David Shaw has joined DDB Singapore in the position of chief strategy officer
DDB Group Singapore has appointed David Shaw as Chief Strategy Officer to head its brand consulting and planning divisions.
Shaw (pictured left) was a copywriter and creative head at Saatchi, JWT and BBDO in Singapore and Canada, then became a regional marketer and marcom leader at HP and Lenovo, before co-founding a Challenger brand consulting practice trained by and aligned with Adam Morgan of ‘EatBigFish’. The move signposts DDB’s drive to move upstream towards being a marketing agency.
“I’ve been a fan of DDB for a long time – huge respect for what David and Neil have accomplished at the agency – so it was hard to resist the call. But what struck me when I got here is how tightly knit Jeff, Melvin, Chris and the teams are. You need that trust and collaboration to scale your success in these challenging times,” said Shaw.
The agency is revamping its offering, adding a cutting-edge to its planning methodology, with new insights and marketing solutions through its T-divisions. It also offers consulting modules to help clients in shaping growth-driven brand strategy, activation, employee engagement and organisational alignment.
“David is an exceptional practitioner: He’s a creative-turned-client-then-consultant, and gets what clients want from an agency in creative marketing solutions. What’s more, he’s a gentleman who fits our ‘talented and nice’ mold at DDB. I think clients will like his marketing sense and savvy,” commented David Tang, CEO of DDB Group Singapore and Asia.
This is a homecoming of sorts for Shaw, as he was creative director at JWT when he worked with the likes of Neil Johnson (creative chairman), Chris Chiu (chief creative officer), Joel Chin, Chris Lim and Chew Ping Nan (creative group heads), all of whom are now at DDB.
“We’ve created an agency for serious clients, so we need a team of incredible talent. With Chris Chiu on board in our creative engine room, we want to ramp up strategy and planning. It doesn’t get any better than David Shaw. But I’m going to have a hard time dealing with two Davids.” added Neil Johnson, Creative Chairman at DDB Group Singapore.