Our Approach
No two brands are the same and no two brands should ever have the same solution. However, we believe all successful brands do have one thing in common: a great idea at heart.

What's our idea of a great idea?

Great ideas are easy to spot - they're the ones that make you say "I wish I'd thought of that" - but harder to define. Even so, a great idea does bear certain hallmarks.


It's simple and bold. It's authentic to the brand. It's engaging, memorable and enduring. And big enough to influence everything a brand does.


Great ideas are central to what we do. In fact, they're the closest thing we've got to a house style.

 

How do we come up with great ideas?

Through blood, sweat and tears with lots of tea and coffee!
By finding out everything there is to know about a brand. We dig deep and ask awkward questions. We unlock stories. All of this helps us to gain that extra little bit of insight that can be turned into something big.

Why do we believe it's so important?

Our creative philosophy is simple: whether you're a start-up challenger or a 200 year-old icon, you still need a great idea if you want to connect with people.

Keeping up the good work

The DB Awards

Our internal awards started way back in the 90s as a bit of fun. Originally called ' The Dogs Bollocks Awards', it ended up as a beauty parade, where everybody voted for their favourite projects of the year - which wasn't entirely fair because the sexier projects invariably won.

As the Group blossomed, with offices in Amsterdam and Singapore, it was time to take the awards more seriously; to judge the quality of work, create a benchmark and constantly encourage self-improvement.

We created a judging system that allows the truly great ideas to be recognised regardless of market, discipline or brand owner. We use a clear set of criteria, based on our creative philosophy, to judge the entrants. Successful projects go forward to the end-of-year contest, with the highest scorer taking the ultimate prize. We invite an external guest to join our final judging session, usually a Senior Director from one of our clients. Their scores can really shake up the results.

We also track the progress of the previous year's finalists to award our own Design Effectiveness trophy, as well as a local hero award: a chance for each office to vote for its own favourite project. The spirit of the original 'Dogs' awards still lives on, however, with bone trophies and dog-tags presented to all the winners.

The DB Student Awards

The DB Awards also extends to our student brief for final year university students, which we have set for many years, encouraging the highest creative standards. The DB Student Awards runs in parallel with our internal awards and is also judged by our creative directors and guest judge.