Report by Brian Fetherstonhaugh, chairman and chief executive officer
Brian Fetherstonhaugh, chairman and chief executive officer
OgilvyOne Worldwide achieved an excellent year in 2014 on all three major fronts – financially, creatively and strategically.
Financially, we set new all-time high levels for both revenue and profit. Our growth was fueled by a healthy combination of expanded assignments from current clients and new business engagements in categories including travel, hotels, fashion, insurance, mobile and beverages.
Creatively, 2014 was OgilvyOne’s best-ever performance at the major awards shows, with our work for British Airways leading the charge. The ‘Magic of Flying’ campaign from OgilvyOne London took home the Cannes Lions Direct Grand Prix plus another eight Lions, and a myriad of local awards. ‘A Ticket to Visit Mum’ from OgilvyOne New York won the Mike Hughes Creativity Award and Gold at the Direct Marketing Association’s ECHO Awards, plus the Grand Prix and Special Prize at the 4A’s Jay Chiat Awards. Other stand-out achievements included a Cannes Lions Innovation award for ‘Babolat Play,’ the world’s first connected tennis racket, and a slew of wins for clients including American Express, BlackRock, DuPont, IBM, Kimberly-Clark and Nestlé.
The reason behind our success is simple: OgilvyOne’s global Customer Engagement positioning has been embraced as the strategic heart of the network. Thanks to the hard work and commitment of our Customer Engagement specialists around the world, we are separating ourselves from the pack as the one agency that can really deliver sparkling creative solutions that are inspired by data. There is a strong correlation around the world between each office’s financial performance and its adoption of the Customer Engagement approach.
To further drive our strategic differentiation, we made major investments in 2014 in three growth areas:
- DAVE: Our D(ata-inspired), A(lways-On), V(aluable), E(xperiences) methodology went online this year with an automated tool that fosters new levels of insight, collaboration and consistency.
- OgilvyAmp: The next evolution of our global data offering is off to a fantastic start. Client response has been outstanding and we plan to launch several exciting new data products this year.
- e-commerce: Our global e-commerce practice continues to develop and grow rapidly and we committed to being a leader in e-commerce strategy and user design. Our Continuous Commerce™ approach is generating excellent client uptake.
To keep us ahead of the pack, we continue to acquire highly-promising businesses in growth sectors. In 2014, we welcomed several high-potential new businesses, including Verticurl (marketing automation), Bottle Rocket (mobile), dnx (business-to-business), Social Lab (social CRM) and three digital specialists: PennyWise (India), Brandigital (Latina) and Gloo (South Africa).
With our positioning as the world’s top Customer Engagement agency and continued investments in creativity, content and data, we see a bright future ahead.