Tribal DDB Nabs Mickey D’s Business

Alley-based interactive shop Tribal DDB will handle the global interactive marketing and advertising duties for fast food retail leader McDonald’s Corp.’s.

Tribal, the interactive unit of Omnicom’s DDB Worldwide — McDonald’s traditional agency of record — previously performed interactive duties for McDonald’s operations in Austria, Denmark and Germany.

Over the past several months, however, McDonald’s and DDB had been leaning on Tribal to provide guidance for all of the Chicago-based fast food giant’s Internet activities. And following what a spokesperson described as an “informal review,” Tribal DDB won the position of oversight on all of McDonald’s online work.

Billings were not disclosed for the account.

New York Digital Design and Leo Burnett, among others, have previously done interactive work for McDonald’s; it is not known which agencies participated in the review.

A spokesperson for Tribal said the newly-won work remains chiefly consultative at the moment, but would expand in coming months to cover marketing, advertising and e-commerce initiatives. Both companies declined to discuss the specifics of upcoming campaign work in detail, but a McDonald’s spokesperson said it would involve “surprising and relevant ways” for the brand to connect with consumers online.

The work will most likely be integrated into the traditional-side advertising and branding work out of DDB’s Chicago office, the lead on the McDonald’s corporate branding and creative account.

“McDonald’s is a world-class brand and we’re honored to have been appointed their strategic digital partner,” said Matt Freeman, CEO of Tribal DDB North America. “We look forward to exploring new and innovative ways of leveraging the power of this great brand online.”

A spokesman from McDonald’s said that it had decided to consolidate ownership of its interactive marketing work with Tribal in part because of its handling of the earlier strategy.

“We’re impressed with Tribal DDB’s strategic leadership and creative application within the digital environment,” said Peter Sterling, McDonald’s assistant vice president of national marketing.