By Prabhakar Mundkur
With the recent apocalypse of well-known agency brands, JWT, Y & R, Wunderman, Grey and several others, it seems in comparison, that the only agency to escape the onslaught of mergers in the WPP group is Ogilvy.
There is a near mythical story about a conversation that was once overheard in one of New York’s many synagogues between two heads of the world’s top communication conglomerates. “You know JWT is past its prime. It is very good at handling old established brands like Kellogg’s and Unilever. The best ad agency in the group is Ogilvy. They handle modern brands like IBM and many others. They are ready for the future. The two men departed the synagogue after that propitious meeting. Almost 25 years later, the JWT brand was slain.
The dialogue in the synagogue seems to have come true in many ways. Ogilvy has withstood the test of time as one would call it. They have continued to be one of the most creative agencies in the world coupled with their knowledge of new media, customer experience and data-driven communication. It is no wonder then that it continues as Ogilvy and refuses to be overcome by mergers and acquisitions. The only acquisition ever was when Sir Martin Sorrell pitched for the agency from WPP in 1989 when he acquired Ogilvy in a hostile acquisition for $864 million. A move that irked David Ogilvy into calling Sorrell ‘an odious piece of shit’ publicly. A little later, David Ogilvy’s tirade against Sorrell changed from ‘shit’ to ‘jerk’.
But David Ogilvy quickly changed his earlier animosity against Sorrel. He was to write much later, “To my surprise, I liked you. . . I was flattered when you quoted my books, and even more so when you invited me to become Chairman of your company, which goes by the name WPP. I accepted your invitation.. . It remains for me to tell you that I am sorry I was so offensive to you-before we met.
When Ogilvy was dying of cancer, Sorrell visited him and promised to look after his wife and even paid for his nurses, according to Miles Young.
The magic of Ogilvy
For one, Ogilvy pursued excellence in creativity relentlessly unlike its contemporary brethren like JWT. Also, Ogilvy embraced direct marketing much earlier than some of the other agencies in the old days, quickly giving it skills beyond mass media. For many decades, JWT produced middle-of-the-road advertising for its largest client Ford which once accounted for 25% of the agency’s revenue making JWT Detroit its biggest office in the world. That coupled with its client portfolio of old world brands perhaps was it undoing. It failed to embrace the tilt to modern forms of communications as well as Ogilvy. Its slew of modern brands like IBM, Verizon, Ikea and others I believe helped Ogilvy to keep in touch with the future much better than other agency brands which have got acquired and withered away. It has been creating iconic, culture changing advertising ever since Ogilvy founded the agency in 1948.
So here is a lesson to the rest of the agency brands out there. Please look at what Ogilvy is doing. Because if you follow them, you will stay alive and hope to avert the death of advertising as predicted by many.
Let me end this piece with one of my favourite quotes from David Ogilvy.
“The consumer isn’t a moron; she is your wife. You insult her intelligence if you assume that a mere slogan and a few vapid adjectives will persuade her to buy anything”
Long Live Ogilvy!