Ogilvy (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.
History
Foundation
The agency was founded in London in 1850, when Edmund Charles Mather began an advertising agency on Fleet Street. 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. The company grew in prominence in the 1920s after creating leading non-branded advertising campaigns such as "an apple a day keeps the doctor away" and "Drinka Pinta Milka Day".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. After a year, Ogilvy presented 32 "basic rules of good advertising" to Mather & Crowther. 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.
In 1948, David Ogilvy proposed that Mather & Crowther and another U.K. agency, S.H. Benson, partner to create an American advertising agency in New York City to support British advertising clients. The agencies each invested US$40,000 in the venture but insisted Ogilvy find a more experienced American to run it. David Ogilvy recruited Anderson Hewitt from J. Walter Thompson to serve as president and to supervise sales. Ogilvy would serve as secretary, treasurer, and research director. Along with their British sponsors, which held a controlling interest, Hewitt mortgaged his house and invested $14,000 in the agency and Ogilvy invested $6,000.
Hewitt, Ogilvy, Benson & Mather
On September 23, 1948, David Ogilvy opened his New York agency as Hewitt, Ogilvy, Benson, & Mather on Madison Avenue in Manhattan. Initially, Mather and Crowther and S.H. Benson gave the agency four clients that had small advertising budgets and were relatively unknown in the United States: Wedgwood China, British South African Airways, Guinness, and Bovril.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, procured by Hewitt in February 1949. Helena Rubinstein cosmetics was the first client won by Ogilvy.
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.
Ogilvy, Benson & Mather
Disagreements between Hewitt and Ogilvy, particularly about creative direction and who should run the agency, resulted in Ogilvy's resignation in 1953. The agency's backers supported Ogilvy, leading to Hewitt's resignation and the agency reopening as Ogilvy, Benson & Mather in 1954. Ogilvy hired retired Benton & Bowles executive Esty Stowell in 1956 to handle operations and non-creative functions.During the 1950s, Ogilvy, Benson & Mather became known for its successful campaigns. The agency, mainly under Ogilvy's creative direction, built a reputation for "quality" advertising, which was defined by its use of well-researched "long copy", large photographs, and clean layouts and typography. Ogilvy believed advertising's purpose was to sell through information and persuasion, as opposed to entertaining.
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.
Ogilvy & Mather
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.During the 1970s, Ogilvy & Mather acquired numerous other agencies: including S.H. Benson, one of its original sponsors, in 1971; Carson/Roberts in 1971; 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. The agency's growth through acquisitions was not led by Ogilvy, who feared the differing philosophies of the acquired agencies would undermine Ogilvy & Mather's culture and advertising beliefs, which he called the "True Church". 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.
1980s
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.
1990s
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.In 1994, then–North America president Shelly Lazarus and Beers helped win the entire global account of information technology corporation IBM for the agency. Worth an estimated $500 million in billings, it was the largest account shift in the history of advertising.
After four years, Beers stepped down as CEO. Lazarus, a 23-year veteran of the agency, was appointed CEO in 1996 and became chairman the next year. It was the first time a woman succeeded another woman at a major agency. Lazarus further developed Beer's brand stewardship approach by introducing "360-degree branding", the idea of communicating a brand message at every touchpoint the brand has with people.
David Ogilvy died at age 88 in the Château de Touffou, his home, in July 1999.
2000s
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 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. According to Adweek, Tham's efforts resulted in the agency being named Cannes Lions "Network of the Year" from 2011 to 2015.