Eugene Cheong is Chief Creative Officer of DDB Asia

DDB, the worldwide marketing communications network has appointed Eugene Cheong as Chief Creative Officer of DDB Asia. He will be charged with overseeing creative output at DDB’s offices in China, Hong Kong, Seoul, and Singapore, working alongside CEO David Tang.

On taking up the new role, Cheong said, “I’m dumbfounded that I’ve not met David Tang until now. He’s the planning mirror image of me, and we’re going to have a boatload of rip-roaring fun. That’s the priority. And while we’re at it, we’re going to create Asia’s most formidable agency.”

Commenting on it, David Tang said, “It’s an exhilarating time for DDB in Asia. Under the banner of Unexpected Works, we’re gearing up on creative firepower to drive really effective work for clients. We’re excited to have Eugene join us – he’s not just a creative great, he’s a warhorse and a gentleman.”

Cheong is a highly-awarded creative with over 250 Cannes Lions and 2,500 campaigns to his name and brings over 30 years of experience in the industry, he has worked with some of the biggest brands in the world, including Coca-Cola, Guinness, Singtel, Huawei, SC Johnson and Shangri-La Hotels. He’s also devoted to causes he believes in. Cheong was named among the world’s 50 best copywriters by the D&AD Copy Book and was recognized as The One Show’s most awarded creative in 2016. In 2018, he was appointed to the latter organisation’s International Board.

Cheong has wasted no time getting into his new role. Over the past month, he has already worked with adam&eveDDB and DDB offices in Chicago, Paris, Shanghai, Seoul, and Hong Kong across major clients and pitches.

About DDB Worldwide:

DDB Worldwide Communications Group LLC, known internationally as DDB, is a worldwide marketing communications network. It is owned by Omnicom Group, one of the world’s largest advertising holding companies. The international advertising networks Doyle Dane Bernbach and Needham Harper merged their worldwide agency operations to become DDB Needham in 1986. At that same time the owners of Doyle Dane Bernbach, Needham Harper and BBDO merged their shareholdings to form the US listed holding company Omnicom. In 1996, DDB Needham became known as DDB Worldwide.

History DDB Worldwide:

Bill Bernbach and Ned Doyle worked together at Grey Advertising in New York, where Bernbach was Creative Director. In 1949, they teamed up with Mac Dane, who was running a tiny agency. Together they started Doyle Dane Bernbach in Manhattan. Dane ran the administrative and promotional aspects of the business; Doyle had a client focus and Bernbach played an integral role in the writing of advertising, leading the creative output of the agency.

The agency’s first ads were for Ohrbach’s department store exemplifying a new “soft-sell” approach to advertising – with catchy slogans and witty humour contrasting the repetitive and hard-sell style in vogue until then. The new agency was initially successful in winning business for clients with small budgets. Their campaigns for Volkswagen throughout the 1950s and 1960s were said to have revolutionized advertising. Notable campaigns included the 1959 Think Small series of Volkswagen advertisements, which was voted the No. 1 campaign of all time in Advertising Age’s 1999 The Century of Advertising. In 1959, the firm created the character Juan Valdez for the National Federation of Coffee Growers of Colombia. In 1960, the agency won the account of Avis, then the number-two auto rental company. The tongue-in-cheek approach, “We Try Harder Because We’re Number 2,” was a major success (and remains part of the company’s slogan today: “We Try Harder”). The DDB “Daisy” campaign is considered to have been a significant factor in Lyndon B. Johnson’s defeat of Barry Goldwater in the 1964 United States presidential election and landed Mac Dane on the infamous Nixon’s Enemies List. 1972’s Little Mikey commercial for Quaker Oats ran continuously in the United States for twelve years.

A branch office was opened in Los Angeles in 1954. In 1961, DDB opened its first international office in West Germany to service Volkswagen. Significant growth came in the mid-1960s after the firm signed Mobil and the available budgets grew materially. Offices in London and other European locations were opened. Bernbach was appointed Chairman and Chief Executive Officer in 1968 when the agency was publicly listed; he became Chairman of the Executive Committee in 1976