Check Out the Amazing Welcome Kit This Ogilvy Office Gives Each New Hire

It’s a red box, but in some ways it’s more like a red carpet.

Ogilvy Cape Town has been giving a remarkable welcome box to employees over the past year. And now, it’s been shortlisted in the design competition for this year’s One Show. Deservedly so, as it’s probably the best agency employee welcome package we’ve seen.

The so-called “Induction Box”—made by Ogilvy’s RedWorks production arm (which was recently merged with its other production agency Hogarth Worldwide)—is based around David Ogilvy’s short book The Eternal Pursuit of Unhappiness and his famous eight habits of highly creative communities.

The box brings the concepts to life in a tangible way, making employees much more likely to read and absorb the philosophy underpinning the agency. Check out the contents of the box in the images below.

Click the images to enlarge.

We spoke to Ogilvy Cape Town about how the box came about, and how it’s been received.

What was the motivation for creating something like this?
The idea behind this is to give someone a piece of Ogilvy & Mather, because at the end of the day, the box represents who we are and what we stand for. It is easy to pull someone aside and say, “Welcome to the agency.” But with the Induction Box, we want to make people feel like they belong, like they have found a place here. Working at Ogilvy is so much more than just another job. We wanted to create something that reflects this.

How did David Ogilvy’s ideas inform the design of the boxes?
When you are hired by Ogilvy, it is because someone saw something great in you and that you would be a good fit here. There is a definite “Ogilvy Way” based on The Eternal Pursuit of Unhappiness (or Divine Discontent) and David Ogilvy’s 8 Creative Habits—Courage, Idealism, Curiosity, Playfulness, Candor, Intuition, Free-Spiritedness and Persistence. Getting new staff to understand and embrace all of this in a fun and engaging way was our main focus. The Induction Box solidifies the importance of what we stand for.

What was RedWorks’ role in designing the boxes?
Inspired by The Eternal Pursuit of Unhappiness, Redworks decided to unpack the eight habits by making them tangible. Their solution was a layered box containing interesting, fun, quirky elements representing the eight habits, accompanied by phrases elaborating on it. It not only reflects Ogilvy’s rich heritage, but also provides all the necessary information about the working environment in a visually stimulating way.

How do new hires generally respond?
The response has been well beyond what we could have imagined. It ties everything together beautifully. People light up when they receive them. We often get a nudge from existing employees asking if they can get one, too.

Have other Ogilvy offices shown interest in using the boxes, too?
Not only has the Ogilvy Induction Box been introduced to staff at Ogilvy & Mather Johannesburg and Durban, but O&M London and Australia have been working on their own adaptations to give to new employees.



Ogilvy Japan Campaign Takes ‘With a Bullet’ Quite Literally

Here’s an unusually dramatic campaign created by Ogilvy Japan to promote its own Creative School in Tokyo.

Ogily Asia COO Kent Wertime describes the school as “an initiative…where we train young creators for three months to specifically develop talent” while the agency’s own release calls it “a unique tool to recruit interns” from Japan’s art student community.

In order to encourage those students to enroll in the program during the new academic year, the organization created a series of posters that take the phrases “let it all out” and “with a bullet” quite literally.

OCS Final Cannes x4

The images present a disconcerting but — perhaps — accurate depiction of the daytime nightmares plaguing young creatives.

OCS Final Cannes x4

OCS Final Cannes x4

From the release:

“…we created a series of posters that showed youngsters ‘blowing their creative brains out’ with their hands, creating the most artistic splatters on the wall.”

Not sure how this one would go over in the States…

OCS Final Cannes x4

The images are nothing if not striking.

We are, however, slightly concerned about the emotional state of Japan’s art student community after seeing them.

Agency:Ogilvy & Mather, Tokyo, Japan

CCO: Ajab Samrai
Creative Director: Federico García
Art Director: David Morgan, Federico García
Copywriter: Federico García
Illustrator Hash: Takuro Okuyama
Illustrator Sole: Soledad Grossi
Illustrator Saki: Saki Murakami
Illustrator Rianti: Rianti Hidayat
Photographer: Hiromasa Gamo
Producer: Kohei Ishii

BREAKING: Ogilvy Chicago Wins Jimmy Dean

Jimmy Dean Logog

Jimmy Dean, classic maker of breakfast sausages and self-described “No. 1 protein breakfast brand in America,” has chosen Ogilvy Chicago as its new creative agency of record after an unannounced review.

TBWA/Chiat/Day held the account for more than a decade before the client launched its review in late 2014. The change affects only Jimmy Dean and none of the other brands owned by parent company Tyson Foods (Sara Lee, Hillshire Farm, Ball Park, etc.).

From the client:

“The Jimmy Dean brand has appointed Chicago-based Ogilvy & Mather as the brand’s new creative agency of record. Ogilvy replaces TBWA/Chiat/Day out of Los Angeles. Chicago-based Ogilvy & Mather will be responsible for driving the overall strategy and creative vision for the brand.”

TBWA established the client’s tagline “Eat Jimmy Dean” when it won the account from Leo Burnett in 2004. The latter agency’s final campaign for the client marked the first time that the brand’s ads had not featured its country star namesake (who died in 2010), and last year the New York Times noted the company’s decision to move into an entirely new space: the dinner table.

That article concerned what would be TBWA’s last work on the account, which attempted to re-position the client as a leading frozen lunch and dinner provider by focusing on its 16 new offerings with the help of the long-established “Sun Guy” character (also known as actor Haynes Brooke), the “Sunniest Day of the Year” site, and the #FollowTheSun hashtag.

The news marks a major win for Ogilvy, which just announced a series of promotions and a renewed focus on digital/analytical work across its North American organization. At the time of the New York Times article linked above, Jimmy Dean dominated the “hand-held breakfast items” category with “52.8 percent” of more than one billion in total revenues. Its revenues increased across categories in 2013, when it spent $61.6 million in advertising according to Kantar Media.

Tyson Foods did not elaborate on plans for future campaigns and Ogilvy had no comment on the win.

Hires and Promotions at Ogilvy North America

Ogilvy

Today John Seifert, chairman of the global brand community at Ogilvy & Mather, released an extensive internal memo detailing new hires, promotions, and assorted changes at the agency.

The key points involve new hires and promotions:

  • Liz Taylor, formerly ECD of social at Ogilvy Chicago, will now be ECD of digital and social for Ogilvy North America. She will report to North American CCO Steve Simpson.
  • Edward (“Teddy”) Lynn and Mark Himmelsbach, co-founders of IPG’s Mediabrands Publishing, will run Ogilvy’s content marketing unit Content@Ogilvy. They will be CCO and president, respectively, of the North American organization. Lynn and Himmelsbach will report to Simpson and Seifert himself.

Other staffing moves include the promotion of Senior Partner Peter Fasano to the role of regional managing director for Social@Ogilvy in North America and Michael Dobak, CEO of Ogilvy West and South, to a position taking “executive responsibility for North America’s business transformation agenda” and partnering with Seifert himself and other members of the agency’s international “business transformation team.”

Most of the note itself is a general statement on the changing media landscape that made these shifts necessary, but it’s interesting from a strategic perspective.

We’ve reprinted some portions below.

CONTENT MAKING IN OUR SOCIAL AND DIGITAL AGE

I’m writing to share some important steps we are taking in North America to strengthen our offering and grow our business faster in the context of the rapidly shifting social, digital, and content making landscape.

Background

You don’t need a memo from me to confirm that the world has changed.

The late David Carr, the New York Times’ brilliant media reporter and columnist, wrote presciently about the rapidly shifting media and cultural landscape. He described it as, “making and distributing content in the present future we are living through.”

We have not been naïve about these disruptive forces, and their impact on our clients’ brands and businesses … as well as our own. Over the past five years we launched Social@Ogilvy and Digital @Ogilvy as cross-discipline, cross-geography business practices. Our ambition was simple: to enable those employees with new age social, digital, and content making skills to collaborate beyond reporting lines and accelerate the entire agency’s capacity to innovate in response to our dynamic media age.

We argued that “Social and Digital” were not separate businesses within the Ogilvy & Mather Group. We developed these practices as change agents, helping every business discipline, every geography, every department, and every client team to transform for the “modern age” of brand building, strategic marketing, and creative communications’ services.

Ogilvy & Mather Advertising now creates content rich “platform” brand campaigns that embrace every aspect of social and digital activation and delivery.

In fact, our entire North America network (which includes Ogilvy branded disciplines, Geometry, CommonHealth, and our independent Specialist Companies) is now making digital, social, and “omni-channel” content core to everything we do. And, yet, with all this progress we share a collective concern that our current operating structure is a barrier to progress in the new age. Thinking and working in silos puts our future – and competitive advantage – at risk.

We are now broadly agreed on the need to be more collaborative, more connected, and more integrated in our delivery to clients as convergence grows in data, content, technology, media, and social distribution.

As we think through changes to our business model for this modern marketing revolution, the worldwide Executive Committee, led by Miles, has agreed to make 2015 a year of network-wide experimentation. To modernize our structure and ways of working, we need to learn together how best to connect our extraordinary portfolio of talent, specialist skills, and tools to transform our business for growth and brand leadership in this new age.

Summary

The world has changed. And our world is changing faster than ever as the forces of digital, social, and new content making, publishing, and distribution possibilities redefine how we think, how we work, and the product we create for our clients.

2015 is a year of experimentation. As a worldwide network, we intend to transform our business and operating model for this new age through purposeful testing and learning.

In North America, we are committed to supporting this global agenda by: bringing in new talent with a proven track record of success in the new environment; creating new leadership roles that will facilitate changes in how we collaborate across the company and better connect all of our assets for business growth and brand leadership; building cases of learning that will connect us with the rest of the worldwide network on this global transformation journey.

This will not be easy. We will have to confront pre-existing conventions and personal biases that resist change across the company. We need to embrace experimentation and dispel any fear of failure. Given all of our assets, we could not be better positioned for growth, however, we can only adapt to the new realities of our business if we break some windows and work as one team for the good of Ogilvy & Mather as a whole.

Let’s pull together and make this happen.

Ogilvy, Geometry Get Musical with Glass in Suntory Spot

Here’s some interesting work from Ogilvy & Mather Japan and Geometry Global.

To support client Suntory, which also sponsors one of Japan’s premier concert halls in Tokyo, the agencies collaborated on a project in which the drink glasses of 300 volunteers were turned into musical instruments.

The audio on this one seems to be real (though possibly augmented, of course):

How did the agencies do it? They worked with “world-class conductor Mr. Yutaka Sado,” who helped coordinate or conduct the “audience of up to 300? who showed to observe and make music (or some approximation thereof) with “carefully crafted note-shaped ice placed in each glass.”

Masato Mitsudera, Head of Creative for Geometry Japan, says:

“…we looked to create a concept that would appeal to a younger audience – one that is increasingly interested in the classical music scene.”

From Ogilvy Japan CCO Ajab Samrai:

“This integrated campaign seamlessly brings together both the musical and drinks heritage of the company with the world’s first ‘drink instrument.’”

Not sure that it’s the world’s first, but if we may offer our humble opinion, this project was a bit more successful than a recent attempt by DDB Brussels to sell classical music to the young folks with some ill-timed twerking.

 

Agency?                             Ogilvy & Mather Japan (O&M) / Geometory Global Japan (GGJ)
CCO?                                  Ajab Samrai (O&M)
CD?                                    Masato Mitsudera (Head of Creative of GGJ)
PL?                                     Yasushi Arikawa
AD?                                    Akihiko Ono
C?                                       Shinichiro Fukushima
MD?                                   Masahiro Saito
AD?                                    Koichi Maeda
AE?                                    Ai Shimomura
Production?                      TOKYO / TAIYOKIKAKU
Pr?                                      Kazushige Fujie, Hidekatsu Nagasawa
PM?                                    Toshiaki Fujishima, Tomoko Morishige, Ryusuke Yoshida
Dir?                                    Eiji Tanigawa
Ca?                                     Senzo Ueno
Lig?                                    Masachio Nishida
Art?                                    Etsuko Akiba

Sound Design?                 invisible designs lab

Music?                               audioforce

Ogilvy ‘Leaks’ New Spot for Depends

Ogilvy launched a new ad extending last year’s “Underwearness” campaign for Depend, which has seen competition from P&G’s Always Discreet, which launched last summer.

The new spot shows young women wearing Depend (without pants) while going about their daily business. “For the 51 million of us who may need a different kind of underwear, this is new Depend Silhouette Active Fit,” the voiceover announces. “It’s slim and smooth, so wearing it is no big deal.” The spot ends by offering viewers a free sample at underwareness.com.

While AdAge characterizes the ad as using sex to sell incontinence products, the women in the ad aren’t really sexualized. Rather, the pantslessness is meant to display that wearing the product is “no big deal” as well as showing off that Silhouette Active Fit looks more like typical underwear and allows more freedom of movement than these kind of products typically did in the past — all selling points for younger women who may feel embarrassed about bladder leakage.

“It’s a recognition that many women with bladder leakage worry that people can tell,” Liz Metz, brand director of Depend, told AdAge, adding that the spot is “recognition that one in three women deal with this issue, and they come in all shapes and sizes.”

UPS Is About Way More Than Just Shipping Boxes in Its Heady New Global Push

UPS knows you’ve got problems, and it wants to help.

The shipping service is repositioning itself as a business-to-business solution for companies with logistical considerations trickier than just picking up and dropping off boxes. To that end, a new global campaign from Ogilvy debuts the tagline “United Problem Solvers” (because abbreviations can be puns too, see?).

The debut ad essentially calls on viewers to bring UPS their stickiest package delivery issues, while a montage of action shots show examples of how the company is working behind-the-scenes in of-the-moment industries. That means making sure medicine is transported at the right temperatures, and offbeat companies like paramotor manufacturers get the parts they need, and artisanal, fragile products arrive where they’re going in one piece. 

The new tagline does earn the honor of being more relatable, at least in theory, than the company’s last, similar-in-spirit “We [Heart] Logistics.” But the new execution feels, overall, a little like a self-help speech for snail mail—a heady conceptual attempt to communicate the idea that UPS is keeping pace with the design-and-innovation zeitgeist.

The overwrought copy, in particular, struggles at moments to turn the corner—trying to repurpose adjectives like “baffling” and “audacious” as nouns, which is kind of distracting, especially because baffling actually is a noun that means something totally different. Presumably UPS would be happy to ship your baffling, too, if your problems include baffling. That, assuming you didn’t actually want to ship your bafflements (also a noun UPS should never use in an ad), by writing all your big questions down on slips of paper and overnighting them to your future self for better, wiser answers. 

Or you could just post them somewhere on the Internet. Like, here’s one—what’s this ad about again?

(Via WSJ)



Ogilvy Gets in on Celebration of 100 Years of the Coca-Cola Bottle

W+K wasn’t the only agency that got involved with Coca-Cola’s celebration of the 100th anniversary of its iconic bottle. The brand also tapped Ogilvy & Mather Paris to create a series of ads celebrating the milestone.

The longest of Ogilvy & Mather Paris’ efforts is the 60-second, animated “Tale of Countour” (featured above), which tells the origin story of the Coca-Cola bottle, as imagined by one boy to his brother. It’s an imaginative series of events, including the bottle being chiseled away by birds, struck by fireworks and more, while attached to a kite. The brother doesn’t buy it, dismissively saying, “Yeah, okay,” at the recounting of events. Both the content and animation style fit well with the brand’s larger “Open Happiness” campaign, and the recounted origin story is likely a lot more interesting than the bottle’s actual origins in Terre Haute, Indiana.

Smaller scale efforts from Ogilvy include “3/37 Degrees,” which informs viewers that Coca-Cola “tastes happiest” at 3 degrees celsius/37 degrees fahrenheit, the carbonation-celebrating “Bubbles,” the simple salutations of “In The Dark — Happy Birthday” and “Heart.”

Tiffany's Gorgeous New Ad Tells Many Love Stories but Asks Only One Question

The real-life gay couple from Tiffany & Co.’s recent print ad return in this spot from Ogilvy & Mather featuring various duos on the brink—or in the process—of getting engaged.

Part of the jeweler’s “Will You?” campaign, it’s a sweet spot, in tune with the times, celebrating diversity and true love as simple facts life. (The 75-second ad shows an interracial couple, too.) According to the client, the campaign acknowledges the “variety of forms” found in modern romance, and positions its rings as “the first sentence of the story that a couple will write together.”

The progressive campaign has generated lots of mostly positive media play—Miley Cyrus called it “badass”—though some critics say it doesn’t push the envelope enough, while others take Tiffany to task for casting only attractive couples.

Societal issues aside, the spot shines in its attention to the daily details of affection: sharing a quiet drink or private joke, making gentle fun of a parter’s foibles, fixing the buttons on a lover’s shirt. Such scenes remind us of the priceless commitment a Tiffany ring represents.



Ogilvy, Caterpillar Light Up Lantern Festival in Remote Chinese Village

Ogilvy created a new spot in its “Built For It” campaign for Caterpillar, the first international effort in the campaign (and fifth overall), helping a remote village celebrate its lantern festival like never before.

Caterpillar brought power to the Yuhu Village, which is nestled 7,900 feet up in Yunnan Province’s Jade Dragon Snow Mountain for the most spectacular lantern festival its inhabitants have ever seen. The video opens on villagers preparing for the festival, while explaining that “In China, lanterns symbolize prosperity and good fortune.” Before night falls, Caterpillar shows up and powers the 8,840 lanterns with 252,000 watts of electricity from its generator, for a stunning light show, captured by Eyepatch Production and director Brandon LaGanke. Soon, fireworks are going off overhead and the festival is in full swing. The visually impressive spot ends with the line, “Bringing power and prosperity everywhere.”

Beyond its eye candy, the ad does a good job of showing Caterpillar’s equipment standing up to unusual situations. The villagers seem to really appreciate the gesture, as well, and their reactions make the ad emotional, positioning Caterpillar as the hero in the story without seeming too heavy-handed.

Credits:

OGILVY

Group Creative Directors: Chris Curry, Jerry Dugan

Creative: Emily Clark, Gavin Breyer, David Marino, Todd Goodale

Chief Creative Officers: Steve Simpson, Chris Garbutt

Account: Kurt Lundberg, Kate Prescott, Bret Emerson

Planning:  Bryan Smith, Liz Sparkman

Chief Production Officer: Matt Bonin

Producer: Damon Webster

 

CATERPILLAR

Client: Caterpillar – Diane Lantz-Rickard, J. Archie Lyons, Deanna Dean

Creative Director, Global Brand Marketing:  J. Archie Lyons

Producer:  Jim Kelton

EYEPATCH PRODUCTION

Director: Brandon LaGanke

Executive Producer:Joanne Golden

Line Producer: Daniel Lubell

DP: Paul McCarthy

 

EYEPATCH POST-PRODUCTION

EyePatch Executive Producer: Jay Cagide

Post Producer: Laura Shackelford

Editor: Drew Palazzo

Sound Engineer: Ken Meyer

Music Supervisor: Chris Mazur

Color/On-Line: Method/Co3

Assistant Editors: Wes Latta, Andrea Podaski

Stars Trace Their Path to Success in Ogilvy's Grand New American Express Campaign

American Express tells four heartfelt stories of celebrity struggle, and ultimate success, in these spots from Oglivy & Mather. The ads—featuring queen of soul Aretha Franklin, sitcom star Mindy Kaling, GoPro founder Nick Woodman and restauranteur Natalie Young—aired in edited form during Sunday’s Academy Awards on ABC.

The stars, all AmEx customers, recall how they battled adversity. Franklin vanquished youthful shyness and insecurity to become a dynamic stage performer. Kaling overcame typecasting, refusing to play second-banana roles—”best friends” and such—as she climbed the ladder in Hollywood. Woodman reinvented himself from scratch, even moving in with his parents, after his first business failed and he lost $4 million of investors’ money.

Young’s tale of addiction is the most intense. “Everything that was good, was gone,” she says in a sobering voiceover. “I lost my family. I lost friends, lovers, jobs. … I took any job I could get. I trimmed trees. I washed cars. I just felt like a number. I didn’t feel like I was important, and that I was irreplaceable. And they made sure I knew that, that I felt like that. I know, today, that I don’t want anybody that works with me to feel that way.”

At the end of each spot, AmEx tries to forge a connection between endorsers, viewers and the company’s offerings. For example, during Young’s story, text flashes on screen: “To the next generation of late bloomers, welcome.” Kaling’s ad mentions “the next generation of unlikely leading ladies.” Ultimately, AmEx reminds us that “The journey never stops,” positioning its products and services as helpful tools to have along the way.

“People think we’re just a brand of when you quote, unquote ‘arrive,’ ” Marie Devlin, AmEx’s svp of global advertising, tells The Wall Street Journal. “We very much want to be with people along their journey through life. It’s not about a final destination.”

That strategy is fairly well implemented here. The spots look great, and the storytelling is first rate. It’s compelling, inspirational stuff, perhaps even refreshing and unexpected for the brand and the category.

Still, there’s a disconnect. There’s no evidence, nor even a suggestion, that AmEx helped them achieve stardom—or anything, actually, so the value proposition remains elusive. OK, they carry AmEx cards in their wallets. With all due respect: So what? (At least the campaign’s main social component—asking users to tweet in return for AmEx’s financial support of a documentary about ballerina Misty Copeland—displays some cause and effect.)

The whole initiative would be stronger if it focused on famous folks who scored major life victories precisely because, at pivotal points in their development, they used AmEx, and the company’s services pulled them through. That would give the campaign an extra layer of integrity, and perhaps deter those who would point out that charge cards—often misused in times of desperation—can bring people’s journeys to a crashing halt.



Ogilvy Journeys to the Oscars for American Express

Ogilvy & Mather launched an Oscar campaign for American Express featuring four unlikely success stories told in 30-second ads.

In one of the spots, Mindy Kaling describes being told as an aspiring actress that “…they don’t put girls who look like me on TV” and that she should try for a friend or sidekick roll instead of going for the lead. “I guess they can’t say that anymore,” she says near the conclusion of the spot, which ends with the tagline, “the journey never stops.” Other ads feature Aretha Franklin describing her journey from being a nine-year-old choir girl who would have to hold on to the microphone for confidence to the Queen of Soul, GoPro founder Nick Woodman and chef Natalie Young. Young describes her troubles with addiction, making it a particularly affective spot as her story details a bleak low-point. The campaign also includes a social media crowdfunding effort to support a documentary on the life of ballerina Misty Copeland, telling her own unlikely success story.

The campaign hopes to win over viewers by showing those who have overcome adversity and arrived at their definition of success, with the implication being that American Express was there to help them along the way. “While many associated American Express with achievement or having arrived at success, Card Members know that American Express is really about supporting them along their journey to what they define as success, as they persevere in what’s truly valuable,” the brand explained in a press release. “That even in the face of failure, they find the grit and determination to take that next step on their journey and pursue that next goal.”

Ogilvy Goes Retro for American Express

Ogilvy takes a look back at American Express’ past in a new spot entitled “Retrospective,” which promotes the brand’s introduction of Apple Pay. The 30-second spot ran last night during AMC’s premiere of The Walking Dead and will also run during the NBA All Star Game on TNT next week.

“Retrospective” takes the form of a clip show, featuring past American Express ads, before finally looking ahead to Apple Pay integration at the conclusion of the ad. Among the memorable moments from the brand’s advertising history are appearances from Jerry Seinfeld, Jim Henson, Jesse Owens and Tina Fey. When the spot finally makes the transition to a man using Apple Pay at a store, it is accompanied by the message, “American Express’ timeless safety and security are now available on Apple Pay.”

With competitors like Chase, MasterCard and Capitol One all touting Apple Pay integration for months, it was only a matter of time before American Express joined the party. Allison Silver, vice president, marketing marketing at American Express explained to AdAge that the delay was due to the brand focusing efforts late last year on Small Business Saturday. “We thought it made more sense to stagger those messages,” she said, adding, “Apple Pay is certainly a priority message for us this year.”

Ogilvy Shanghai Re-Thinks Toy Meals for KFC

Ogilvy Shanghai has a new campaign for KFC leveraging the popularity of Korean boy band EXO.

A new broadcast promotes the agency’s re-thinking of the toy meal giveaway, as QR codes on EXO figurines given away with KFC’s new Korean meals unlock a mobile 3D dancing game featuring the band, as well as offering users bonuses like virtual selfie shots with the band, Wechat GIFS and more. The spot itself is pretty hard to follow, thanks to some questionable translation leading to such gems as “should be seen on a committee satellite into a deep,” “highlights like gonna die soon yeah” and “today’s esos enough time John online.”

At any rate, the campaign targets a slightly older crowd than typical toy giveaways — 16-24 fans of the band, according to a press release — and “marks a range of firsts for all parties involved,” according to Ogilvy & Mather Shanghai Vice President Henry Ho, who added, “We engage EXO enthusiasts with a fun mobile game, but ultimately, we keep the player’s attention by offering fresh, exciting activities and, ultimately, helping them interact with each other as well.”

Credits:

Creative:

Chief Creative Officer: Graham Fink

Creative Director/ Deputy Head of Digital: Sascha Engel

Group Creative Director: James Lee

Associate Creative Director: Marc Viola

Art Director: Li Wen, Da Lin

Copywriter: Terrace Liu

Digital Strategy: Simon Usifo/ Chelsea Zou

Account Supervisors:

Henry Ho/ Christopher Wu/ Yu Hong/ JC Wu/ Fiona Wu/ Mikki Li/ Junjun Ji

Social@Ogilvy:

Sonic Zhao/ Coolio Yang/ Winnie Wang/ Joy Ji/ Miya Kang/ Le Luo/ Qian Zhang/ Jin Feng

Nationwide Makes Sad Happen

Ogilvy created the year’s most depressing Super Bowl ad with its “Make Safe Happen” spot for Nationwide.

The spot, which ran during the first half of the game, opens with narration by a young child. “I’ll never learn to ride a bike,” he says over a melancholic acoustic guitar track, and then continues to list all the things he’ll never do. “I couldn’t grow up, because I died from an accident,” he reveals at the end of the spot, followed by the message, “The number one cause of childhood deaths is preventable accidents.”

Unsurprisingly, people didn’t take the depressing message interrupting their football and cute animals very well. The social media backlash was quick and pronounced. So, what exactly was Nationwide thinking?

“Preventable injuries around the home are the leading cause of childhood deaths in America,” Nationwide  said in a statement released last night in response to the backlash. “Most people don’t know that…The sole purpose of this message was to start a conversation, not sell insurance. We want to build awareness of an issue that is near and dear to all of us—the safety and wellbeing of our children. We knew the ad would spur a variety of reactions.” Nationwide went on to claim that “thousands of people visited MakeSafeHappen.com, a new website to help educate parents and caregivers with information and resources in an effort to make their homes safer and avoid a potential injury or death.”

Still, given the negative publicity, we’d be pretty surprised if Nationwide considered the ad a resounding success.

R/GA Wins E*Trade TV Account

etrade logo

While we’ve yet to receive official word from agency PR, sources within the Ogilvy camp confirmed this morning that the agency has lost the TV portion of the E*Trade account to R/GA. No review was announced.

For context, Ogilvy won the business in July 2013, as evidenced by an internal memo from COO Lou Aversano; incumbent Grey New York, or the party responsible for the brand’s once-ubiquitous baby, resigned the account earlier that year.

In early 2014, the client signed a new CEO and dropped the baby for a new approach, with its CMO telling Fast Company that “the baby ate the brand.” Ogilvy’s following “Type-E” campaign starred Kevin Spacey and others.

A recent AdAge profile piece noted that R/GA, which has worked on E*Trade digital for some time, planned “a new emphasis on TV work” for 2015; this win marks a major step in that direction.

Sources say that, while Ogilvy may retain parts of the E*Trade business, R/GA will be behind all upcoming TV campaigns.

UPDATE: R/GA has no official comment on the news. Sources close to the matter also claim that the client didn’t just change agencies — it also dumped CMO Liza Landsmen, the very executive who discussed its new creative direction with Fast Company last year.

The Boy Garbage Collector in this Thai Ad Will Sweep Up the Pieces of Your Shattered Heart

If you’ve arrived at this ad without having seen Ogilvy’s previous work for Thai Life Insurance, take a minute or two to get familiar—here and here. Oh, and grab some tissues first, you old softie.

OK, now that we’re up to speed, here’s the latest spot from the wizards of weeping, the sultans of sobbing, the ballers of bawling. 

In the perfect short-film-style vignette, we follow the life of our unlikely hero, Pornchai Sukyod: a husky schoolboy with unusual superhero aspirations. Despite its three-and-a-half-minute run time, it’s a flawlessly shot and edited spot that presents a concise, poignant narrative—with a reveal that feels nothing at all like an insurance commercial.



Constellation Partners with Ogilvy Chicago on Corona Light, Modelo Especial

corona light

Constellation Brands Beer Division announced a new partnership with Ogilvy Chicago on its Corona Light and Modelo Especial brands today, with Ogilvy being tasked with assisting “in the development and execution of marketing strategies to increase brand awareness, stimulate product trials, and accelerate sales for these two brands,” effective January 1st. Coronoa Extra was not part of the review, and will remain with Cramer-Krasselt.

Just last month we reported that Constellation had put portions of its Corona and Modelo brands up for review after Constellation and GS&P “mutually agreed to end their relationship” — although it was unclear at the time exactly which portions of the brands were up for grabs. Corona Light is the number one imported light beer in America, and fifth imported beer overall. Modelo Especial, meanwhile, has seen tremendous growth in recent years — with Constellation reporting “sales growth in the high double-digits over the past several years” — leading some to question if the brand is the “next Corona.” Modelo Especial’s growth has come without traditional ad support (the brand has yet to see a national broadcast campaign, for example) so it could be that Ogilvy Chicago will be tasked with bringing the brand to a larger stage. (more…)

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Ogilvy Rings in the Holidays with Kevin Ross for Glade

Ogilvy & Mather worked with singer Kevin Ross on a holiday spot for Glade entitled “Feel Anticipation.”

For the spot, Ross wrote a song supposedly expressing how holiday scent Sparkling Spruce made him feel. Ross can be seen performing the song in an outdoor stage, surrounded by plenty of Glade candles ending with the “#FeelGlade” hashtag. While the “song inspired by a fragrance” premise can be a bit hard to swallow, it should appeal to fans of the emerging Motown singer, and maybe even net him — and the brand — a few new fans along the way. In addition to the 30-second broadcast spot, Glade also released a full-length music video for the song (featured after the jump), which is also available to download on iTunes.

It’s part of a larger rebranding campaign from Ogilvy for the brand, which is seeking to reposition itself as not just selling scents but the feelings they evoke. In another recent effort, Glade set up a pop-up shop, which they called the Glade Boutique, in New York’s meatpacking district. According to Adweek, the Glade Boutique saw “concierge” guide visitors through a “scent and emotion journey” in the Feelings Lounge, with scents such as Blooming Peony and Red Honeysuckle Nectar. The brand also teamed up with Cirque de Soleil for an October event in Madison Square Park. (more…)

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Ogilvy Chicago and Nice Shoes Explain Technology for CDW

In a new campaign created for tech service provider CDW by Ogilvy & Mather Chicago and the Nice Shoes division of production and post house Optimus, Charles Barkley and a few other, more colorful characters to try and explain the elusive “cloud” to fictional 20th Century business Gordon & Taylor. The work also doubles as a promo for Lenovo and the newest version of its Microsoft-powered Yoga “convertible.”

The campaign is called “People Who Get It,” and the first such person is a man with a kilt that’s heavier than his Scottish accent:

Three more spots after the jump.

(more…)

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