Agency FCB drops the Draft from its name seven years after the merger
DraftFCB has undergone a global rebranding, ditching the Draft in its title in favour of Foote, Cone & Belding, or FCB for short.
The name change comes at a rocky period for the Interpublic Group-owned company in Asia Pacific, with FCB in recent months closing its Hong Kong office, having shut its Melbourne office in 2012.
The name DraftFCB came about after the merger of direct marketing brand Draft with above-the-line advertising brand FCB.
FCB group CEO and Chairman of FCB Sydney Bryan Crawford told Mumbrella: “FCB is one of the oldest brands in existence in our business, it’s a long heritage. This signals the fact that seven years on from the merger with Draft we are one agency and reflecting that long-standing heritage the brand has, it makes sense at this time to simplify the brand.
“With Carter Murray, the new CEO, on board, this reflects the fact that we are a different agency with new leadership.”
The global network will be called FCB with an important local element celebrated market-by-market, with each office set to add the city in which they operate, for example FCB Paris or FCB Chicago, using a diagonal line through the B and the first letter of the local moniker.
“It’s not just rolling out a single brand, cookie-cutter fashion around the globe, it is the marriage of a strong global brand with a lot of heritage with local relevance,” Crawford said.
Some markets will also add the name of an acquired company such as in London where the office will be FCB Inferno while agency’s with specific expertise will take on a name highlighting that, for example FCB Health.
“In markets where we have acquired another agency or where there is a strong local brand, it provides for the FCB to be the consistent brand around the network but also retaining those strong local brands where it makes sense to,” Crawford said.
And in rare cases, the name of a creative leader will be used, this is happening in New York where the agency will be known as FCB Garfinkel.
Coinciding with the new name, offices will introduce a new logo design which the agency says loosely “depicts the colours of country flags from around the world”.
It was designed by Lisbon-based FCB International chief creative officer Luis Silva Dias.
“There’s not a cookie-cutter blueprint around the world, each office has the ability to take the logo and bring it to life locally in some relevant ways,” Crawford said.
Miranda Ward
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