DDB reveals new brand promise with a billboard on a sheep farm in Garston, New Zealand

To see a global creative agency network announce its new brand positioning and promise with a billboard on a sheep farm in Garston, New Zealand where sheep outnumber humans 40,000:100 is, for a lack of a better word, unexpected.

It is exactly what DDB intends to do. The billboard carries the message ‘Unexpected Works’ which is the network’s new brand promise and it also has the www.unexpectedworks.com address that takes you to the agency network’s new homepage.

“We took this opportunity to evolve the DDB Network and refine what makes us special, relevant and successful in this new world," said DDB Worldwide CEO Marty O’Halloran referring to how all of us are emerging from this pandemic fundamentally changed.

He went on to say that “Unexpected Works is our commitment to doing the best work of our lives and I’m confident it will carry us into the future while staying committed to our legacy. I’m excited to see our network come together to bring Unexpected Works to life.”

DDB Mudra Group, CEO & MD, Aditya Kanthy said, “Unexpected Works isn’t a tagline or a traditional positioning. It’s a promise. To our clients, culture and colleagues in a world that has been altered by the pandemic. We have a simple belief — Unexpected Works. Two words that mean, the best idea is the one you never saw coming and is effective. So, whether it’s a billboard in the middle of a sheep paddock in New Zealand or work like Stayfree’s Project Free Period which triggered conversations at scale around two taboo topics – sex work and menstruation, creativity is most powerful when it's unexpected.”

“The formula for creating breakthrough creative work that drives business results is timeless,” DDB Worldwide Chief Creative Officer Ari Weiss said. “It’s how we bring that formula to life that changes on a daily basis. We’re not reinventing the wheel here. We’re simply putting more focused language around a truth that anyone who has ever worked at DDB can feel in their bones: Unexpected Works.”

DDB Worldwide has a rich history of tapping into the unexpected dating back to Volkswagen ‘Lemon’ and finding more contemporary interpretations in campaigns, including Skittles ‘Broadway Musical’, Marmite ‘Gene Test’ and Stayfree ‘Project Free Period’.

The proposition was revealed at DDB’s first-ever all-staff conference held virtually for its 10,000 staff around the world.