JWT London’s Bell joins DDB as Lipton creative director

Former JWT London creative director Nick Bell is joining Omnicom-owned DDB Europe as international creative director on its Unilever-owned Lipton business.

The iced-tea brand spends in the region of £10m globally, but around just £500,000 in the UK, where it remains a niche product.

The appointment follows Unilever’s consolidation of the global Lipton account into DDB Worldwide last year. The agency has worked with the brand in the US in 2004 and across Europe since 2005 (MW March 22, 2007).

Previously, it was JWT London’s UK agency of record, where Bell was executive creative director.

It marks a return to the industry for Bell, who left JWT in January last year,following a number of account losses at the agency, including Vodafone and Reckitt Benckiser.

The decision to remove him was made by Craig Davis, the JWT global creative director and JWT London’s executive chairman Toby Hoare.

Bell previously worked at Leo Burnett as creative director.

The Lipton win was a fillip for DDB, which had lost the £10m UK business for tea brand PG Tips, also owned by Unilever, to Mother less than a year earlier (MW May 4, 2006). DDB London had held the account since 1922.

Tribal DDB, the digital arm of the network, was appointed to Lipton’s global digital account in 2006.

DDB European chief executive Michael Bray says the agency chose Bell because it was looking for a “globally recognised creative talent” who could deliver work of the “highest creative order” for the Lipton brand. Bell will be based in London.