Global, Regional and Local Market Networking Brings Home the McDonald's and Volkswagen Accounts to DDB in Singapore

SINGAPORE, Oct. 20, 2006 -- DDB Group Singapore has been named agency of record for both the McDonald's Singapore and Volkswagen Group Singapore accounts, effective immediately.

The twin win for DDB Singapore comes after a year long campaign of consistent and coordinated business development initiatives, using DDB's Asia Pacific global McDonald's and Volkswagen network teams.

DDB Singapore Group Managing Director Richard Bleasdale said, "We have worked very hard over the last 12 months to combine our keen local Singapore market and consumer insights with the strength and depth of our global and regional relationships with McDonald's and Volkswagen. The result of this approach has been two clients who are happy to choose DDB because they see a local team who understands their challenges, backed by a regional and global team who can provide best-in-class thinking and experience."

Initial work for the McDonald's Singapore business began in October 2005 under the regional leadership of Peter Rodenbeck, VP, Regional Director of DDB Asia. The assignment was a joint Hong Kong-Singapore launch project for the new rice burger product Fan-tastic(TM). With creative led by DDB Hong Kong, a 360-degree launch campaign for Fan-tastic(TM) was developed and launched into the Singapore marketplace. This project marked the first time in 15 years that DDB and McDonald's collaborated on a Singapore project. Rapp Collins, DDB's CRM partner, was part of the winning team.

The highly successful campaign won a Bronze at the Singapore EFFIE Awards 2006 and achieved the highest ad recall on the country's AdTrack monitor for three consecutive months. Following this early success, McDonald's subsequently awarded McDelivery and Filet-O-Fish projects to DDB Singapore.

Mr. Rodenbeck noted, "Our momentum on McDonald's in Asia has been driven by passion, partnership and persistence. The Singapore win started with a small crack in the door, but as in other markets that door was fully opened by the collective shoulders of passionate people from all over the DDB-McDs network. We are now in five markets, from just one only 24 months ago, and look forward to working together to open a few more doors in the year to come."

To win the Volkswagen Singapore account, DDB Singapore adopted a proactive strategy and worked over a nine-month period with DDB's Global Business Director, Martyn Farmer, and his team from DDB Berlin.

As agency of record DDB Singapore has been tasked to manage the creation of all corporate brand and product launch work using a fully integrated communications approach. The Singapore office will also be required to carry out a range of regional communications coordination duties.

Martyn Farmer commented, "This is a significant win for DDB Singapore locally and in the region and further demonstrates the collaborative power of our network in developing creative solutions to address our clients' business needs."

Volkswagen Group Singapore Managing Director Dr. Olaf Duebel stated, "The global partnership between DDB and Volkswagen spans over 40 years and has created some of the most memorable campaigns in advertising history. With this collaboration, we hope to build on this rich heritage and develop captivating and exciting communications for our consumers in Singapore."

DDB Group Singapore

DDB Group Singapore (http://www.ddb.com.sg/) is comprised of DDB Singapore, Rapp Collins Singapore, Trigger, Bazooka! and DDB Health. DDB Group Singapore is a full service marketing communications agency offering consulting, research, strategy, advertising, design, promotional, direct marketing, interactive and events services. DDB Singapore is part of the DDB Worldwide Communications network with over 200 offices in almost 100 countries.

Rapp Collins Singapore specializes in direct marketing and is part of the Rapp Collins Worldwide network with over 50 offices in nearly 40 countries.

Trigger is DDB Group's strategic planning unit offering branding consultancy services as well as consumer and marketing research capabilities.

Bazooka! is a specialist promotional marketing group, which is focused on consumer and trade promotional marketing as well as the development of marketing premiums.

DDB Health is part of the DDB Health network of agencies that operates across 30 markets globally and is focused on the pharmaceutical and biotechnology sectors.