Огилви: История и эволюция рекламного агентства

Advertising agency

Ogilvy is a New York City based British advertising, marketing, and public relations agency. It was founded in 1850 by Edmund Mather as a London based agency. In 1964, the firm became known as Ogilvy & Mather after merging with a New York City agency that was founded in 1948 by David Ogilvy. The agency is part of the WPP Group global agency network. It provides services in five areas: growth and innovation; advertising, brand and content; public relations and influence; experience; and health. It also operates a strategy division Ogilvy Consulting. By the 1860s, Mather had a U. S. branch called Mather & Abbott at 335 Broadway, New York City. After Mather's death in 1886, his son, Harley Lawrence Mather, partnered with Herbert Oakes Crowther, and the London agency became known as Mather & Crowther. The agency pioneered newspaper advertising, which was in its infancy, due to a loosening of tax restrictions; and educated manufacturers about the efficacy of advertising while producing "how to" manuals for the nascent advertising industry. In 1921, Mather and Crowther hired Francis Ogilvy as a copywriter. Ogilvy eventually became the first non family member to chair the agency. When the agency launched the AGA cooker, a Swedish cook stove, Francis composed letters in Greek to appeal to British public schools, the appliance's best sales leads. Francis also helped his younger brother, David Ogilvy, secure a position as an AGA salesman. The younger Ogilvy was so successful at selling the cooker, he wrote a sales manual for the company in 1935 called "The Theory and Practice of Selling the Aga Cooker". It was later called "probably the best sales manual ever written", by Fortune magazine. David Ogilvy sent the manual to Francis who was persuaded to hire him as a trainee. Ogilvy began studying advertising, particularly campaigns from America, which he viewed as the gold standard. In 1938, David Ogilvy convinced Francis to send him to the United States on sabbatical to study American advertising. Over the next ten years, Ogilvy worked in research at the Gallup polling company, worked for British Intelligence during World War II, and then spent a few years farming among the Amish community in Pennsylvania. Hewitt, Ogilvy, Benson, & Mather's first account was securing magazine advertising space for Wedgwood. The agency had its first successful ad with Ogilvy's concept "The Guinness Guide to Oysters", which was followed by several other similar food and Guinness pairing guides. The first large client was Sunoco (then called Sun Oil), procured by Hewitt in February 1949. A breakthrough came after the agency was approached by Maine based shirt manufacturer C. F. Hathaway Company. The company only had a small budget, but its president promised to "never change a word of copy". In 1951, they introduced "The man in the Hathaway shirt" campaign. The advertisement featured an aristocratic man wearing an eyepatch that Ogilvy purchased on the way to the ad's photo shoot. Hathaway was sold out of shirts within a week of the first ad's printing. The campaign increased the shirt maker's sales by 160 percent, resulted in new business for the agency, and turned the recognizable "Hathaway Man" and his eyepatch into a popular cultural trope.

Disagreements between Hewitt and Ogilvy, particularly about creative direction and who should run the agency, resulted in Ogilvy's resignation in 1953. That same year, the agency nearly doubled in size after winning the Shell Oil account. The agency agreed to work for Shell on a fee basis rather than the traditional commission model and became one of the first major advertising agencies to do so.

In reaction to the growth of international advertising, Ogilvy, Benson & Mather formed an equal partnership with Mather & Crowther in November 1964. Under the terms of the partnership, the two agencies became subsidiaries of a new parent company called Ogilvy & Mather, which was headquartered in New York. In January 1965, both changed their names to Ogilvy & Mather and the parent company became known as Ogilvy & Mather International Inc. Scali, McCabe, Sloves in 1976; and Cone & Weber in 1977. Another acquisition, Hodes Daniel, resulted in the establishment of the agency's direct response service, called Ogilvy & Mather Direct, in 1976. It was renamed OgilvyOne Worldwide in 1997. After moving permanently to his French castle Château de Touffou in 1973, David Ogilvy stepped down as chairman and became Head of Worldwide Creative in 1975.

The agency opened its public relations division, Ogilvy & Mather Public Relations, in 1980. The next year, Ogilvy & Mather established the Interactive Marketing Group and became the first major agency to establish an interactive capability. In December 1983, David Ogilvy retired as Creative Head. In 1985, Ogilvy & Mather International was renamed as the Ogilvy Group Inc. The group included three divisions: Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide, a new name for all Ogilvy & Mather offices including Ogilvy & Mather Direct and Ogilvy & Mather Public Relations; Scali McCabe Sloves Group; and several independent associate agencies, such as Cole & Weber. Kenneth Roman, president of Ogilvy & Mather United States, was named president of Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide. and was promoted to chairman in 1987. He became chairman of the Ogilvy Group in 1988, succeeding Graham Phillips. In 1989, WPP plc, a British advertising holding company, acquired the Ogilvy Group for $864 million, which, at the time, was the most ever paid for an advertising agency. David Ogilvy initially resisted the sale, but eventually accepted the title of WPP honorary chairman, a position he relinquished in 1992. Following the departure of Roman for American Express in 1989, Graham Phillips became the chairman and CEO of Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide.

In 1992, Charlotte Beers replaced Graham Phillips as chairman and CEO of Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide. Philips remained as vice chairman. Beers was recruited from the Tatham, Laird & Kudner advertising agency and was the first "outsider" to lead Ogilvy & Mather. She was also the first woman to lead a major international agency. Beers introduced the concept of "brand stewardship" to the agency, a philosophy of brand building over time. She is also credited with helping Ogilvy & Mather bring in new business after a downturn. David Ogilvy died at age 88 in the Château de Touffou, his home, in July 1999.

Ogilvy purchased the Federalist Group, a Republican lobbying firm, in 2005. The Federalist Group subsequently changed its name to Ogilvy Government Relations. The firm is known for lobbying against climate change mitigation efforts on behalf of some of the biggest oil and chemical groups in the world. In 2005, Shona Seifert and Thomas Early, two former directors of Ogilvy & Mather, were convicted of one count of conspiring to defraud the government and nine counts of filing false claims for Ogilvy, over billing for advertising work done for the United States Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) account. The agency was hired by the ONDCP in 1998 to create anti drug ads aimed at adolescents. At the time, it was the largest social marketing contract in history. Ogilvy & Mather repaid $1.8 million to the government to settle a civil suit based on the same billing issues. Miles Young became Worldwide CEO in January 2009 after leading the company's Asia Pacific division for 13 years. Lazarus remained chairman until 2012, when Young succeeded her. Under Young's leadership, the agency focused on a "Twin Peaks" strategy of producing advertisements that are equally creative and effective. New business was also Young's priority. Young promoted Tham Khai Meng, his creative partner in the Asia Pacific division, as Worldwide Chief Creative Officer in 2009. Tham laid out a five year plan to improve the agency's performance at Cannes.

In 2010, the agency established OgilvyRED, a specialty strategic consultancy. Ogilvy's production division, RedWorks Worldwide, merged with production company Hogarth Worldwide, forming Hogarth & Ogilvy in March 2015 to serve the production needs of all of WPP's agencies. The agency was named both the Cannes Lions "Network of the Year" and CLIO "Network of the Year" for four consecutive years, 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015. It was also named Effies "World's most Effective Agency Network" in 2012, 2013 and 2016. Ogilvy Public Relations in China faced accusations in the media of overworking a 24 year old employee who died of a heart attack while in the office in May 2013. The claims were not confirmed. Four years later, a similar event occurred with a young staffer in the Philippines. In June 2015, Young announced he would retire as both Worldwide chairman and CEO to take the position of warden at his alma mater, New College at Oxford University. In November 2017, according to reports, Ogilvy & Mather won the Turespaña account, worth two million euros. Similar to other advertising, marketing, and public relations agencies in the years leading up to 2017–2018, Ogilvy has seen an influx of advertisers and publishers establishing in house creative teams, and an industry wide increase in emphasis on digital media ad buying. Over the years, Ogilvy responded to changing demands by creating numerous businesses; and the magazine Fast Company wrote that it "looked more like a holding company of its own". By 2018, Ogilvy was organized as a number of individual units that handled different areas of focus. Ogilvy Public Relations was responsible for the agency's public relations offering. OgilvyOne was the agency's direct marketing unit The firm's Ogilvy CommonHealth Worldwide unit focused on healthcare communications and marketing. The agency handled production work through Hogarth & Ogilvy, a joint venture between Ogilvy & Mather and Hogarth Worldwide formed in 2015. As of 2013, sales activation and shopper marketing were administered through Geometry Global, a unit formed through the merger of several WPP agencies, including what was previously known as OgilvyAction. In addition to the agency's main services, Ogilvy & Mather operated several other specialty practices. In 2010, the agency created Ogilvy Noor, a practice focused on creating marketing that appeals to Muslims. OgilvyRED was established in 2011 as a consultancy within the agency that worked with Ogilvy's other units to prepare plans for clients' marketing strategies. The agency formed Social@Ogilvy in 2012 to work on social media projects for clients. The practice operated within each of Ogilvy & Mather's major units, including advertising, direct marketing, public relations, and digital marketing. The behavioural sciences practice #OgilvyChange was also founded in 2012 by Rory Sutherland in Ogilvy & Mather's London office. #OgilvyChange employed psychologists and other behavioural scientists to consult on using research in these fields to understand and influence consumers. OgilvyAmp (short for "amplify") handled tasks related to the data planning and analytics needs of clients. The unit was established in 2014 and was present at over 50 of the agency's offices. Ogilvy Pride was formed in the agency's London office in 2015 as an LGBT practice. Company leadership said Ogilvy became too complicated with these individual units. CEO John Seifert launched the company's "re founding" in June 2018, during which the company changed its name from Ogilvy & Mather to Ogilvy, restructured, and rolled out a new, unified brand and logo to simplify its services. The company retained its separate strategy division, but renamed it to Ogilvy Consulting. He restructured Ogilvy's services under five core business units: Advertising, Experience, Public Relations, Health, and Consulting. Notable clients the agency acquired in 2021 included vodka brand Absolut (March), car rental holding company Enterprise Holdings (April), The New York Philharmonic (July), TD Bank Group (September), World of Hyatt (May), US agency Federal Emergency Management Agency (October), and Coca Cola (November). In September 2022, Devika Bulchandani replaced Main as CEO. Notable clients the agency acquired in 2022 included automobile manufacturer Audi of America (May).

One of the agency's first accounts was Guinness, which tasked it with introducing the beer to an American audience. In 1950, "The Guinness Guide to Oysters" appeared as a magazine advertisement that listed nine kinds of oysters and their characteristics. The advertisement was successful; and several other pairing guides, including those on birds and cheeses, followed it. In 1951, "The Man in the Hathaway Shirt", an advertisement created for C. F. Hathaway Company, was first published in The New Yorker. It immediately increased sales for the company, and more ads followed. Each ad featured George Wrangel, a middle aged man with a moustache and an eye patch. The eye patch was a prop found by David Ogilvy to give the ad what he called "story appeal". Ambassador Lewis Douglas, who wore an eye patch, inspired the concept. To familiarize Americans with Schweppes, the agency created a spokesman named Commander Whitehead. Edward Whitehead, who was the company's president, was introduced as the Commander in a 1952 advertisement, which showed him arriving in New York with a briefcase labeled as the secrets of Schweppes. The campaign resulted in Schweppes becoming the standard tonic used in the country. The campaign continued into the 1960s. Following this, David Ogilvy helped Puerto Rico's governor establish and advertise the Casals Festival of Music. The agency created ads using visually captivating images to position the island as a paradise. In 1952, Ogilvy & Mather launched a campaign to increase tourism for the British Tourist Authority. The "Come to Britain" campaign replaced drawings with photographs of the picturesque countryside. The advertisements resulted in the tripling of tourism to the UK. After the agency was assigned the Rolls Royce account in 1959, The resulting advertisement featured the headline "At 60 miles an hour the loudest noise in this new Rolls Royce comes from the electric clock", which Ogilvy took, giving credit, from a journalist's review. The agency launched the company's "Do You Know Me" campaign in 1974, which focused on the prestige of carrying an American Express card. Each advertisement described the accomplishments of semi recognizable celebrities who used the card, with their identities being revealed at the end. The campaign emphasized that even if a person was not immediately recognizable, their American Express credit card would be. The campaign ran until 1987. A campaign called "Portraits", which followed "Do You Know Me", showed card carrying personalities such as Tip O'Neil and Ella Fitzgerald engaged in leisure activities. Ogilvy & Mather launched the slogan "My Life. My Card." in 2004 with ads featuring celebrities such as Ellen DeGeneres and Tiger Woods. In June 2017, American Express shifted almost all the business it had with Ogilvy to McGarryBowen.

Ogilvy & Mather won Merrill Lynch's print and television advertising business in the late 1960s. In 1971, the agency suggested using a bull as a symbol of the company. The visual became the company's logo.

In 1994, Ogilvy & Mather replaced multiple agencies to become IBM's sole agency for all of the company's marketing and branding efforts. The worldwide campaign "Solutions for a Small Planet" was launched to help rebrand the company.

Ogilvy & Mather created the slogan "Incredible India" for the country's Ministry of Tourism in 2002. The campaign targeted an international audience and aimed to boost tourism.

Dove became an Ogilvy & Mather client in the 1950s, and the agency developed the brand's "1/4 cleansing cream" messaging. In 2004, the agency launched the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty, a marketing campaign that focused on redefining society's pre set definitions of "beauty". A short film called Sketches earned over 114 million views online and Business Insider named it the most viral ad of all time in 2013.

Ogilvy developed the controversial idea of carbon footprint in a BP ad in 2005, which marketed the idea that common individuals are responsible for climate change.

Ogilvy has been cited as a major inspiration for the fictional ad agency featured in the television series Mad Men. Longtime Ogilvy employee and executive Jane Maas was cited as the inspiration for the Mad Men main character Peggy Olson. In June 2022, Ogilvy was named Network of the Year by the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.

An online video created by Ogilvy & Mather U. K. as viral marketing for the Ford SportKa hatchback was disseminated via email in 2004, despite being rejected by Ford of Europe. The 40 second video, which showed a lifelike computer generated cat being decapitated by the car's sunroof, led to criticisms from bloggers and animal rights groups. Both companies apologized for its release and launched investigations into how the video was leaked. In 2014, Ogilvy India created "Bounce Back", a campaign for Indian mattress company Kurl On that illustrated the stories of well known figures who "bounced back" from adversity. The low point of each narrative arc showed the person rebounding off of a Kurl On mattress. One of the ads featured Malala Yousafzai and depicted her being shot. The ad was criticized in the media, and Ogilvy & Mather issued a public apology to Yousafzai and her family. Also in 2014, Ogilvy & Mather apologized following complaints about the racial implications of an advertisement it created for the South African charity Feed a Child. The advertisement portrayed a black boy being fed like a dog by a white woman. In 2019, the anti corruption site The Sludge Report included Ogilvy's name on a list of contractors working for the U. S. Customs and Border Protection agency at the point where the agency was implementing the Trump administration family separation policy. Subsequently, Buzzfeed published a transcript of an internal meeting in which employees challenged Ogilvy CEO John Seifert, with one employee saying: "We're willing to work with companies that have oil spills. We're willing to work with companies that sell big tobacco. We're willing to work with companies that contribute to obesity rates and I guess, what I'm mostly hearing is that we're willing to work with companies that are allowing children to die and that are running concentration camps."