Advertising Agency Profile (Unit 1)

BBDO


Ownership: The agency began in 1891 with George Batten's Batten Company who was managed by William H. Johns, then later in 1928 they merged with a company called BDO (Barton, Durstine & Osborn) and the founders of that are Bruce Fairchild Barton, Roy Sarles Durstine and Alex Faickney Osborn, so it then became BBDO after the merge. Its founders of BBDO are William H. Johns, Bruce Fairchild Barton, Roy Sarles Durstine and Alex Faickney Osborn.

• In 1891, George Batten, the owner of Batten Co. opened his one-room advertising agency in New York, he had no clients and one employee. 
• In 1894, Batten's was the first agency to install in-house printing.
• In 1906, the agency then had 50 employees and moved to Metropolitan Annex, occupying the entire 11th floor. 
• In 1918, George Batten died at the age of 64 which is where William H. Johns becomes president of the Batten Co.
• In 1919, The Barton & Durstine Co. agency opens and Bruce Barton is president with Roy Durstine as secretary-treasurer. Then in august that year Alex Osborn joins the agency so it is renamed as Barton, Durstine & Osborn.
• In 1923, Both BDO and Batten Co. move to the Knapp Building. BDO leased an entire floor and the Batten Co. with 246 employees takes a floor and a half. 
• In 1928, they announce there merge between BDO and Batten CO. with branch offices in Chicago, Boston and Buffalo and over 600 employees.

Operating model: BBDO now currently has 15,000 employees, 289 offices in 80 countries. It is the second largest global advertising agency network. The different departments consist of the creative department who create the agency's Ad, the accountant services who have to be aware of their clients needs that can be instructed to the agency's personnel and should get approval from the clients on the agency's recommendations to the clients. They have the Media Buyer, this is a department of employee's who have contacts with the suppliers of various creative media. The production department who ensure that the TV commercial or print ad etc gets produced. They also have planning and research departments, these are to help with the creation of ad's, researching target audiences etc.

The sainsburys advert above represents BBDO's used of cross media platforms, at the end of the video it has '#ChristmasIsForSharing' this is a hashtag which are often used on twitter, this is a way of advertising because it highlights topics which people can tweet about, often having the involvement with celebrities.

Products: BBDO are working with world leading brands and in their portfolio are companies such as Bayer, Mars, Starbucks, Campbell's, HP, Mercedes-Benz/Smart, Visa, Diageo, P&G, Volkswagen, Johnson & Johnson, Fedex, Wrigley and many more. They specialise in creating advertising campaigns with tell stories, especially ones that move consumers emotionally and to change the way they think, feel or act towards a brand, then take into consideration where they distribute the stories.
Clients of BBDO that sell similar products are Mercedes Benz and Volkswagen as they both sell cars. P&G and Johnson and Johnson both sell health care products. Mars and Wrigley are both sweet treat related products.

Market Position: BBDO's main 3 competitors are JWT (New York City), Leo Burnett Worldwide (Chicago) and McCann world group (US). It is a worldwide company and named Global Agency of the Year by Adweek in 2011. It is one of three global networks along with DDB worldwide and TBWA worldwide. In 2011, BBDO won every global pitch it participated in and bout two thirds of its U.S pitches. Revenue was up by 15%, while globally, revenue increased 18% to an estimated $2.4 billion.

Competitors: In 1928, George Batten's Batten Company merged with BDO (Barton, Durstine & Osborn  making it BBDO. Both these companies were advertising company's. Batten Company had an $8 million-billing and BDO had a $23 million billing, the merge was down to the fact they both moved into new office building. BBDO's main 3 competitors, JWT, Leo Burnett Worldwide and McCann World group all cover similar sort of work as BBDO.