DDB New York Hires Highly Awarded Australian Creative Team

NEW YORK, March 19, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- DDB New York, is pleased to announce that it has created positions for award-winning DDB Sydney creative team, Matthew Knapp and John Downing. Matthew Knapp has been named Senior Copywriter, and John Downing has been named Senior Art Director.  Knapp and Downing are tasked with collaborating on ideas across DDB New York's complete roster of clients.

A highly acclaimed Australian creative team, Knapp and Downing have received numerous accolades for their work on brands including McDonald's, Telstra, Tourism Australia, Lipton, Arnott's, Volkswagen, and Hasbro.  They have most recently received recognition from awards shows including the Young Guns, Spikes Asia Awards, London International Awards, New York Festivals, and Clio Awards for their conception of the McDonald's Playland campaign and a Bronze Pencil at Cannes for their "Cup-a-Soup: Soup Cart" campaign. The duo joins DDB New York from the DDB Sydney office, where they got their start in the industry following participation in DDB's "LaunchPad" internship program.

"DDB New York is thrilled to welcome Matthew and his partner, John who are testaments to the caliber of professionals the LaunchPad program produces," asserted Matt Eastwood, CCO of DDB New York, and former manager of Matthew and John at DDB Sydney.  "Matthew is everything you could want in a young creative.  He is talented, industrious, ambitious, persistent and eloquent. I knew I'd made the right choice in hiring him when he began to scare the senior creatives by cracking brilliant solutions to their shared briefs.  Matt is a future leader of our industry.  Of that I have no doubt."

Eastwood added, "John Downing is the epitome of the quiet achiever.  He's brilliant, but you never see it coming.  He just walks into your office and knocks your socks off.  Even after such a short time in the industry, he's in constant demand.  With John involved you're guaranteed a brilliant, award-winning campaign."

The Launchpad program was created by DDB Sydney and later expanded to DDB's offices in Melbourne and Auckland due to its growing popularity.  The talent development program has since spread to the New York office as it continues to bridge the gap between classroom education and hands-on application, aiding budding creatives, such as Knapp and Downing, to differentiate themselves within the competitive advertising industry. 

About DDB

DDB Worldwide Communications Group Inc (www.ddb.com) ranks among the top five consolidated advertising and marketing services global networks, according to Advertising Age. DDB emphasizes Social Creativity to grow the value and influence of brands around the world by creating ideas that people want to play with, participate in and pass along. The agency is consistently one of the most awarded at the Cannes Festival of Creativity and was recognized by The Gunn Report as one of the Top 3 Global Networks for 10 of the last 12 years. DDB was also recently named the Spikes Asia Network of the Year for the second consecutive year and the Eurobest Network of the Year for the third consecutive year. DDB Worldwide is part of Omnicom Group Inc. (OMC) and consists of more than 200 offices in over 90 countries.

Contact

Jeff Swystun: 212-415-2186
Elena Weinstein: 212-415-2191

SOURCE DDB Worldwide