Ogilvy redefines company in global shake-up

Lindsay Bennett
By Lindsay Bennett | 6 June 2018
 
The new Ogilvy branding

Ogilvy is the latest agency to go through a global shake-up of its business, involving a rebrand and restructure, as well as a redesigned logo.

Seventy years to the day after copywriter David Ogilvy launched his own agency in Manhattan, the company has announced its "refounding" that promises to deliver on its tagline, 'Make Brands Matter'.

Along with this new positioning comes a new organisational structure, consultancy practice, logo, new colour scheme, website, digital platform and employee video.

The organisational restructure sees Ogilvy reorganise around six units that it’s calling “capabilities,” which include brand strategy; advertising; customer engagement and commerce; earned influence and public relations; digital transformation; and partnerships.

The capabilities structure will replace sub-brands within Ogilvy, with employees’ roles and job titles now centered around “crafts,” such as client service, data or business development.

Moving towards a more unified group has been a goal for Ogilvy globally, but also Ogilvy in Australia, which two years ago scrapped internal P&Ls - a model which was then later rolled out to other offices.

The WPP-owned agency is also rebranding its OgilvyRED strategy division to Ogilvy Consulting as it looks to better compete with the consultancy businesses that are enroaching on adland.

"This has been an 18-month journey for our brand and the largest transformation in the history of our agency," Ogilvy Group global CEO John Seifert says.

"To meet the changing needs of our clients, we're taking a bold step to redefine our company and build a new model for our industry, which we helped to create over 70 years ago."

In a similar move to Publicis', who recently launched its AI platform Marcel, Ogilvy is launching a software platform called Connect, to help employees across the network collaborate.

The business is also commiting itself to furthering diversity, setting out a goal that 50% of Ogilvy’s leadership, who will assume “partner” roles under the new structure, will be women in the next 24 months, up from 36% currently.

Last year, Ogilvy Australia celebrated its 50th birthday in Australia. Read the full feature here.

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