-By Gregory Solman

LOS ANGELES When photo studio/cosmetics company Smashbox was reviewing candidates to become its first agency earlier this year, DDB Los Angeles' then new president, Nick Bishop, stood out as much for what he didn't say as for what he said.

"During an interview, one of the other agency heads asked, 'How many ads do you want to see at the end of the day?'" recalls Budd Taylor, president of Smashbox, Culver City, Calif. "I felt like saying, 'What didn't you get about what we are looking for?"

Taylor had made it clear to all contenders that he was, "if anything, diametrically opposed to hiring just an ad agency" and was seeking a business partner. "We needed an objective set of eyes," Taylor recalled. "The initial challenge to Nick and his team, purposely, was not a drive for creative only, but to get inside our heads, our brand, let us know if our current positioning is appropriate for our brand in the current marketplace."

Taylor says it wasn't until the fourth meeting of "us downloading to them" that Smashbox and DDB even batted creative ideas around. "Nick is the poster child for the hybrid nature of where his business should be going," Taylor added. "He talks at ease about business, creative, financial impact, the personality of the company."

For Bishop, new business has not been the focus of his first six months at the Venice, Calif., agency, though he has added Smashbox and Wellpoint assignments, reached the finals for Mitsubishi last week and, per sources, landed DDB in the final two (with Saatchi) for the Australian tourism business.

Rather, Bishop's priority is what he calls "now" business, or maintaining client relationships, an approach applauded by Dick Rogers, president of DDB North America. "The first priority, right off the bat, is would our clients bond to the new guy in town?" Rogers said. "He's handled that expertly."

Rogers brought Bishop into the Omnicom shop last November to replace Rick Carpenter, who became Chicago president and CEO. Bishop, 46, had been evp and chief progress officer at Grey Global Group/G2, New York, since 2003.

"His experience, intellect and style fits our culture," Rogers says. "Before I'd even hired him, I was getting calls from people saying, 'We love Nick.' He's infectious."

Bishop got his start at a four-man shop in his native Australia at 18, just after he'd finished high school but after he'd worked as a Jackaroo (Australian cowboy) and labored in uranium mines. After graduation, he joined Young & Rubicam, Adelaide, as a media planner, followed by stints at McCann in Sydney (twice), New York, Madrid, London, Amsterdam and San Francisco, where he led the Microsoft Windows win in 1999. The peripatetic Aussie next spent two years at Coca-Cola before starting a consultancy, The O Partnership, in Newport Beach, Calif. He rejoined the agency world at Grey in 2003.

"The opportunities here are what I call the three 'integs' -- integration, integrity and integral," says Bishop, who won his second H.K. McCann Leadership Award in 1999 for the "7 Things" he touted as evp and CEO in Sydney, as well as the agency's performance.

Bishop acknowledged that much of the integration at DDB L.A. has been done, with Tribal DDB, DDB Direct and del Rivero Messianu DDB now under one roof. But he said there's more to come. At DDB L.A. he consolidated all the P&Ls and is realigning people, departments and communications to be "more focused on delivering the same objectives."

The "integral" part is in how DDB L.A. is diving deeper into client business, to hopefully make the agency indispensible. Seth Kiner, director of customer experience management and marketing at Southern California Edison, Rosemead, a client for four years, has seen a difference. "Nick is more personally involved in our business," Kiner said, noting that Bishop spotted a problem at SCE and moved to solve it. "Nick personally hired a DDB employee with a b-to-b background to fill the gap. [The DDB employee] already made a huge impact," Kiner recalled. "[Bishop] wants us to achieve success, even beyond traditional advertising."

The third "integ" is "integrity in how we operate," Bishop explained. "Not in the sense that there is a lack of integrity here, but in bringing measurable ROI to clients and adding rigor to our systems and process so we're bringing creativity at every level."

The DDB network already has its "Three-P Principles" -- people, profit and product. Bishop adds a fourth: profile. He's intent upon strengthening the agency's ties to Hollywood, and the shop has already pitched 62 television story ideas to an undisclosed European program developer.

A proponent of fun (it's one of the "7 Things"), the married father of three boys wants the DDB brand to mean something more to the L.A. ad community, the business community at large and the Omnicom/DDB network. Starting locally, he encouraged the use of DDB branded bikes for employee use. An agency-held Guitar Hero tournament drew 26 agencies and more than 200 gamers to DDB's office.

Bishop's getting good reviews. "He's one of the few agency heads who made an outreach to us," said Russel Wohlwerth, principal at search consultancy Ark Advisors, L.A. "With his client-side experience, I think he's going to do good, new things for the agency. He's going to be a change agent."