ve gone out and they’ve tried to remove some of those agency brands. In doing so, I think [they] have risked undermining the cultures that those agency brands deliver, not only in terms of attracting talent but also in terms of attracting and retaining clients.”
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