Lubars and BBDO Keep Leading by Example

(MoneyWatch)  While most giant ad agencies have been slow to make the jump into digital media and consumer tracking techniques, BBDO continues to lead by example. Last week, BtoB Marketing announced its Top Agency awards, and BBDO New York took top honors in the Large Agency category. That's hardly a surprise: Since chairman and chief creative officer David Lubars began rebuilding the agency in 2006, loads of major clients have come back to the storied firm's doorstep -- GE, Hertz, Chrysler, Sony, Target, among others. And big jumps in revenue and billings have come with them.

Once known mainly for blockbuster commercials from television's golden age, BBDO in recent years has done a 180 under Lubars, embracing everything from guerrilla marketing to webisodes. Now the agency deserves additional kudos for exploring "areas such as behavioral planning and engagement mapping, [and] hiring new directors and staff for these areas," according to BtoB.

Engagement mapping is a fairly new tracking technique that takes into account various touch points along a given path to a conversion when attributing that conversion. Previously, only the last click counted when attributing a conversion. With engagement mapping, multiple clicks -- and it some cases offline actions -- can be taken into account. The company is so smitten with the technique that in January it added industry vet Elyse Hoelzer as its director of engagement mapping.