DDB Merges with BBDO: A Loss of Creative Leadership

Bill Bernbach would be turning in his grave at the news today confirming that DDB the agency he founded which not only transformed advertising but essentially invented the contemporary industry is to be merged into rival and stablemate BBDO Worldwide.  This industry has got used to saying sayonara to famous names, but this seems like a turning point. Instead of investing in and nurturing the brand, as agencies would advise their clients, they have instead buried it.  Bernbach is known as a creative leader, but his impact on brand strategy was immeasurable. Like many great creatives he was an instinctive strategist. The great DDB campaigns of the 50s and 60s were the result of deep insight as well as radical creativity.  The Creative Revolution led by Bernbach led to the reorientation of the industry from the Scientific Advertising of Claude Hopkins to an approach built on emotional connection and cultural resonance. We are now at a similar crossroads. The preoccupation with data and measurement at the expense of insight and ideas favors those that own the data, not agencies. Consolidation is a reflection not of strength, but of weakness, vulnerability and fear. They say a principle isn’t a principle until it costs you money and it is clear the surviving holdcos have no principles. The problem is that they soon won’t have any money either. They have no vision where they want to go or compass to get there. Agencies are no longer the indispensable ally to clients they once were.  Omnicom or WPP would be a small acquisition for Meta, but they don’t need to bother; they have not only marginalized them, they have arguably eliminated the need for them.  What would Bernbach say? Look at his 1947 letter, while still at Grey: “Advertising is fundamentally persuasion and persuasion happens to be not a science, but an art. It's that creative spark that I'm so jealous of for our agency and that I am so desperately fearful of losing.” The industry needs to refocus on the unique value it brings, its ability to use creativity to drive transformation and growth. This is not just about advertising, it’s about solving problems that people don’t yet know they have, then monetizing and scaling this.  The core principle of strategy is that you can’t beat a stronger competitor on their own terms. You need to reframe the problem and define the criteria by which you can win. If the holdcos don’t do this they have no future.  Maurice Saatchi once said, “It’s good to be big, it’s better to be good, but it’s best to be both.” It’s time the industry realized that if you want to be big, you need to be not just good – but best, at something that clients need and the data giants can’t provide: ideas that change minds. Otherwise one famous Bernbach headline could turn out to be an epitaph. Lemon. #branddistillation #distilledthinking #brandstrategy #distillery #advertising #omnicom #ddb