- David Gianatasio

NEW YORK MDC Partners' Crispin Porter + Bogusky today said it has made a major expansion push in Europe, acquiring 50-person Swedish digital shop Daddy.

Though Crispin already has service offices in London, Spain and Germany, Daddy becomes the firm's first European creative hub.

Moving forward, the overall operation will be known as CP+B Europe. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Alex Bogusky, co-chairman of the Miami and Boulder, Colo.-based Crispin, noted that he has worked with Daddy on various projects in the past few years, and that teaming with the shop makes sense because digital communications has become the focus of Crispin's business.

Jonas Hedeback, CEO and founding partner of Gothenburg, Sweden-based Daddy, said: "Business and product development is a great part of [Crispin's] delivery and we feel we share that philosophy with them."

Crispin -- Adweek's U.S. Agency of the Year for 2008 -- last week claimed the Grand Effie for the year's most effective advertising on behalf of its "Whopper Freakout" campaign for Burger King. That work ranks among several recent high-profile and sometimes controversial ad plays from the shop. Others include BK's "Whopper Sacrifice" and "Whopper Virgins" efforts, as well as its aggressive push for Domino's Pizza that takes on the chain's sandwich rival Subway.

Daddy's clients include Autodesk, Capio, Ciba Vision and Heinz, among others.