Omnicom Oceania Merges DDB and FCB NZ to Form McCann NZ, DDB Aus Folded into Clemenger

​Nick Garrett has announced his plans for Omnicom Oceania: In Australia, DDB will be folded into Clemenger BBDO, run by DDB's local bosses and new Clemenger co-CEOs Sheryl Marjoram and Mike Napolitano.​

Former Clemenger CEO Lee Leggett becomes chief customer officer at Omnicom Oceania, which will see her tasked with strengthening the group’s focus on client experience and integration across Australia and New Zealand.

in New Zealand, DDB and FCBwill merge to create McCann New Zealand, run by Priya Patel and Paul Wilson. In Wellington, New Zealand, Clemenger Wellington and FCB Wellington will be merged to become McCann Wellington, operating as part of McCann Group NZ. Local leadership for McCann Wellington will be announced soon.

Within Omnicom Media Group, OMD, PHD, Initiative, MediaHub, UM, and Hearts & Science will remain untouched as distinct businesses.

​Nick said, “This is a defining moment for our region. By bringing together the depth, ambition and talent of our people, while simplifying the architecture, we are creating modern, future-fit agencies and capabilities that will deliver world-class creativity and media, smarter data and technology integration, and new levels of effectiveness for brands in Australia and New Zealand.

"I want to congratulate Priya Patel, Paul Wilson, Sheryl Marjoram, Mike Napolitano and Lee Leggett on their new roles. Their leadership will play a critical part in shaping the next era of Omnicom Oceania. These changes honour the legacies of our heritage brands while positioning us to unlock even greater opportunity, effectiveness and growth for our clients and our people.”​

Overnight, Omnicom confirmed it will retire the DDB, FCB, and MullenLowe brands and push ahead with BBDO, McCann and TBWA following its $13.5 billion acquisition of IPG. Clients and talent currently sitting within the retired brands will be folded into the brands moving forward on a market-by-market basis, and around 4,000 jobs are expected to go.

Sheryl and Mike previously ran DDB in Sydney and Melbourne, respectively. DDB's Priya Patel and Matty Burton have been in regional CEO and CCO roles since the start of the year, when former AUNZ CEO and chair Andrew Little left the business after more than two decades.​

Clemenger has spent the year bedding in its merger with CHEP and Traffik, transitioning to new leadership under Lee, and cementing its executive team. C-suite leaders including Dani Bassil, Adrian Flores, Anita Zanesco, Gavin McLeod, and Lilian Sor left the business during the merger. Simon Wassef stayed on as CSO but recently resigned to join old boss Dani at M+C Saatchi.

Chief creative officer Stephen de Wolf was appointed in June and started at the end of September. He was formerly DDB Group Australia's CCO, where he worked closely with CEOs Sheryl and Mike.

As DDB now folds into Clemenger in Australia, possible conflicts emerge between Volkswagen (which has sat with DDB for more than two decades) and Mazda (a CHEP, and now Clemenger, client for almost 40 years); and Kmart (Clemenger) and TK Maxx (DDB).

McCann New Zealand will inherit DDB New Zealand and FCB's client lists. DDB's includes McDonald's New Zealand (in Australia, the account shifted to Wieden+Kennedy after 53 years at DDB), The Warehouse, Samsung, and Goodman Fielder. FCB's includes One New Zealand, Greencross Health, and Kimberly-Clark.

At TBWA, Nick promoted Kimberlee Wells to national CEO following AUNZ CEO Paul Bradbury's departure. Catherine Harris leads TBWA New Zealand. FCB New Zealand's Paul Wilson was promoted to a group CEO role in August, and will now transition to set up the McCann brand in the market.

Key leadership across retired brands DDB and FCB includes: DDB Group AUNZ CCO Matty Burton; DDB New Zealand CCO Gary Steele, Sydney CCO Matt Chandler, and Melbourne CCO Psembi Kinstan; DDB strategy leads Rupert Price, Matt Pearce, and David McIndoe; FCB CCO Leisa Wall; and FCB CSO Matt Kingston.

HERO's McCann license will not be impacted. Ben Lilley acquired HERO from McCann in Australia to form a separate, independent agency, but it works with McCann globally. Attivo Group-owned 303 MullenLowe in Australia has today rebranded to 303.

New Clemenger co-CEO Sheryl Marjoram formerly led McCann in London. Two of Omnicom Oceania's three creative agencies being run by dual CEOs is a return to a structure it just moved away from within its media business: OMD previously had co-CEOs in Laura Nice and Sian Whitnall. Last month, Laura shifted to the PHD top job, making way for Mark Jarratt to move into a yet-to-be-announced group-level role.

In September, Nick told LBB his job -- a first-of-its-kind in a significant market; Omnicom is using the Omnicom Oceania structure as a test and could adapt it elsewhere -- is to turn a "disjointed jigsaw puzzle" into a "masterpiece."

“My job here, big picture, is to redesign the model and transform us to be ready for the next 10 years," he said.

“It's a massive job for absolute certainty, but I think it's also probably the most exciting job in the market. It's got the biggest opportunity to do something at scale and really redesign something.

“We've got the best clients. We've got the best agencies still, but most of them have been in such dramatic silos in Australia because Omnicom has never existed in Australia.

“It was like a disjointed jigsaw puzzle that could turn into a masterpiece, if you can put enough smart people around you and get people excited about creating something and building something that Omnicom has never built in any other market.”

The former Deloitte, Colenso, and Clemenger leader added he expects his leaders to prioritise the collective and “a sense of generosity.”

“Sometimes you're gonna have to give something away to get something back,” he said. “If it's right for our client, that's the right thing to do."