DDB Canada has rebranded its direct response and CRM unit Rapp Canada as Track DDB, following a global decision to launch Rapp Worldwide as a separate agency network within the Omnicom family.
Rapp Canada’s vice-president, managing director Paul Tedesco will transfer his existing role to Track. The 50-person agency will continue to be based out of Toronto. Several affiliate offices in other major markets are also rebranding as Track.
DDB previously introduced the Track brand in Hamburg and Berlin in March, with Tedesco saying as many as three other offices could open before the end of the year.
Paul Tedesco
DDB Canada unveiled the brand’s new logo, website (TrackDDB.com) and marketing materials on Wednesday. Track will utilize global resources as they come on-stream, with early plans including tapping into the German offices’ work in the ecommerce space.
“It’s kind of given us renewed vigour as a network, and we’re really excited about it,” said Tedesco.
Rapp has been a part of the DDB family for approximately 15 years, but is being spun off as a separate network (though the name is being retired in Canada) as it increasingly takes on the characteristics of a full-service agency – with offerings including traditional mass-media advertising and digital creative.
“As a global agency Rapp is becoming more of a do-all, whereas we’ve kind of built this expertise in Canada in the data analytics and CRM fields,” said Tedesco of the decision.
The move has no impact on Track’s existing client relationships, which are a mix of both Rapp-specific clients – such as Electrolux and SickKids Foundation – and DDB clients that utilize its DR/CRM capabilities, such as Volkswagen Canada. Tedesco said Track would “absolutely” pitch assignments outside of the DDB umbrella.
No jobs are being eliminated, or new positions added, as a result of the rebranding.
The Track name and brand identity was developed by Omnicom’s Interbrand and is intended to represent the transformation of the CRM discipline as it moves beyond customer retention and loyalty to include trackable digital touch points, said Tedesco.
“Our specialty is the one-to-one customer engagement space and it’s really about things driven by data,” said Tedesco. “When you think about the word ‘Track’ what we’re trying to portray is that customers take different tracks to a brand.
“Some of them branch out and some of them go in different directions, and our goal is to be able to lay the proper foundation of tracks that take them where they need to get to.”
Tedesco said the preliminary focus will be on building out Track’s capabilities with existing clients. “Our goal at this point in time is to bring the best solutions to the clients we have, and expand our use of technology,” he said.
