DDB Group Australia has announced the launch of RAPP in the Australian market, embedding precision within the creative agency to supercharge its data and marketing sciences capabilities.
RAPP is an Omnicom Precision Marketing Group (OPMG) agency with 18 offices around the world and a reputation for putting people at the heart of everything it does. It uses data to find out what makes people tick, technology to talk to them, and creativity to make them feel, engage and emotionally connect. OPMG is one of the fastest-growing divisions within Omnicom.
RAPP Australia will add individualisation, data science, advanced analytics, omni-channel CRM and more to DDB Group Australia’s offering, which also includes strategy, creative, PR and experience.
With more than 20 years of experience working in creative and research agencies across the UK, US, Australia, and Singapore, Dr Paul Blockey has been promoted to managing director and will lead RAPP Australia. Previously, he spent eight years leading Experience Strategy and Design for RAPP in the US. With a doctorate in psychology, he spent his earlier career as a practising psychologist, applying behavioural science in healthcare and community environments. Blockey will be based in Sydney.
Sheryl Marjoram, DDB Group Sydney CEO, said: “I am thrilled to welcome both RAPP and Paul Blockey to DDB Group.
“DDB has a long legacy and deep understanding of both ‘the long and the short of it’. Everyone now knows we need both, particularly as we face today’s volatile economic climate and changing consumer behaviours. To have DDB and RAPP in the same group, working to the same end, leaves me confident that we can keep our clients in front when it comes to working out how to have it all.”
Blockey, RAPP Australia managing director, said: “After 11 years in the US, it was time to come home. I couldn’t leave RAPP behind though, because I believe so strongly in our mission to ‘stand up for the individual’ in everything we do. I feel privileged to work alongside good people who are quite literally reshaping the future of marketing.
“Building RAPP in Australia with the team at DDB is exciting. We can get precise about how we understand and move individuals, a million people at a time. To be able to transform what clients can do with their data and mash this together with emotional creativity that delivers business growth is brilliant. I feel very much at home.”
As an example of how RAPP stands up for the individual beyond personalisation strategies, this year it launched a global accelerator program for femtech businesses focused on health equity.
–
Top image: Paul Blockey and Sheryl Marjoram