The new agency will be based at DDB London's offices and is currently hiring account managers and creative teams. It will be headed by Jon Goulding, the WWAV client services director who became DDB's director of relationship marketing in August 2004 as part of the working alliance formed by the agencies. He takes on the role of managing director at DDB WWAV.
The launch does not affect the existing DDB and WWAV Rapp Collins agencies, which will still operate as standalone businesses.
Goulding will soon be joined by planning director Richard Hill, currently in the same role at sister Omnicom shop Proximity London, but with earlier experience at WWAV's customer insight arm Zalpha.
Able to use resources from the two agencies, DDB WWAV will pitch for integrated accounts in the UK and international markets, and service existing WWAV and DDB clients such as Hertz, Exclusive Resorts and Getty Images.
Michael Bray, president of DDB Europe, said: "Sitting alongside DDB London, DDB Stream and Tribal DDB, the new agency fits perfectly with our ethos of co-creation, acknowledging the fact that brand-changing ideas can come from anywhere and that increasingly we need to connect with consumers in a multitude of different ways."
The new venture will help grow the WWAV and DDB brands, according to Chris Gordon, WWAV's group chief executive.
Omnicom has already acted to bring agencies within its other networks closer together, by partnering Agency.com with TBWA\London and Tequila\London, and giving Cilla Snowball, the Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO chairman, the same role at Proximity.
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