DDB re-launches Tribal to focus on technology
DDB has re-launched its Tribal Worldwide Australia offering as it looks to help Australian businesses tackle the onslaught of international brands like Uber and ASOS.
Tribal Australia will spearhead the group’s technology-led creative, with the agency looking to create tech-led products to solve problems for brands. One prototype which the Australian offices have been working on and demonstrated at Friday’s launch party was a rubber wristband with a button which unlocks a car, allowing people to leave their keys in the vehicle whilst exercising.
Outgoing DDB Group Australia CEO Chris Brown said: “We think that in a world that is fully digitised there is a real compelling role for a brand that is positioned around technology and creating experiences that drive value.”
The official relaunch comes four months after DDB Sydney brought in AKQA London’s Phil Dowgierd to become managing director for the Sydney office of Tribal Worldwide and shifted DDB Sydney deputy ECD Darwin Tomlinson across to be the Tribal ECD.
The appointments followed Richard Lloyd joining the agency as MD of Tribal Worldwide Melbourne in January from Lean Mean Fighting Machine in the UK. To complete the new management team is creative technologist Matt Oxley, who joined the agency last month and along with Tomlinson will support Dowgierd and Lloyd.
Dowgierd said: “What’s the proposition that we’re going to bring to market? It’s this: We want to create innovative experiences for the experience economy, we want to leverage the investment that’s going into digital and make sure that investment’s not commoditised.
“The fact is, Australian are some of the fastest adopters of technology in the world, however we are seeing non-Australian companies, such as ASOS and Uber capitalise on this whilst local companies are not effectively doing so. We want to redress that.”
The relaunch saw the agency demonstrate Tribal Amsterdam’s Heineken ‘Ignite’ project to encapsulate the re-launched agency’s focus on technology and how technology can be used to promote brands.
DDB Australia MD, and incoming CEO, Andrew Little said: “For the past 12 months, the Group has been acutely aware of the opportunity for a specialist technology agency. The national offering houses some of the strongest talent in the industry and the creative heartbeat in Tribal Worldwide Australia gives it a unique edge in the tech space.”
Miranda Ward
“We thought really hard about this and decided that technology and digital media are really important” DDB in mid 2014
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Consider the previous announcement from DDB/Tribal about ‘Shaper’ –
https://mumbrella.com.au/ddb-launches-problem-solving-initiative-shaper-160894
Has Shaper yielded anything more than a press release in 12months?
A prototype of a product is far from being a product.
Meanwhile VML and RipCurl have bought a surf watch to market.
It was only a week or so ago it was revealed digital work had moved from DDB to RGA.
More noise, but not much more.
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DDB should focus on teaching their executives to craft a coherent sentence before tackling the complicated world of digital.
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I like all actors in the digital services marketplace want to see our local digital agencies grow and thrive. It’s good for everyone, raises the standard and grows the pie.
I’m not sure that, “innovative experiences for the experience economy….”? is a very well defined USP. Providing UX and Digital Product Development services is the cost of entry for a digital agency.
What is a little more concerning is holding up “companies, such as ASOS and Uber” as examples of potential customers. Both ASOS and Uber have their own experience design and product teams, and outsource only elements of their marketing activity to digital agencies, a model which is partly responsible for their success.
Hopefully this is just a hasty press release.
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