Office Depot, Inc. Awards Marketing Agency of Record Duties to WPP

Y&R to Lead Bespoke Partnership of Best-in-Class Agencies Across Network

Office Depot, Inc. ODP and Y&R announced today that Office Depot has selected WPP's WPPGY Y&R-led Office Depot Partnership as the brand's new marketing partner. The agency appointment is an important step as Office Depot continues its transformation from a traditional office products retailer to a broader business services platform.

The Y&R-led Office Depot Partnership brings together best-in-class solutions from across the WPP network, including the expertise of Landor, VML and MediaCom. The Office Depot Partnership will handle consolidated marketing activities: Y&R will lead extensive brand platform development and creative campaign work, with Landor handling brand identity development, VML focusing on digital transformation and ecommerce solutions, and MediaCom handling media duties.

"Our vision and strategy to transform Office Depot is laser focused on better serving small business owners, enterprise customers and consumers with the products and technology services they want," said Jerri DeVard, chief marketing and customer officer of Office Depot, Inc. "The Y&R-led Partnership will walk this road of transformation with us as we bring our vision to life in a new way that excites and energizes people about Office Depot."

Y&R Global CEO David Sable, stated, "We see this as an exciting opportunity to work with people who want to transform their business, and we are partnering across disciplines and channels. To that end, we have drawn from the highest tier of expertise around the WPP network to join Office Depot in what we believe will be a category revolution."

This selection follows the news that Office Depot recently unveiled its Austin market makeover of 14 stores in Austin, Texas, that integrate the company's BizBox offering. The reimagined stores offer a first-of-its-kind suite of services for small businesses and entrepreneurs.

About Office Depot, Inc.

Office Depot, Inc. ODP is a leading provider of business services and supplies, products and technology solutions through its fully integrated omni-channel platform of approximately 1,400 stores, online presence, and dedicated sales professionals and technicians to small, medium and enterprise businesses. Through its banner brands Office Depot®, OfficeMax®, CompuCom® and Grand&Toy®, the company offers its customers the tools and resources they need to focus on their passion of starting, growing and running their business. For more information, visit news.officedepot.com and follow @officedepot on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Office Depot is a trademark of The Office Club, Inc. OfficeMax is a trademark of OMX, Inc. CompuCom is a trademark of CompuCom Systems, Inc. Grand&Toy is a trademark of Grand & Toy, LLC in Canada. ©2018 Office Depot, Inc. All rights reserved. Any other product or company names mentioned herein are the trademarks of their respective owners.

About the Office Depot Partnership Companies

Y&R is one of the leading and most iconic global advertising agencies. It operates as a Global Boutique, connecting deep insights from local business needs and consumers with strategies and objectives that travel across borders. United by a global infrastructure and common tools and technology, all Y&R clients have access to people and resources from everywhere in its network. Y&R has 189 offices in 93 countries around the world, with clients that include Bel Brands, Colgate-Palmolive, Danone, Dell, Pepperidge Farm, Sanofi, Telefonica and Xerox, among many others. Y&R is part of WPP WPPGY.

Landor is a global brand strategy and design company with 27 offices across 21 countries, dedicated to creating compelling brand stories and creating vivid brand experiences. Landor delivers a broad range of services that make the most of today's technologies and limitless opportunities, building agile brands, internally and externally, across channels and borders.

VML is a full-service marketing agency with tremendous capabilities in leading digital transformation for its clients. It specializes in creating customer and enterprise platforms that deliver new revenue streams and business models using technology focused on services, operations and commerce experience. Transformation is achieved by a world-class fusion of strategy and intelligence with platforms and experiences, all underpinned by in-house technology skills that deliver across the connected consumer experience.

MediaCom is one of the world's leading media planning and buying agencies, and part of the GroupM family. GroupM is WPP's media investment management group and the world's largest media-buying entity, with more than $102 billion in billings. MediaCom has a unique approach to planning and buying across paid, owned and earned media. By optimizing the entire communications system of content and connections, not just the individual channels within it, MediaCom drives demonstrably better business results for its clients.

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