BBDO acquires Barefoot

The 15-year-old agency will become part of BBDO North America and a member of the Proximity Worldwide Network, BBDO's global direct and digital marketing network.

Proximity currently services clients in 50 countries around the world. Its efforts to date have focused on building the network in Europe and Asia.

“We will use the acquisition of Barefoot to help bolster our Proximity footprint in the US,” said a BBDO representative who declined to be named, in an e-mail to DMNews. “We felt [that] this was a good time to forge a partnership.”

Doug Worple, Barefoot's founding partner and CCO will continue to lead Barefoot and will also become a member of the Proximity Worldwide board. Each of Barefoot's partners will stay with the company and continue to hold shares in the agency.