DDB North America introduces new growth team

Elaine Purcell joins DDB North America as Chief Growth Officer

Adrienne Marcino joins DDB North America as Business Development & Growth Director

NEW YORK, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — DDB North America today announced a new growth team to oversee new business across the region. Elaine Purcell joins the North America leadership team as Chief Growth Officer and Adrienne Marcino joins as Business Development & Growth Director. The partnership will handle net new business and organic growth strategy across DDB’s North America Offices in the US and Canada.

Says DDB North America CEO Justin Thomas-Copeland: “We are thrilled to be reinvigorating our growth team, bringing in two incredible people with very distinct backgrounds. Elaine’s perspective and skillset will be critical as we redefine the DDB North America positioning and growth ambition. Her tenacity, vision and proven ability to win are exactly what DDB needs at this moment. She has spent years as the cornerstone of winning pitch teams, and I cannot wait to see what she does as the leader of growth for DDB in the region. Elaine’s strategic approach will be complemented by Adrienne’s new business rigor. Adrienne’s keen eye for net new opportunities is matched by her skills in creating and managing a new business machine. In Elaine and Adrienne, we have found a winning combination in not only skillset, but ability to foster a true culture of growth. I believe that they will make growth a point of pride across the region.” 

As a former Head of Strategy at several the world’s most successful advertising agencies, Elaine takes an entirely fresh approach to the role of Chief Growth Officer. She brings a lens of psychology, business transformation and cultural change to her work. It is this strategic instinct that will allow her to reimagine how DDB approaches growth. One of her primary goals is to unlock the potential within DDB’s next generation positioning – Unexpected Works. 

Elaine has deep experience in financial services, retail, real estate, spirits, packaged goods and non-profit organizations. Her former agencies include Havas, Droga5, Grey and Saatchi & Saatchi.

“If there’s one thing I understand, it is how brands grow – my background in strategy sets me up to focus on salience and relevance. Being remarkable. Being memorable. Being unexpected,” says Purcell. “My approach to the role is not just bringing a strategist’s eye to all things growth – I believe it’s about approaching the discipline of growth in an entirely new way. What our clients need from agencies to compete and win in their respective categories is changing more than ever – so it’s up to us to match that change. Our task is to provide Unexpected Works to clients and yield unreasonable results for DDB. We will shift the conversation around growth to achieve this, working collaboratively with leadership to cultivate a culture of growth where new business is everyone’s business.” 

Adrienne Marcino joins the growth team at DDB North America with a proven track record of account wins during her time as Director of Business Development at Terri & Sandy. Throughout her career, Adrienne has helped agencies double in size and has a proven track record of year over year revenue growth through net-new wins. Her pitching strategies have proven effective against larger, established agency networks. Adrienne brings experience pitching, winning and growing accounts across a wide variety of industries including food & beverage, health & wellness, entertainment, tech, insurance, personal care, CPG and more. 

Says Marcino: “DDB is primed for a phase of explosive growth. The leadership team has done an incredible job thus far of setting the offices up for success and I am eager to further fuel their momentum by driving connectivity and sharing skills, talents, and knowledge across the region. Together, we are going to increase our win rate, grow existing business and fuel a passion and hunger for new business at every level. 

DDB North America’s new growth team announcement follows the release of the global agency’s evolved brand positioning entitled ‘Unexpected Works.’ Thomas-Copeland sees Unexpected Works as a vehicle for growth in the region. Says Thomas-Copeland, “Betting on our commitment to Creativity + Connection to deliver Unexpected Works, will spark growth for our clients’ business and our own across the region.”

ABOUT DDB WORLDWIDE  
DDB Worldwide (www.ddb.com) is one of the world’s largest and most influential advertising and marketing networks. DDB has been named 2021 Network of the Year by D&AD and ADC, as well as numerous times by the Cannes International Festival of Creativity and the industry’s leading advertising publications and awards shows. WARC has listed DDB as one of the Top 3 Global Networks for 12 of the last 15 years. The agency’s clients include Molson Coors, Volkswagen, McDonald’s, Unilever, Mars, Johnson & Johnson, and the U.S. Army, among others. Founded in 1949, DDB is part of the Omnicom Group (NYSE: OMC) and consists of more than 200 offices in over 90 countries with its flagship office in New York, NY.

ABOUT OMNICOM
Omnicom Group Inc. (NYSE – OMC) is a leading global marketing and corporate communications company. Omnicom’s branded networks and numerous specialty firms provide advertising, strategic media planning and buying, digital and interactive marketing, direct and promotional marketing, public relations and other specialty communications services to over 5,000 clients in more than 100 countries.

Contact: Donna Tobin, [email protected], 617-620-0359

SOURCE DDB North America