By Eleanor Dickinson
DDB Dubai has won the creative account for McDonald’s food trust business following a competitive three-way pitch.
The Omnicom-owned agency will enter a contractual partnership with the fast food giant after working together on a project-by-project basis during the past year.
The account will entail creating an engaging consumer platform for 2017 around promoting the quality of McDonald’s food.
The win follows DDB North America’s seizure of the estimated $1 billion-advertising account as
the company consolidated its business into Omnicom and thereby ended its 35-year partnership with Leo Burnett.
Meanwhile, in the Middle East Leo Burnett MENA will continue to handle McDonald’s creative duties as agency of record.
However, it is understood that the Publicis Groupe-owned agency also pitched against DDB for the food trust business, alongside Omnicom’s TBWA\RAAD.
“The pitch, which spanned over a month, was one of the region’s most high-profile with A-list agencies throwing in their weight,” said Hubert Boulos, CEO of DDB Middle East.
“McDonald’s has always fascinated me as a brand. I am overjoyed to
take our collaboration to another level with a full-fledged
partnership, following our first collaboration in 2015, which was more project-based.”
The first leg of DDB’s latest campaign for McDonald’s will roll out in late 2016.
Earlier this year, the agency released the regional campaign ‘Life Tastes Better’, which ran alongside the ‘I’m lovin’ it’ tagline.
Leo Burnett MENA first took over the McDonald’s regional account in 2010 when the restaurant franchise dropped FP7 without pitch, despite that agency having held the business for 17 years.
McDonald’s media in MENA is handled by Omnicom’s OMD.