The acquisition signals TBWA's evolution into
a brand experience company and a partner for brands beyond
traditional advertising services
NEW
YORK, Sept. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/
-- TBWAWorldwide, part of Omnicom Group Inc. (NYSE: OMC),
today announced that it has acquired the business of innovation
agency dotdotdash, adding deeper experience design and immersive
technology capabilities to the top-ranked global creative
collective.
Headquartered in Portland,
dotdotdash specializes in building future-forward brand experiences
at the intersection of culture and technology, with expertise in
extending brand ideas into new spaces and places. With employees in
Portland, Los Angeles, New
York and other markets, dotdotdash has worked with clients
including adidas, PepsiCo, The North Face, and TikTok to create
immersive brand experiences and technology-driven creative
solutions.
Over the past 18 months, TBWA and dotdotdash have successfully
collaborated across a number of projects. More recently, TBWA has
started to engage dotdotdash on key global brands, including adidas
and McDonald's. This acquisition cements the relationship between
the two companies, while bringing a more flexible working model
that helps TBWA tap a vast set of highly specialized skills for
clients on an as-needed basis.
Commenting on the acquisition, Troy
Ruhanen, CEO of TBWAWorldwide said, "dotdotdash brings some
of the very best and most imaginative experience design and
creative tech capabilities to TBWA. By combining dotdotdash's
bleeding-edge capabilities with our own, we will accelerate our
ability to deliver disruptive brand experiences and continue to
pioneer our clients into new spaces."
Luke Eid, Chief Innovation
Officer, TBWAWorldwide and the leader of TBWA's innovation practice
NEXT, added "dotdotdash sits right at the convergence of physical
and digital⏤blending both to imagine new kinds of disruptive brand
experiences. They have an equal love for the role of brands and
disruptive ideas in creating distinctive experiences that break
from the sea of sameness."
Kyle Bañuelos, dotdotdash co-founder and CEO, will continue
leading the company as Managing Director⏤alongside partners
Billy Vinton, Executive Director,
Operations and Adam Paikowsky,
Executive Director, Technology⏤as it scales as a distinct offering
within the TBWA collective. dotdotdash will also become part of
TBWA's innovation practice NEXT, which focuses on how shifts in
culture, tech and human behaviors are shaping the future of brand
experiences. dotdotdash's strategy, experience design and creative
tech capabilities will further enhance TBWA's abilities to ideate
and deliver inventive brand experiences, while TBWA will provide
dotdotdash a platform to elevate and scale their capabilities, at a
time when clients are looking for agencies that can bridge
big-brand thinking rooted in commercial growth, with deep technical
expertise that is tailored to emerging tech and consumer
behaviors.
Operating as its own brand within the TBWA collective,
dotdotdash will round out TBWA's existing experience design centers
of excellence, while working closely with LA-based content and
production studio BeGrizzlee.
Bañuelos added, "As we collaborated with TBWA on various
projects over the past year, it's clear we share the same vision
for where the industry is headed⏤creativity that influences product
and services, experience design and new forms of communications.
That alignment, along with the opportunity to fuel our future
growth with the brand thinking and global reach of TBWA, was
exciting, as is the opportunity to be the tip of the spear to NEXT.
We're already working together to help our shared clients get to
the future faster and are looking forward to doing more incredible
things across multiple business units and capabilities."
Notably, dotdotdash has spearheaded global activations for The
North Face and PepsiCo; was responsible for bringing Industrial
Robotics to Broadway; and executed the first-ever XR stunt within
College Football on behalf of Xbox's Halo franchise.
Alongside its proven track record of developing groundbreaking
work, dotdotdash will bring experience-driven perspective and maker
talent to TBWA, with multidisciplinary staff joining the 10,000+
creative minds across the TBWA collective. Their unique backgrounds
across the art, architecture and computer science landscape will
add greater depth and reach to the company's experience design
capabilities.
About dotdotdash
dotdotdash is an innovation company building future-forward
brand experiences at the intersection of culture x technology. A
collective of curious rebels, we combine deep knowledge with
realistic optimism to push tomorrow's mediums to today's culture on
behalf of our partners.
About TBWAWorldwide
TBWA is The Disruption® Company. We use
creativity to help businesses challenge the status quo and capture
an unfair share of the future. Named one of the World's Most
Innovative Companies by Fast Company in 2022, 2021, 2020 and
2019, and Adweek's 2021 Global Agency of the Year, we are a
disruptive brand experience company that uses trademarked
Disruption® methodologies to help businesses address
their challenges and achieve transformative growth. Our collective
has 10,000+ creative minds in 41 countries, and also includes
brands such as Auditoire, Digital Arts Network (DAN), eg+
worldwide, GMR, TBWAMedia Arts Lab, TBWAWorldHealth and TRO. Global
clients include adidas, Apple, Gatorade, Henkel, Hilton Hotels,
McDonald's, Nissan and Singapore Airlines. Follow us on LinkedIn,
Twitter and Instagram. TBWA is part of Omnicom Group (NYSE:
OMC)
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SOURCE TBWAWorldwide