DDB failed to provide a submission or leadership call for our Agency Report Card for 2022, so our evaluation relies heavily on public reports. 

While the agency delivered better business, clocking in steady business wins and keeping the innovation wheels spinning, it did not sweep awards or produce any outstanding, compelling work.

Buffeted by a string of management shake-ups in Q4 that kept rolling in the first quarter of 2023, the agency, still reeling from the past wounds of DEI and sustainability, is on shaky ground in APAC. Getting ahead in the game will require investments on various fronts. People and the planet can be a good start. 

Category 2022 2021 Business B+   B Innovation C+ C DEI and sustainability C C Creativity and effectiveness C+ B- Management C C *2021 scores adjusted to new numeric scale. Read about the grading methodology

Business (B+)

Findings from Campaign AI’s APAC Agency Rankings, powered by R3 put DDB in the third spot behind Ogilvy and Wunderman Thompson in the creative tally to close the year with an estimated year-to-date net revenue of $42.1 million. In 2021, R3’s New Business League put the shop in fifth place, but this year it pulled ahead of Dentsu and VMLY&R.

According to the same data, DDB netted 203 new wins for an estimated year-to-date revenue of $44.7 million (versus 223 in 2021 at $50.6 million). However, most agencies have lower figures in the new table, hence some leeway here. 

Hotly contested wins include a three-year AOR for Audi in Singapore after an intensive four-way pitch and Coles in Australia, which was won as incumbents at group level. A highly publicised pitch that started with three listed competitors, Publicis, the incumbent Omnicom, and the combined Accenture Song/Initiative, ended with Coles sticking to its existing partners with OMD, TBWA and DDB on the roster.

A pitch win in New Zealand added the TSB bank to its kitty, digital experience arm Tribal won Fonterra Brands in the FMCG category, China bought in Media Tek & Continental, and India added three mega wins with Raymond (textile), Flipkart (ecommerce), Infosys (tech). 

Malaysia had a strong year with Naga DDB Tribal adding a slew of new clients in the first half of the year. Luno Malaysia signed the agency for creative duties, Genting SkyWorlds Theme Park appointed it for social media duties; both appointments are for a year. Additionally, KFC Malaysia re-appointed DDB as the core agency to drive growth for the business.

The agency’s digital pivot, which accounted for nearly a quarter of its APAC revenue in 2021, and nearly 40% of revenue in India, landed premier wins with Meta India Project and Mars Digital in the country. 

Even though the agency was rocked by several leadership changes this year (more in management), financials remained strong and our score shows the same. 

Innovation (C+)

The group’s top leaders, David Tang, Eugene Cheong, Hong Kong’s Andreas Krasser and Adrian Tso, Singapore’s Jeff Cheong, Tegan Wilson, and Jonathan Lim, curated a ten-week educational program called ‘DDBU: Metaversity for a new world.’ Featuring modules for staffers to develop what the shop calls ‘M’ shaped talent.

Simply put, that’s growth in four key areas: in-depth core creativity, cross-learning new skills, agility in collaboration, and power in leadership. Jargon-aside, this is a notable upskilling investment. It could’ve been a standout if we knew how many participants it supported and how they thrived. Early press material dating April 2022 points to an enrollment of 250 employees across Europe, India, and USA. 

The Australia team rolled out the Creative Index, an aggregation of ‘Australia’s top creative companies’ as a standout innovation. The Creative Index is a live market tracker that tracks the value of companies that rely on creativity for their growth, revealing in real-time, how much money essentially they're worth and, therefore, how much money they're bringing into the Australian economy. The agency is bubbling with excitement about this model, but our in-house ad reviewer did not buy the logic of putting a price or even measuring something as complex as creativity. 

Hong Kong’s Empathy Lab, a data personalisation strategy embedded in creativity, looks like an attempt to play catch-up with the other innovative shops. However, the AI-backed media buying tool ‘Bingo’ launched in India launched by OMD Mudramax, part of DDB Mudra will come handy for marketers identifying platforms for optimising media spends. 

For the sheer ambition of its tools and the focus on training with necessary modern skills, we’re capping the grade at C+ this year, a point higher than in 2021. Next year, we’d like to see how these are helping develop expertise in an emerging area and discuss ROI with the leadership team. 

DEI & Sustainability (C)

After we chastised DDB for failing to put DEI and work-life balance high enough on their agenda in 2020, which led to the lowest grade we’ve ever given to an agency (D), 2021 saw concerted improvements to introduce diversity-friendly practices and be seen as an empathetic employer. 

This year, we see some promising upgrades: The Phyllis Project, a year-long mentorship program for women leaders, is now a multi-market endeavour benefitting India, New Zealand and Hong Kong. It was also recognised at Campaign India’s Women Leadership Programme of the Year and DDB Mudra’s Vanaja Pillai, newly elevated to head of DEI and the force behind the project as Mentor of the Year.  

The re-articulation of DDB’s founding Four Freedoms principles, which is essentially a cultural blueprint for management, was released globally with localised versions for each office. Further, the Australia office undertook a DEI census; while we’re not privy to the findings or action points, the results were internally shared within the agency.

The Philippines office received top honours at the 2022 Women’s Empowerment Principles Awards hosted by the UN Women’s WeEmpowerAsia programme. The award recognises companies for creating inclusive, gender-responsive advertising and marketing workplaces. 

DDB did not conduct any gender or ethnicity gap survey; nothing in their submission indicates a plan in the pipeline.  

They made 16 key regional appointments, six females and 10 males; again, this does nothing to dispel our worries about gender disbalance at the top. The agency cites remote working options as a marker for culture, loosely uses ‘well-being initiatives' and ‘prioritising work-life balance’ without rendering specifics, and counts celebrating lesser-known holidays as a metric for inclusivity and culture. 

Sustainability measures are modest, but what’s nice is that contributions trickle in from nearly every market. At the global network level, the agency is committed to a 2030 net-zero target. In line with the goal, it has put into practice tools that measure the reduction of energy emissions and emphasise an increased use of renewables. Emission data from the last three years, along with a detailed carbon reduction plan, is under consolidation; once finalised, DDB says, it will be available publicly. 

Ongoing developments from 2021 include the Australia division helping Coles become the most sustainable marketplace and scrutinising its own marketing campaigns with a sustainability lens. Korea pioneered sustainable production practices to make end-to-end TV commercials greener. DDB launched the sixth edition of the Lamppost Project in Singapore to drive upcycling and introduced paperless workplace solutions. 

Even though DEI and sustainability remains a work in progress for the agency, we’re seeing promising changes from the year gone by; the overall picture looks ‘satisfactory’ now.  

Creativity & Effectiveness (C+)

We haven’t seen much breathtaking work from DDB this year, nothing to the tune of 2021’s iTest campaign, Samsung’s cheeky infiltration into the Apple interface. However, the agency entered several awards and picked up a handful of metals Down Under. 

At Campaign’s Agency of the Year awards, DDB group Aotearoa scooped a silver in the Creative Agency of the Year (ANZ) category and two golds in the Digital Agency of the Year and Social Media Agency of the Year categories. The Singapore office added a silver in the Creative Agency of the Year (SEA) category, while Hong Kong took bronze in Creative Agency of the Year (Greater China). 

Work highlights from Australia include Coles’ ‘The Picky Koala’, McDonald’s ‘Appetising Ads’ and ‘End of Night’ spots. Bolstered by the appointments of Diya Sarkaer and Ishan Mehta as new ECDs in India, DDB Mudra’s ‘Machine Gun Mouth’ and #HireBetter for job site Indeed aren’t standouts but leave a good impression. 

Management (C)

A slew of top hires across markets made headlines in 2022. 

Peter Lewis came on board as the regional chief people officer. Jason Wu took over the reins from Matthew Cheng to return to the familiar Shanghai office as China CEO.  Sheryl Majoram started her tenure as group CEO in Sydney, where she was joined by Michael Sinclair as head of brand performance.

John Tenchavez joined as chief revenue officer in the Philippines. New Zealand saw the elevation of Nikki McKelvie to MD and Liz Knox to MD of group operations. Adrian So stepped up to lead strategy in Hong Kong.

Meanwhile, the Singapore office saw Jeff Cheong stepping into David Tang’s shoes, and Neel Chhaya was promoted to the role of managing partner. 

All these changes were followed in early 2023 by the departures of Asia CCO Eugene Cheong and CEO David Tang. While these exits are technically not part of our 2022 review, all the changes point to a significant tumult during the year and a need to reset management. As such, we expect to see changes this coming year in DDB’s strategy and vision in APAC that might add more focus on people, DEI and sustainability alongside its business ambitions. 

We are unaware of more training or upskilling programs besides the above-mentioned 10-week summer school (DDB University). Nor have we learned of formal initiatives to ensure female representation at the top.

No employee engagement metric was undertaken to our knowledge. But a bright spot is DDB Hong Kong which swiped a bronze for the Best Culture in Greater China at the Agency of the Year following the Phillipines’ office 2021 win for Best Place to Work at Campaign’s Global Agency of the Year. Clearly, there are some offices with great spirit and culture, but we’d like to see if is this being augmented cohesively through the network. 

Advertising (57%) Digital + social (25%) Technology consulting (TX) (10%) Brand consultancy (4%) Media planning/ buying (3%) Shopper marketing (1%) Total experience marketing Data and performance marketing Social media and content marketing AG Westpac Coles DBS Bank ExxonMobil Foodstuffs Mars McDonald's Singapore Government Vodafone Volkswagen Wrigley DDB did not provide a list of top clients for publication. Campaign has compiled the above based on previous submissions and public information.  The agency declined to grade itself.