The proposed merger of DDFH&B and its sister agency Target McConnells is designed to create a “new agency model” under the JWT brand, according to Jim Donnelly executive chairman and co-founder of DDFH&B.
Donnelly says the new agency will lead to the creation of a multi-disciplined service model that will introduce “radical competition” to the Irish marketplace. He also says that the new agency model was arrived at following considerable work done by JWT globally on what the agency of the future might look like.
As reported on Adworld.ie, Abi Moran will be the new CEO of the enlarged agency and it will employ over 80 people when the merger is finalised.
“The agency model has fundamentally changed around the world. We are responding to our clients desire to have a nimble, effective- yet well-resourced- collection of talents,” says Jim Donnelly.
“By merging DDFH&B and Target McConnells we are creating the scale and commercial robustness required to compete for the next five years,” he says.
“We will leverage the depth of experience and the wider resources of JWT to bring a really interesting proposition to Irish clients. The response of our clients to date has been tremendously positive and we are working our way through the final business formation to have it in place by the end of January,” he concludes.
Clients of DDFH&B include Littlewoods Ireland, Kerry Foods, SuperValu, Irish Life, Water Wipes, Irish Life and Brennan’s Bread. Clients of Target McConnells include An Post, Vodafone, the League of Credit Unions, SafeFood, Knorr, xSecllco, Diageo and Knorr.
Other parts of the DDFH&B group of companies are not impacted by the merger including the PR company The Reputations Agency and the shopper marketing agency Goosebump. Neither will it impact on the agency’s 50% stake in media agency Mindshare which is co-owned with Ogilvy & Mather. Its existing 50% stake in media agency Maxus, meanwhile, is the subject of negotiations between DDFH&B and WPP following the decision to merge all the global operations of Maxus and MEC under the Wavemaker brand.
