Impact Over Output: Inside the New BBDO

​BBDO is entering its next phase with momentum.

In the wake of the Omnicom-IPG merger, the network, under the stewardship of global CEO Nancy Reyes and global CCO Chris Beresford-Hill, has seen leadership shifts across key markets and integrated the former agency brands into its global structure.

It was, they say, a period marked by promise, complexity and a series of “difficult conversations”. They needed to figure out what the “net new BBDO” looks like, combining the strengths of its legacy business with newly integrated capabilities from across the group. On top of that, they had to ensure each market was structured in a way that reflected its specific needs.

Now, the focus has shifted.

“I think we’re done talking about the drain of the acquisition,” says Nancy. “Not because we’re naïve that it is difficult and that it was difficult and it impacted a lot of people, but more because we have a moment to take advantage of this next era for us and we’re fully committed to doing it.”

Early signs point to a strong start: BBDO was behind six Super Bowl spots, the most of any agency, including the number one and number spots on the USA Today Ad Meter; new business momentum, including AMV BBDO expanding its portfolios with Bailey’s and Essity; recognition from Fast Company as one of the world’s most innovative companies for the first time in five years; and WARC naming AlmapBBDO the world’s most effective creative agency.

Together, they point to a clear direction for what Nancy and Chris are building towards.

That direction is rooted in ‘Do Big Things’, introduced just over a year ago as BBDO’s first new global positioning in nearly three decades. Conceived by the CEO and CCO after a period of bedding into their roles, it marked a shift away from long-standing ‘The Work. The Work. The Work.’, and towards a broader ambition centred on upstream business impact.

Now, say Nancy and Chris, it is less a new idea and more the system that informs how BBDO integrates globally, communicates with clients, and pushes forward in an ever-evolving advertising landscape.

“It’s everything,” says Nancy. “We know what our business problem is to solve. ‘Do Big Things’ is not only a proposition, but it’s the actual business strategy itself. It literally is the impetus for almost every decision that we make.”

That impact is already visible across the network. On their “pretty non-stop” travels around the world, Nancy and Chris have observed people using it, talking about it and, perhaps more importantly, truly understanding its meaning. It has also helped integrate new agency cultures into the network.

“For us to say to a client: it's important we're thinking about the bigger picture here, not just a piece of content or an asset," says Nancy. "What do you need? Where's your business going? What's struggling? What needs attention? Can we help you transform your business from an AI or content perspective?

“We become the leaders in the conversation, especially with clients who are a little bit more reluctant to move forward and to transform.”

The focus is on work that creates meaningful commercial impact for clients. Chris points to this year’s Oscars, where the Best Picture winner is projected to lose approximately $100 million in theatres, as a reminder that industry plaudits don't always align with commercial reality.

“We are chasing higher value creativity, and so we’re not playing the traditional awards game that feels like many networks and agencies do,” he says.

I’m speaking to Chris and Nancy in Paris at the start of a week of global leadership meetings and Creative Council sessions. Traditionally limited to creative leadership, the council sessions now include CEOs, as part of a deliberate move to bring business and creativity closer together.

“We look at not only work that is going to be famous and award-winning; it must also be brand-building,” says Chris. “We’re also looking at work that represents a significant marketing story, some kind of marketing innovation, a technological innovation that might not fit the cookie-cutter, but becomes the kind of case study we need to display our leadership in the market and show clients what we’re capable of.”

“We have been very intentional about inviting CEOs moving forward,” adds Nancy. “So that the proximity to the business problem is there, but also to have that extra check that what we’re doing actually solves a client issue.

“If the CEO has to sign off on it too, then it really matters. We’re elevating it to the highest degree of the company.”

Creativity can look different when it has to stand up to that level of scrutiny, particularly amid the changes happening across the network. “Creativity seldom happens in comfort,” says Chris. “Discomfort tends to create tension and friction, and that’s when the magic happens. With these teams coming together and remixing and learning each other while on the go, my expectation is that things get better faster.”

At the same time, BBDO is addressing what Nancy and Chris saw as a real issue: a network that had become a very separated list of companies operating independently in markets. The solution has been a shift towards a more connected ‘global community’, terminology they are now using internally to define how the network works.

“For a while that [independence] was good because it bred some friendly competition,” says Nancy. “I think over time everybody got so separated from one another and you couldn’t possibly build innovations from the ground up in every single one of those offices.”

Instead, they’ve tried to create mechanisms that actively connect the network. A newly formed group – the G15 – has been assembled from across BBDO’s agencies to act as ambassadors for ‘Do Big Things’, helping embed the proposition across markets and ensuring it travels beyond individual offices.

“We’ve realised that getting ‘Do Big Things’ as a proposition into every nook and cranny all around the world requires us to have a group of people that are going to help us expand those tentacles and become ambassadors for it,” says Nancy.

What’s more, the realities facing clients differ significantly from market to market, and spending too much time in one region can narrow that view. Bringing those perspectives together and understanding what is driving businesses in different parts of the world, has become a more deliberate focus at the recent global leadership meetings.

“Seventy-seven per cent of our clients are at least multinational, if not global,” says Nancy, “so we’ve got to keep pushing that sense of community as much as possible and relying on one another more than doing everything from just one office or just one country.”

Just over a year on from launching ‘Do Big Things’, both Nancy and Chris argue the idea of ‘big’ has only become more relevant. In a volatile landscape shaped by economic uncertainty and geopolitical tension, they say clients are increasingly prioritising work that actually moves the business forward.

“Chasing the bigger business thing is going to make you a much more valuable partner than chasing something that may not be perceived to be important tomorrow because it wasn’t attacking a particular business problem that existed,” says Nancy. “It’s become even more poignant.”

“If you work at BBDO,” adds Chris, “the goal would be that you don’t call home and tell a parent that you won an award, but you call home and say, look at this news story, we added a billion dollars of market cap to this client, or the CEO of the company just wrote a book and talked about the work we did for them solving a real problem.”

For him, the shift is ultimately about scale. “I think we’ve gotten so fixated on success at the ground level that we’ve forgotten that really smart, really passionate, really creative people are the ones that transform business.

“To have anyone that walks into any one of our offices feel like they can make a big change like that is so much better than making an ‘asset’ that was ‘deployed at scale’,” he adds.

That perspective also shapes how BBDO sees itself within the wider industry. While consolidation continues across multiple holding companies and new models and shops emerge globally, Nancy argues that the industry is correcting itself after years of fragmentation.

“The holding company consolidations don’t stress me out, because the industry has boomed and exploded and fragmented and become chopped up into so many pieces,” she says. “That contributed to a sense of fragmentation and commoditisation in the marketplace."

Things coming together, some as superpowered holding companies like Omnicom, juxtaposed with more and more independent agencies doing brilliant work, are signs of a “good, healthy” industry, she believes.

“But if you have too many players and everyone is competing on price, then you’re going to sink the industry to the bottom,” says Nancy. “You’ve got to have stronger players, competitive players that drive the value of the business that you’re in.”

In a volatile and fast-changing market, the past few months have created a moment for BBDO to take stock and apply ‘Do Big Things’ to itself. Now, it’s ready to put that into practice.