How Ogilvy is shedding its ‘traditional’ reputation

Ogilvy’s bread and butter is still creative, but it’s taken considerable steps to shed perceptions that it’s a legacy network unable to adapt to marketers’ evolving needs for performance and other services. The agency network—which was founded by David Ogilvy in New York in 1948 and now houses nearly 15,000 people across 120 offices and 90 countries—continued to grow its investments last year in consulting, AI, commerce, and influencer and performance marketing. Ogilvy leaned on these services as well as an integrated network approach that it calls “borderless creativity” to drive business results for itself and its clients. When she joined in 2021 as global president and North American CEO, Devika Bulchandani, now global CEO, said she mapped out investments the network would need to succeed, and feels she’s delivered. “We’re not going to keep navel-gazing of looking at ourselves, but we’re going to be so obsessed about what our clients need and what’s happening in the world from a platform technology standpoint,” Bulchandani said, reflecting on her thinking in 2021. “If somebody calls you legacy, somebody does. Do the work, do the work, do the work and perception will change.” See all of Ad Age’s 2025 Agency A-List winners here “There’s nothing legacy about the CeraVe work that rewrote how [agencies and brands] did the Super Bowl,” said Global Chief Creative Officer Liz Taylor. “We’re really proud of doing some of those firsts that are very modern.” For CeraVe, Ogilvy created widespread speculation ahead of the brand’s first Big Game appearance in 2024, generating 15.4 billion impressions before the ad went live. The shop generated social media buzz by recruiting more than 450 influencers to fan the flames around a burning question: Did Michael Cera create CeraVe? The hilarious in-game spot garnered a Clio and was one of six recognized by Ad Age with five stars as the best ads of Super Bowl LVIII. Ogilvy followed that up this year with an end-run around Super Bowl LIX, which the brand decided to sit out. To promote the brand’s new haircare line, the agency hijacked the yearly speculation around which brands will have commercials in the Super Bowl. It created a “Head of CeraVe” campaign, a joint effort with WPP Onefluence and Ogilvy PR North America, centered around social media images of influencer Charli D’Amelio and NBA star Anthony Davis putting dabs of CeraVe lotion on their scalps. The push drummed up buzz and speculation about whether there might be a CeraVe Super Bowl follow. The campaign also involved a partnership with “Saturday Night Live.” Growth tear Ogilvy made several key investments in 2024, including in influencer marketing. Village Marketing, the influencer marketing and creator agency WPP acquired in 2022, joined Ogilvy, creating a worldwide influencer team of more than 550 experts that saw a more than 30% increase in influencer-led assignments last year. Ogilvy revitalized its CRM division, Ogilvy One, under a new global leadership team helmed by Global CEO Kent Wertime. The division scored new business wins last year including H&R Block. A team led by Ogilvy was tasked with developing “Brand Brain,” a means to tackle brand compliance and governance challenges of using generative AI, for WPP’s AI brand hub Open. Taylor and Bulchandani said they are frequently using WPP Open, noting that Ogilvy One developed a “relationship design” platform to power its next-generation customer experience offering and Ogilvy Consulting launched an AI advisory service for clients. Ogilvy’s booming consulting practice also expanded in the tech and telecom sectors, and one of its biggest consulting client wins in 2024 was Hilton Hotels. All of this contributed to Ogilvy achieving global revenue growth in the single digits in 2024 as the agency notched client wins including Unilever’s beauty brands globally; Molson Coors in Europe; Valeo Foods in the U.K.; Audi in China; WeightWatchers in the U.S.; and L’Oréal with social and influencer assignments spanning CeraVe, Kiehl’s, Lancôme, Skinceuticals, and Garnier in the U.S. and Canada. Perception-changing work Ogilvy also demonstrated its ability to deliver a wide range of creative campaigns—a culmination of mass cultural moments, big branding spots and impactful work—from various global offices and agencies. Taylor said Ogilvy measures its creative success by the tangible business results it delivers to clients. “We’re always about creativity with impact. It’s impact on business, impact in the world, impact in culture,” she said. Jonathan Halvorson, global senior VP, consumer experience and digital commerce at Mondelēz International, said his team holds Ogilvy “directly accountable for both creativity and performance … 50% of the agency’s bonus compensation is tied directly to net revenue performance against our annual contract.” Halvorson praised Ogilvy India’s work on the Mondelēz-owned Cadbury 5 Star brand that included a comical Valentine’s Day campaign this year. In it, the brand set out to destroy the holiday most commonly celebrated by young lovers, as well as candy makers, by unleashing middle-aged, uncool uncles—the only people sure to kill any trend. “Very few partners can deliver performance today while simultaneously preparing marketers to transform to meet the future,” Halvorson said, noting that Ogilvy often comes “to us with solutions before we run up against the problem.” Ogilvy Singapore was behind Unilever’s 2024 Cannes Glass Lions Grand Prix-winning campaign for a revolutionary Vaseline lotion that helps transgender women tackle unique skin issues during and after their transition process. The first-of-its-kind product, Vaseline Pro Derma Transition Body Lotion, truly made an impact—purchase intent soared 725% above benchmark and the brand quickly sold out in numerous stores, according to Ogilvy. Meanwhile, Ogilvy-owned David Madrid helped outdoor ad company JCDecaux in its struggles with unsold subway advertising space by cleverly plastering Instagram posts from Marina Prieto, a 100-year-old woman with an Instagram presence of only 28 followers, around a Madrid station. The campaign sparked curiosity and drew commuters to the woman’s page—showcasing the effectiveness of this ad space to potential clients. “Meet Marina Prieto” resulted in 1.5 million views of Prieto’s page and 185 new brands investing in subway advertising, according to the agency. Taylor stressed the importance of Ogilvy working collaboratively across its global offices to be able to create this type of work for its clients. She said the creative leaders of every office and agency meet every Tuesday to “workshop work” and “share resources.” “I’ve never had that anywhere else I’ve worked, where it’s a spirit of generosity but also competitive,” Taylor said. “It’s healthy competitiveness. You want to do well, but you want everyone else to do well, and it’s not a quiet group.” See all of Ad Age’s 2025 Agency A-List winners here

How Ogilvy is shedding its ‘traditional’ reputation

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