Ogilvy rebrands, streamlines operations as agency landscape evolves

Dive Brief:

Ogilvy announced in a news release the agency's "re-founding" with a new organizational structure and brand identity. The reinvented agency brings together OgilvyOne, Ogilvy & Mather Advertising and Ogilvy Public Relations, as well as several sub and specialty brands under a unified group.
The agency unveiled a new design and logo to better reflect the "One Ogilvy" brand. The unified group is focused on several key areas, including transforming from a holding company to one brand with a variety of crafts and capabilities, such as brand strategy, advertising, customer engagement, commerce, public relations and influence, digital transformation and partnerships.
The company is also launching Ogilvy Consulting, which will work across its portfolio and focus on digital transformation consulting, growth, business design and innovation. Ogilvy plans to establish a formal global partnership structure and a new digital platform called Connect, which focuses on knowledge-sharing, professional development and community networking.

Dive Insight:

Ogilvy’s rebranding and restructuring come as a response to broader issues affecting traditional ad agencies, from digital disruption to new competition from smaller, specialized shops and larger global management consultancies like Accenture and Deloitte. Ogilvy is hoping that by centralizing the agency, it can more nimbly respond to brands' shifting needs, fitting in-line with parent company WPP's strategy of streamlining its services with a focus on agility.

Ogilvy's launch of a consulting services arm is interesting and mirrors similar moves made by WPP's Kantar division earlier this year with the rollout of Kantar Consulting, which merged Kantar Added Value, Kantar Futures, Kantar Vermeer and Kantar Retail. Ogilvy, which was started by David Ogilvy in 1948 and became one of the more recognizable names in the Madison Avenue crowd, first announced plans for its re-founding over a year ago in recognition of a changing agency landscape.

"This has been an 18-month journey for our brand and the largest transformation in the history of our agency," John Seifert, chief executive at The Ogilvy Group, said in a statement. "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."

Major brands have been rethinking their marketing strategies, favoring in-house operations, other marketing services providers or working more directly with social platforms, like Facebook, rather than with ad agencies. Many have cited a desire to cut costs or strained relationships with agencies as reasons for the shift. Procter & Gamble announced in January that it was reducing the number of agencies that it works with by another 50% over the next few years, after already cutting its agency lineup by 60%. The CPG giant projected that the move will save $400 million. A number of other major brands, including Ford and American Express, have recently announced plans to put certain parts of their marketing and advertising business up for review.

By restructuring, Ogilvy seems to be addressing these issues head-on with a plan to focus on digital transformation and innovation. While 2017 was a rough year for ad agencies, a UBS survey predicted that they would bounce back in 2018, as global ad spend was expected to rise 4% to 5%.