Ogilvy is 60

 

In 1948, David Ogilvy founded what we now know as Ogilvy & Mather in New York, when the British agencies Mather & Crowther and S.H. Benson joined forces under his guidance to form Ogilvy Benson & Mather. But our roots go back far further than that - S.H. Benson dates back to 1893, and the Mather name had been prominent in London's advertising scene since 1850.

Either way, we thought it would be a shame not to mark the 60th birthday of 'modern' Ogilvy without a good party. Emma and George, our recent summer schoolers, put this film together to commemorate...

Office Life

Fortunately, working life here turns out to be a tad more exciting than most offices. People play music whilst they work. Coffee or booze with your mates in the bar is practically a daily indulgence (depending on the time of day!). Plastic chickens (aka The Count) might travel with you or your colleagues on holiday.



Ogilvy is all about the people - intelligent, approachable and interesting people. As a result, Ogilvy has a reputation for being one of the friendliest places to work in the industry.

Why Ogilvy?

Subsidised gin and tonics. Eating lots of Toblerone. Helping write creative briefs on the Planning sofas. Learning to always have reading material in your handbag for those nasty Jubilee line delays. Getting funny looks for laughing out loud at senseless email banter. Lessening the blow of a Monday morning by holding status meetings on a leather sofa in the bar with a cappucino to hand. Canteen food a serious cut above school dinners. Seeing great new work about to break in agency catch-ups (with a free bar tab!). Being able to wear jeans to work and stay in bed past six in the morning.

Locations in London

Ogilvy Group companies are scattered all across London so you'll get to know certain parts of the city a whole lot better. Here's a rough guide to each of the locations ...

Canary Wharf: OgilvyOne, Ogilvy PR, Ogilvy Advertising & Ogilvy Interactive


Best restaurants/bars/nights out
Corney and Barrow (fondly known as 'Cornies' - just under our office), Itsu on a Friday for a takeaway lunch- join the queue of Ogilvy staff...

Best place for a hangover
The Ogilvy breakfast bar, the Krispy Kreme kiosk at the entrance to Cabot Place mall (gets your blood sugar nice and sky high even if the resulting crash will make the hangover worse!), the Dove Storage cupboard.

Best place for a client lunch
Ubon - if you can swing it, or Gaucho Grill for an Argentinean meat feast (they also do rickshaw delivery!)

Best tourist attraction
Canada Square Park turns into an ice rink at Christmas, and shows things like Wimbledon and the opera on big screens in the summer. The Thames Clipper is also a great way to see the sights from the Thames (free with your Ogilvy card!)

Place(s) to avoid
Smollensky's, unless you want to pull a drunken, sleazy banker!

Best place to blow the golden handshake
Reiss in Jubilee Place- treat yourself to a new work wardrobe and there's always Plateau for the bubbly.

Paddington: Ogilvy Action & Ogilvy Healthworld

Best restaurants/bars/nights out
The in-house bar at Westbourne Terrace has six different ambient up-lighter settings to get you in the mood.
Levantine near Paddington station is a classic Lebanese restaurant. Hang around till after 10pm and a tantalising belly dancer appears. Rumour has it that with a carefully concealed camera you can capture said belly dancer and your business director in a compromising position worthy of blackmail.

Best place for a hangover
In the corner of the canteen find a large black pouffe to perch on and savour the mouth-watering bacon sarnies served up by Julie in the kitchen. McDonalds in Paddington Station is a good place to ingest more toxins. Or...the toilets, 2nd floor behind Ogilvy Healthworld - good ventilation.

Best place for a client lunch
Levantine again.

Best tourist attraction
The bronze Paddington Bear statue in the railway station. According to local folk, when authorities actually managed to catch the pesky little fluff ball they cast him in bronze to ensure jars of marmalade across London town would at last be safe from inquisitive and sticky paws.

Place(s) to avoid
Sussex Gardens, apparently West London's very own red light district.

Victoria: Coley Porter Bell


Best restaurants
Chez Gerard, Jenny Lo's Tea House, the Phoenix

Bars/nights out
Balls Brothers, Plumbers Arms, Bbar.

Best place for a hangover
Thomas Cubitt

Best place for a client lunch
The Phoenix.

Best tourist attraction
Changing of the Guard, Buckingham Palace.

Place(s) to avoid
Changing of the Guard, Buckingham Palace.

Best place to blow the golden handshake
Pacha.

360

It doesn't take an eagle-eyed genius to notice that the number 360 pops up at Ogilvy almost as regularly as 4, 8, 15, 16, 23 and 42 pop up in an episode of LOST.

Why? Well 360 is the new 42. Or at least it is if you work in the branding industry. Yes 360 is the answer to life, the universe and everything. It is the core of the Ogilvy philosophy and forms an integral part of the answer to any communications solution.

360 (usually referred to as "three sixty" and an abbreviation of '360 degrees') is a way of thinking about communications and the consumer. Today you are surrounded by a vast number of media spaces wherever you go - from podcasts on your iPod to the stairs you climb at the station. As such advertising is no longer just about simply sending out a message through a TV set. It's about reaching people at poignant and meaningful moments during their day. 360 degree branding basically places the consumer in the middle of all the media they are exposed to - and then uses those that can best deliver a particular message in the most relevant way to build a campaign. In a 360 campaign all the chosen media say the same thing. This means that whenever someone comes into contact with a brand, be it on the back of a bus or online, they will always get the same message.

So, to sum up; 360 is not an Xbox. And it's not a magic integer. It's just a way of making sure that brands say the same thing wherever they are and do so in the most impactful way.

Rory TV

Our vice-chairman and famous adland writer, Rory Sutherland, now has a virtual space to broadcast his pearls of wisdom in video form.

Our CEO in Esquire

In July, our chairman and CEO Gary Leih was featured in Esquire magazine’s prestigious “Man At The Top” slot (a regular feature in which the country’s top entrepreneurs and business leaders are interviewed). There's more here.