Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
insight<br />
TribalDBB<br />
Tribal DDB London is ten this year. That’s quite an age for a new-media<br />
ad agency. We asked them to tell us all their secrets and they said yes.<br />
By Ed Ewing<br />
Tribal DDB<br />
12 Bishops Bridge Road<br />
London<br />
W2 6AA<br />
Tel +44 (0)20 7258 4500<br />
www.tribalddb.co.uk<br />
58 d<br />
T<br />
ribal DDB in London is<br />
staffed by “rock stars,<br />
socialites, sex machines<br />
and knife throwers,” according<br />
to their design director Victoria<br />
Buchanan.<br />
“We’re neither old-school<br />
advertising nor trendy new-media<br />
wankers – just people,” adds<br />
creative director Ben Clapp.<br />
Immediately suspicious of<br />
any 32-year-old creative director<br />
of a new-media ad agency<br />
claiming not to be a new-media<br />
wanker (NMW), <strong>Digit</strong> set out to<br />
see if in fact the reverse was true.<br />
But no, it seems that despite our<br />
best investigative journalism efforts<br />
we cannot conclusively prove the<br />
NMW tag. Instead, Clapp claims<br />
the label of “survivor”: “A few<br />
veteran dot-<strong>com</strong> crash survivors<br />
seem to be celebrating their tenyear<br />
anniversaries at the moment<br />
and Tribal is happy and relieved<br />
to be one of them,” he says. “Tribal<br />
started in 1995 as BMP interaction<br />
but joined the global Tribal DDB<br />
network soon after. It’s grown,<br />
and shrunk, and grown again<br />
since then. The biggest shake<br />
up being a merger in 2001.”<br />
Tribal DDB Worldwide has 20<br />
offices worldwide and according<br />
to its Web site is a “top ten<br />
international digital marketing<br />
agency with a strong reputation<br />
for strategic thinking and excellent<br />
creative work.” They deliver the full<br />
spectrum of digital services from<br />
online marketing, media buying<br />
and planning and strategic<br />
direction through to Web<br />
design and programming.<br />
Skin off the puff and you<br />
find a very lean, hungry, ambitious,<br />
and successful global new-media<br />
agency. Tribal DDB London’s clients<br />
include The Guardian, Volkswagen,<br />
Harvey Nicols, British Gas, Lunn<br />
Poly, Philips, BT Yahoo!, Dairy<br />
Council, Camelot, and Axa.<br />
Life in the UK<br />
Clapp was appointed creative<br />
director in July last year. It’s an<br />
exciting time for any new-media<br />
agency he says, not least because,<br />
“money is being spent again and<br />
a lot of it on digital.” He adds:<br />
“The UK creative industry is really<br />
healthy at the moment and as far<br />
as traditional digital formats go,<br />
great work is already being<br />
produced. The problem is that<br />
not enough truly visionary work<br />
is <strong>com</strong>ing out of digital and there<br />
are huge opportunities here.”<br />
Buchanan agrees: “The work<br />
we see as bland, is stuff that<br />
displays myopic thinking about<br />
the potential of digital. Like Web<br />
sites built for the sake of having<br />
a Web site. That and old clichés<br />
such as ‘Skip intro’ buttons,
Change language