JWT has named Matt Eastwood worldwide chief creative officer, the agency said Tuesday. Mr. Eastwood arrives at the WPP shop from Omnicom's DDB, where he had been chief creative officer in New York.

The global chief creative officer role at JWT has been empty since Craig Davis departed the agency in 2009.

Under Mr. Eastwood, DDB's New York office seemed to get a new lease on life. In 2012, following buzzed-about work for clients like Tropicana and the New York Lottery, Creativity named the shop an "agency to watch."

One of its biggest hits was "Hashtag Killer" for charity Water is Life. The campaign gathered tweets tagged with #firstworldproblems and had them read out, to heartbreaking effect, by impoverished people in Haiti. More recently, the shop created the "Drinkable Book" for the same client -- pages of which could be used to filter water.

"Matt Eastwood has everything I have been looking for in a global creative partner," Gustavo Martinez, global president at JWT, said in a statement. "He is a highly awarded creative with an international sensibility, living life as a New Yorker. He is respected by clients and knows how to build global brands. Matt joins JWT at a truly pivotal time in our history."

Mr. Eastwood's new role reflects the great work he's done at DDB New York, DDB North America President Mark O'Brien said in a statement. "We are fortunate to have senior creative talent who are highly engaged on our client's businesses and we are commencing a search that will consider both internal DDB candidates and external candidates for the New York CCO role," he said. "We expect to be able to announce Matt's successor in the near future, but until then it will be business as usual at DDB New York."