OgilvyOne, one of the biggest direct marketing agency brands in the world, is to be axed as part of a restructure which will also see Ogilvy & Mather and Ogilvy PR ditched in favour of the pared down Ogilvy moniker.
The overhaul will take immediate effect in the US, and see the group adopt a single P&L. Operations in other countries, including the UK and Europe, Far East, Canada and South America will follow later this year.
OgilvyOne can trace its roots back to 1972, when O&M bought the direct marketing firm Hodes-Daniel Company as the foundation for Ogilvy & Mather Direct. Its first client, American Express, is still on board today.
At the time, the acquisition was said to fulfill David Ogilvy’s dream. One of his first jobs was selling high-end stoves door-to-door before he founded his agency. Ogilvy is quoted as saying: “Direct response is my first love, and later became my secret weapon.”
Much like the classic “marketing brand milkround”, O&M Direct was the stamping ground of many of today’s direct marketing agency professionals, especially creatives. In the Nineties, the department was run by the man many people view as the deity of DM creative, Steve Harrison.
By 1997, the agency had been rebranded OgilvyOne and within three years was operating out of 44 offices around the world.
Under the new structure, revealed by current global CEO John Seifert, OgilvyOne worldwide president & chief operating officer Günther Schumacher has been appointed chief delivery officer for Ogilvy.
There will now be a plenty of jostling for position among other agency management; O&M UK is currently run by Annette King, who is also CEO of OgilvyOne EMEA as well as chairman of OgilvyOne UK.
Seifert said: “We’re getting back to a proposition for the overall brand of Ogilvy that will be compelling and authentic to where we started the company under David [Ogilvy] in 1948.
“Our clients have told us it’s too complicated working in the operating structure that’s been built up over time. They want a simpler, more seamless access organisation to do business with. They don’t want us to show up with 17 business cards.”
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