Ogilvy & Mather Asia Pacific

Young Suit of the Year

The Essays, 2011

Front Cover

Front Cover Back

Foreword by Tim Isaac 5

The SUITable girl by Akshatha Poojari 7

Belief, or else by Allen Liao 10

Fall in love with China by Brian Li 12

Cannes? Me? by Heval Patel 14

An inner process by Jamie Tang 16

Just do it by Jed McMillan 21

Life is like a golf course by Jiamei Tay 23

You can’t buy Happiness by Joanne Lee 25

Climbed the Great Wall by Kate Yung 28

AstrayLeah from Ogilvy Australia by Leah Carew 30

Launching Dove in China by Louisa Leung 32

From One Suit to Another by Martin Condivi 34

Dizzy on the French Riviera by Neha Khaneja 36

Advertising is not my job. It is my career. by Nitchanun Attanon 38

Fanta case study – a story by Oli Goulden 40

Gome Was Not Built in One Day by Philip Wang 42

1000 Words & Me by Sabih Ahmed 44

A Tap Dancing Client Service Star by Sean Chen 46

The Heart of the Team by Syakirah Mazrah 48

Cooking While Working by Tessy Wulandari 50

An Introduction by Verna Chen 52

One Reason that Motivates Me to the Cannes Lions 2011 by Yushin Ito 53

The Back of the Book by David Mayo 57

Content page

Content Page

Content Page Back

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I was delighted to have the chance, as one of the judges, to read all the submissions for Young Suit of the Year.

I was even more delighted when I actually got down to reading them. It frankly restored my faith in the quality of our client service culture and refreshed my enthusiasm for the business that I have worked in all my working life.

So it was that I made an instant decision, and commitment to the contestants, to publish ALL their essays - not just those of the 5 winners. My reasoning was that the inspiration provided should not be kept secret. I honestly think that anyone who reads this compilation will learn more about why our business is so challenging and rewarding, and so much about the positive attitude that can makes it so, than from any number of formal training days on ‘how to be a good account executive’.

So I encourage this as mandatory bedtime reading for all of us.

Tim Isaac

Chairman Ogilvy & Mather Asia Pacific

Tim Isaac

Foreword

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Akshatha Poojari

The SUITable girl

When you are a 20 something, free-willed, passionate, chocolate loving optimist working in the advertising industry, how do you define yourself in 1000 words to a panel of industry greats?

That you are an effective entrepreneur, a change agent, a strategist, a quality fanatic, a confidante for clients and agency partners alike, or that you’re a little bit of them all?

I live by this mantra:

You can’t change the direction of the wind, but you can certainly adjust the sails to reach your destination (1). This conviction and my belief that everything happens for a good reason, has helped me overcome roadblocks and focus on the bigger picture, both professionally and personally.

So am I an effective entrepreneur?

Between 2009 and 2010, I handled the award-winning IBM campaign “More to Lotus” which went on to generate a pipeline of US$2.5K (2). My happiness knew no bounds when this campaign went on to win the Summit Marketing Effectiveness Award 2010, IBM Best Practice Award 2010 and Ogilvy Hero award 2010.

In 2010, I led a key role in driving a first-of-its-kind pilot for Tivoli Software, involving the Ogilvy 360 DI Team for “Video Content Distribution“. This project leveraged the digital medium effectively to generate leads for IBM Tivoli Software. Several Client Testimonial Videos were uploaded on video sharing sites like Youtube to drive traffic to the “Tivoli Service Management Centre” generating a pipeline of US$ 6.7M (3). This initiative is now earmarked for replication in other markets.

In 2009, I was awarded a Certificate for intrinsic contribution to the IBM Tivoli Pulse Comes to You Event that won the IBM Best Practices (Silver) Award.

I’ve handled flagship IBM events like IBM Rational Innovate 2010 (that generated US$7.3M (4)) and “Insights 2010” (an event where 91% of the decision makers invited, attended the conclave.)

As a team player, I have shown great enthusiasm – both in researching and understanding the technical aspects of IBM’s cutting-edge solutions, and in independently leading the team to execute comprehensive campaigns successfully. So much so, that I won the “Promising Young Star 2009”, Ogilvy, Bangalore and was nominated for the “Suit of the Year 2011”, at the Hero Awards, Ogilvy Bangalore.

Would I call myself a Change Agent?

My bosses believe that I have been a catalyst for change on the IBM business, laying a foundation for a new and improved work on IBM Software. There was a complete turnaround in our clients’ evaluation of Ogilvy in 2008 when compared to the 2007 evaluation.

How much of a Digital Evangelist am I?

I have actively contributed to IBM’s digital and social marketing initiatives, and developed signature campaigns like Software Universe 2010, Innovate 2010 & More to Lotus.

To give an example, I learnt that on a weekly basis, approximately 900 downloads occur on the IBM website - an opportunity that was not leveraged in any previous IBM communication. In view of that, I supervised a specific e-nurture program that targeted these potential customers.

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Is there a Strategist in me?

I passionately believe that accurate insights lead to a big idea, which in turn result in more effective communication. I have put in my best efforts to get first-hand information from the Target Audience through dipsticks /secondary research - helping throw up impressive results. This approach has helped me devise suitable strategies to develop role and industry based communication to reach out to different sets of audiences. This has led to the success of IBM Software’s flagship events like “Software Universe 2010” & “Insights 2010” – and brought in additional revenue opportunities for the agency.

Am I a Quality Fanatic?

My eye for detail has garnered me the recognition of being the sole person in the entire IBM Ogilvy Team to have set a record for delivering error-free communication - receiving no escalations from any client on any job, till date. Maintaining quality on IBM flagship software events has been a challenge, as you have over 200 deliverables, strict creative guidelines to follow, multiple iterations and numerous stakeholders to deal with, on a daily basis. And yet, I have been able to ensure a quick turnaround, delivering error-free communication across jobs.

So why do they call me Ms. Sherlock Holmes?

Managing IBM’s flagship events like Innovate 2010 (8000 attendees) and Software Universe 2010 (2000 attendees) is a high pressure job – involving insight mining, in-depth research, strategic thinking, execution across audiences (C Level, IT Managers, Line of Business Heads, Business Partners etc.), and across mediums (e-dms, banners, DMs, print, collaterals), co-ordinating with partner agencies (GPJ, Erflog & Wizcraft). My colleagues opine that I have never let myself get bogged down by pressure, and instead try to focus energies on finding solutions in times of crisis.

So am I my clients’ confidante and my agency’s best friend?

I have a reputation for managing demanding clients excellently. I hold the unique distinction of being the only account management executive in the entire IBM team (that I was a part of for the last 3 years) to have received a bottle of wine from my client ( IBM Rational Marketing Manager) as a mark of appreciation for my contribution to the business. I have gained clients’ trust - as a result of which clients let me take charge of work and believe in my ability to manage campaigns flawlessly.

I believe in making work seem more like play for all involved. I have been delighted to share an excellent equation with my creative team - opening up a platform for constructive discussions, and in turn, effective messaging.

But you don’t have to take my word for it. Here is what my clients have to say:

Client Review 1:

I have worked with Akshatha for more than 3 years, when she was on the account management team for IBM India Software Marketing. Her key strength lies in her ability to scale up, flawlessly manage & deliver several tasks at the same time. Her calm and composed temperament definitely helps, particularly in high stress situations. Akshatha’s intuitive approach to judging creative is refreshing and can only get better with proper channeling. Underscoring all her fine capabilities, what really delights me is her absolute commitment and earnest approach to her work.

There is plenty of evidence that Akshatha is not one to shy away from speaking her mind when she deems fit, while in no way appearing to challenge another’s point of view. Tactful, refreshingly earnest, quick to learn and incredibly dedicated - that’s Akshatha for you.

– Roopa R Nadkarni, Demand Generation Program Lead, IBM Rational Software.

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Client Review 2:

I have worked with Akshatha from 2009 - 2010 and am very pleased to have her as a shining member of our team at Ogilvy. Her abilities to multi-task with focus is what really gives her an edge over other account management personnel. Apart from quick understanding of brand requirements, her ability to understand the creative requirement quickly really helped us deliver the assignments faster and would say 95% on time.

Honest and upfront are some of the qualities that I would associate with Akshatha and really appreciate as a working professional. Here’s wishing her the best of times and an opportunity to have her as part of the team again in future.

– Manoj Khilnani, Marketing Manager, IBM Lotus Software.

Author:

Akshatha Poojari, Account Supervisor, Ogilvy, Bangalore shops till she drops ;-), runs her ice-cream in the microwave for 10 seconds before she eats, loves dancing in the rain and is currently dabbling with a paint brush.

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Allen Liao

Belief, or else

Why should I be chosen a young suit?

I think it is based on my contribution beyond an Account Manager’s scope of work, playing a role in new business approach and my belief in Ogilvy & Mather. And let me tell you what I have done in the below five criteria.

The Twin Peaks: driving our creative product, both with clients and creative teams and ensuring effectiveness is at the center of everything we do.

Twin peaks, It could be penetrate throughout AM’s every step of work from daily contact report to strategy developing. Our success depends on client’s success. And the client’s success links to their dealers’ success. Sometimes, dealers are the judges of our creative work. How to make our creative product more effective? Why can this piece of work attract consumer stop in front of my shop and come in to check our product? Every dealer asks these questions when we see them face to face in presentation or in the shop visit.

For my client, I developed a way of creative research for it. It has to be done not only by the agency, but also by our client and the dealers. The research includes such questions:

1 Show the best ads you have ever seen in your market place, especially our competitors’.

2 Why do you think these ads successful?

3 What are the USP of these ads?

4 How these ads say?

5 What is different between our work and the competitors’?

Sometimes, these questions are hard to answer. But it really helps us a lot. First of all, it’s a basic and fundamental data clipping for our work. And when it is finished, we could set a benchmark of creative work judgment agreed by our client. It not only makes our presentation successfully, but also improves our creative work. And when these ads are on air, we gather fee backs from the market and help to the future work.

In terms of business management, it not only solidifies a bonded relationship between agency and client. But help client to build their client relationship such as dealers’ more importantly.

Key point: A way of research to ensure our works effective and contribute to bonded client relationship both for agency and client in terms of business management.

Entrepreneurialism: leading initiatives that drive business for us and our clients – can they show us an example of how they have driven Pervasive Creativity that goes well beyond advertising?

Being the new business manager, how to win our new business? Actually, when talking with most of clients, they don’t ask for a television commercial, or a print of ads. They want a creative solution for their brand. I found out that many clients are not clear about the current situation of their brand, where the brand are now, and where should the brand needs to go?

So how to define client’s situation and what should our service proposal be so that the client believe it and buy it.

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My initiative is that, I learned from an article about “ten step to build a brand”. I make a checklist for myself for defining which stage is this brand at now. Then, based on some homework we do, although it might not be fully supportive, we could assume the scope of work we should do for this brand’s future. I found this step really helpful during new business management.

Now I have helped Ogilvy Guangzhou win a client of bathroom product named GOBO. And I am also working on more new business for our company.

Key point: A way of approaching potential client and planning for winning new business.

Digital: understanding, evangelizing and driving digital.

As the digital contact person of Guangzhou office (appointed by the General Manager of Guangzhou office), I recognize that, the way of digital media is changing every day. The digital knowledge is important for us, but a sense of digital thinking is more important. I am working on a program and try to make our Guangzhou office more digital. The program includes:

1 Gathering more staff to join the weekly online social media training.

2 Sharing digital information by lotus mails.

3 Reward the digital idea in strategy planning for our client.

Key point: Trying to make people in Guangzhou office thinking digitally.

Financial: understanding and driving the financial success of the agency.

In terms of finance, what I should do are earning money and saving money for our company. I am working for the better service to current client and collect money in time. Monitoring the client profitability is account manager’s role. I’m trying to save non-billable expenses such as meeting and travel expenses to control contribution margin as much as possible. For example I try to arranging better meeting process and use Skype or QQ to set a video conference instead of business travel.

Key point: Saving money from meeting arranging for better profitability.

Agency Pride & Culture: contributing to Ogilvy to make this the place everyone else wants to work in.

I found my inner greatness from the past years working in Ogilvy.

And I showed my belief to everyone in this office, especially in mentoring new comer and helping in Recruitment and team building.

That is I think Ogilvy & Mather is a school not only about advertising but also talent industry, Ogilvy & Mather is a family for people achieving their dream, not a place just working for food. We want to build partnership instead of working relationship.

Key point: My belief here.

Author:

Allen has joined Ogilvy & Mather Advertising since graduated from the university and worked for Xiamen \Fuzhou\ Guangzhou offices of China. He enjoys jazz and playing basketball after work.

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Brian Li

Fall in love with China

Welcome to China, a nation that continues to develop with breathtaking speed; a market with over 200 cities with a population of over 1 million (only 35 cities in the whole Europe); a marketplace with the most complex consumers in the world after decades of transformation. After all, China is a country with many markets.

For any global brand in China, you have to deeply understand your consumers before taking any strategic action. Take Fenbid (a brand of GlaxoSmithKline), which I have served for over 2.5 years, as an example, by studying numerous consumer U&A reports, post-launch studies and market visits, two of the most significant learning guided the brand strategically on the right track.

Learning 1: There is always something common deep inside people’s mind that a marketer can use to communicate with them. At the same time, you need to appreciate the great diversity among Chinese people. It’s where a brand can leverage creativity to generate great effectiveness.

Learning 2: Be true. Authenticity works magic in China.

Bearing the key take-outs in mind, we did a brilliant showcase of twin peaks demonstrated in a 3-year long “Unsung Hero” campaign for Fenbid. Quantitative and qualitative insight work showed us a common value buried inside Chinese consumer’s heart is the real hero, an individual who dedicates all his or her love and seeks no reward in return. We told a touching story between a teacher and 103 homeless children on TV, and moved all Chinese people.

Numerous media coverage around China expressed their attention to this story. Homeless children immediately became one of the hottest topics people talked about. Thousands of volunteers and many enterprises visited our 103 homeless children with donations in their own ways. We did way more than just an ‘ad’.

One year later, the market revealed its answer by rewarding Fenbid with a historical high sales figure and also the winner of the 2008 China Effie award – “The Most Effective Campaign of the Year.”

Looking back to 2010, we witnessed the rising of digital media in China; and in 2011, it is time for us to exploit more alternative media forms rather than traditional media.

After nailing down Fenbid’s 2011 brand strategy, expanding to low-tier markets by leveraging the impact of a celebrity – kung fu star Donnie Yen - yet still keeping the same “Unsung Hero” idea, we proposed and sold our idea of new media vehicles as a business-driving initiative. Cooperating with China’s biggest “weibo” (like Twitter) on Sina, a campaign site was created to interact with consumers in multiple aspects. The campaign site serves as an integrated platform of “Unsung Hero” story sharing; a digital celebrity fans community where they can see many ‘making of’ videos of their idol; and a social media place for pain sufferers to get their problems solved.

It is a very exciting experience to see how consumers perceive and absorb marketing messages in a far more dramatic, dynamic way than before. I strongly feel the importance of always working with a fresh mind and be ready to accept and adapt any innovative possibility in our daily work.

One of the most memorable episodes stemming from the new branding strategy was visiting our new target audience – low tier residents – whom we never really get a chance to be acquainted with. To truly understand them, we first showed our respect sincerely. It starts from listening to what they really say; watching what they are interested in; eating what they purchase; recording the media they are exposed to.

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We found many problems barring them from purchasing our brand. Sometimes, problems are good things for both agency and client. For our agency, our new target audience needs tailor-made communication creative and products that fit their living habits. When new creative ideas are needed, we help increase financial profits for our company; for clients, a problem-solving plan means expanding their sales.

After months of work, we turned every problem into a solution: Such as a small package design to overcome their price sensitivity, as Fenbid costs 10 times more than the pain killer they usually take; OTC campaigns to communicate how Fenbid is much safer than the medicine they use; a celebrity-endorsed POSM to attract their attention while choosing a pain killer in store; and gifts with celebrity’s image to allow them to keep the brand at home for a longer time.

After 4 years in Ogilvy, I transformed from a new bird into a professional. My most precious learning is the ability and mindset of independent thinking, to always stay hungry about new things, always be ready to put a great idea into reality that helps clients’ business, and to earn confidence from mistakes and successes.

As David Ogilvy said “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. She wants all the information you can give her.” How do you make your brand appeal your consumer as a global brand or local brand? There will be no single answer under such an intensely competitive market. But I think understanding her diversity and scale, her differences and commonalities, appreciating her every single little change and habit, you can win her heart – and get her to fall in love with you.

Author:

Brian worked as part of advertising team based in Beijing. As a Beijinger he enjoys his life and work here and at weekends he immersed himself in the happiness of reading.

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Heval Patel

Cannes? Me?

My first alone moment at Cannes.

From the time I was told that I am one of the chosen few, right up to now, life has been a blur.

I am glad I got this breather before I head to the Young Suits party (Organizing it has been one great ride). A few moments to introspect and appreciate what really got me here (It could serve as a record for future entrants). So…. Did I just get lucky ?

Were there not enough entries? What was it about my entry that got me here?

I got thinking. Was it something one of my clients had to say?

“If I was allowed to poach from Ogilvy, Heval would be part of my Marketing team.”

– Vikram Mehra, Chief Marketing Officer, Tata Sky

Not that I would have joined them. I have too much of Ogilvy in me to do that (Though I think I would make a great client because I understand ‘work that works’). Which actually made me wonder if it was my showing on the Twin Peaks of Creativity and Effectiveness that swung it in my favor?

Well, to be honest I did have a great 2010 on this count. On the launch of an Interactive service from Tata Sky – Actve English (Using television to teach English to housewives), I had articulated the challenge sharply, provided inspirational triggers ensuring fresh thinking and sold the ideas to the client. All this had resulted in some great Twin Peak success for the agency.

• SilverEffieforTataSkyActveEnglish,2010

• BronzeforTataSkyActveEnglishattheGOAFEST–CREATIVEABBYAWARDS2010

• Ithasalsobeenenteredforbeststrategy&insightintheAMEAwardsandtheWARCPrize.

But I still wasn’t sure if this is what swung it for me, since I had been doing the same for quite some time now. In the last 5 years, 3 of my campaigns had successfully scaled the Twin Peaks. But the jury had no way of knowing this. So maybe it indeed was the Twin Peak success of last year. (God! Will I ever know for sure? Perhaps, I should just hire a detective.)

I had to be sure. So I dug deeper.

Could it have been that I led the conceptualization and propositioning for Tata Sky Actve English? The fact that I led the product development on behalf of the client, went beyond the expected scope of work (Signs of Pervasive Creativity perhaps).

Was it the fact, that this led to increased revenue for the agency to the extent of 100.000 USD (Financial success for agency) and increased revenue for the client to the extent of 2 mn USD making it their fastest growing interactive service … EVER? Maybe!

“Heval has played a key role in helping Tata Sky develop and launch its Actve English application. When Tata Sky approached Ogilvy to help us with the creative mandate for this interactive service, Heval went the extra mile to understand the target audience before reverting with suggestions. This involved proactively conducting an informal research with English institutes and even buying relevant study material to understand how English is taught across mediums. We found this particularly useful

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as it helped augment our findings and develop the concept better. Heval has also been helping us improve the product post the launch based on consumer feedback. His flexibility, pro-consumer approach and enthusiasm helped us to continue maintain the product quality.”

– Kripa Lund, Manager, Product Marketing, Tata Sky

At this point I just feel like picking the phone, and asking the jury themselves …Hey! What was it really? But pride I guess comes in the way. I think to myself, if they have sent me here they must think I am intelligent and hence would expect me to figure it out myself. So I plod on tirelessly.

I am suddenly reminded of this maverick thing that I did to ensure that my client sees sense in hitching themselves to the digital bandwagon.

One of our recent campaigns had created a lot of buzz. I figured that it had immense viral potential, but the client was skeptical. I kept pushing the client and was finally successful in getting them to start a fan page on the campaign. The page got more than 1,00,000 fans in a period of 1 month. Did THIS work in my favour? A maverick approach (Or plain foolish passion). Next step is to get O1 in. Maybe right after I get back from Cannes with lot more digital acumen. Surely will lead to increased revenue. Maybe can swing in Neo as well.

I am getting nowhere and it’s almost time for the Young Suits party. But I just can’t seem to get myself to go there until I have found out. I want to be sure I was a worthy winner. I then think to myself that I have no reason to believe I am not . After all I was the Suit of the Year for Ogilvy’ Mumbai office in 2007. So isn’t this like a logical next step? Suit of the Year on the big stage.

I am slowly getting convinced that I belong here. And then it hits me like a bolt from the blue. Maybe, just maybe, the jury felt that I am someone who is like old wine in a new bottle. Like a renaissance of sorts. Someone who will instill pride back into Account Management. Maybe this had something to do with it...

“Heval reminds me of the account management people that I worked with when I was a brand manager. Full of rigour, passion and undying commitment to the brand. And most importantly proud of their profession. Tata Sky is fortunate that Heval works on the business as it reminds us of Account Management of yore.”

– Vikrant Mudaliar, Vice President - Marketing, Tata Sky

Hmmm….. Maybe all these reasons contributed to my being here. Boy am I glad! I am suddenly reminded that I need to chat with the DJ on the song list for the party and I rush out of the room with “Tonight’s gonna be a good good night” playing in my head.

Author:

Heval is a part of the Account Management team in Ogilvy Mumbai. He gets turned on by originality and believes in the power of relationships.

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Jamie Tang

An inner process

Just like at any creative briefing or presentation, a good suit will have a preamble.

When I was first nominated to take part in this competition, I read through the brief and was rather inundated. It wasn’t so much the fact that I had an extra item on my to-do list (in this case, a get-to-do list), but more so that in my 4 years here, I have been exposed to countless testimonials of stellar account management role models and saw what they have done to be appropriately recognized. What can I possibly say in 1,000 words that can sell myself as The Young Suit of the Year?

It would have been easy to provide a textbook response (read: boring), but all trained suits know that doing that would be carrying out the cardinal sin of bullsh*tting (which a trained panel of judges can see right through). Actually, that wouldn’t have been easy for me at all, because I would have chosen to be a litigator if I was good at that.

So today as a suit, I decided to angle my essay on what I believe are resounding principles as to how I have come to flourish in this agency and how they have paved the way for my contributions. Here are the 5 principles:

1 Remind yourself why you love something. Repeat.

2 Sometimes you need to take a step back to move forward.

3 Treat digital like a never-ending, new and exciting relationship.

4 A big order like financial success starts with a small order.

5 Get what you give. Give what you get.

The Twin Peaks: driving our creative product, both with clients and creative teams and ensuring effectiveness is at the center of everything we do

GE Money was the very 1st account I had worked on in Ogilvy. It’s a financial institution, but unlike its competitors, it is not a bank. Its personal loan product called James, was one of the brands I have always been proud to work on. We could have called it GE Money Personal Loan, but because we aren’t a bank, we named it James (an invariably common name for a butler) to portray the imagery of an impeccable service provider. Naturally, the brand personality born was fun, tongue-in-cheek, witty and friendly. I love that.

Hence, I always went back to this belief – that we should remember what our brand stands for and what we love about it. I drummed on this belief at the start of creative briefings, at the end of creative briefings, during creative reviews, during client presentations, to my colleagues, to my friends. I wanted to talk up and exploit the brand’s personality as much as I could. That’s what happens when you love something.

You see, while working towards something as intimidating-sounding like The Twin Peaks, I like to think that sometimes a simple principle of loving the brand and keeping true to it can lead to great work that works.

Last year, we launched one of the best campaigns that GE Money had, one that saw James exceeding the category growth, leading to an impressive sales volume by the end of the year. I could talk about the research we had done, the insights we had uncovered or the strategic shifts we made. Or I could

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simply tell you that the work that managed to achieve this result was one that stayed true to the brand essence in terms of what it stood for against the banks.

This sounds obvious, but this had only been possible because everyone who worked on the campaign loved what James stood for and did not compromise on that.

If you flip today’s newspapers and pulled out any bank’s ad, and put it next to this James ad or any James ad we have done, I’ll guarantee you that you will be able to see that it’s because it had the planners, the creative team, the clients and myself loving the James brand and making sure we kept true to the brand, written all over it.

My job is to keep reminding everyone just that. And then, repeat.

Entrepreneurialism: leading initiatives that drive business for us and our clients – can they show us an example of how they have driven Pervasive Creativity that goes well beyond advertising

Pervasive Creativity is not necessarily just about creative advertising. It can also be about applying creativity to the way we think, which can change the way we approach the client’s business. Here’s an example:

GE Money’s other personal loan product, ezyCash (targeted at the lower-income segment), had been running the same campaign for 4 years. Last year, the deregulation came into place (when banks could finally sell loans to this once-protected target group). It would seem almost natural to go to the clients in view of the deregulation and say “We need something new, bold, big and creative to protect our market share!”But we took a step back.

I worked with the planners to initiate a brand workshop for the clients, an important session which helped the clients to reassess their brand after years of being comfortable with what was being done. We conducted exercises that forced ourselves and the clients to evaluate our brand against our new competitors, our brand values and our product promise. We eventually discovered that simplicity really, was the key to further drive our stake into the ground. We weren’t even talking about communications, but a realization that the brand ideal for ezyCash was all about keeping things simple.

This seems an obvious attribute that we would have easily thought of since it would resonate well with a target group that was less financially-savvy. But the CMO and his marketing team expressed that this had been an eye-opening exercise, even for us, the agency. The client eventually asked for an entire brand refresher campaign.

The overhaul wasn’t about changing the product, or changing the brand essence or launching a new and pretty ad campaign. What changed was the way we worked. We (both clients and agency) started to keep our minds focused on the brand ideal whenever we talked about ezyCash.

It wouldn’t be fair to just show you the work from the brand refresher campaign to demonstrate the learnings the agency and clients took away from the workshop. It was there in my daily conversations with the clients when we discussed creative feedback, it was there when the clients briefed us on new projects, it was there when I briefed the creative teams, it was there as a guiding principle at any discussion about the brand. Keeping it simple became our mantra.

Aside from the fact that the campaign had helped to meet the client’s brief of protecting our market share (and increased loan applications), we had fundamentally changed the way clients worked with us and vice versa.

Entrepreneurialism, sometimes, is about creating something new. Sometimes, it’s about communicating the same thing in a different way. If I can reference pushing Pervasive Creativity to drive business for clients and ourselves as entrepreneurialism, then I’d say that in this case, we did that quite simply.

If I can give one piece of advice to my peers, I’d say this:

Take a step back on how you think, and you will be able to move forward in what you do.

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Digital: understanding, evangelizing and driving digital

I have to be honest. Digital is one discipline in which I cannot confidently say, “I know it all”. It’s new, it’s too fast, it’s unconquered, but it’s there in our faces and we can’t ignore it.

If I could use a rather silly but quite apt analogy, it would be to say that digital is like an attractive person whom I know not much of, but I’d like to understand and learn more about. I’d want to nurture the relationship like it’s here to stay for a long time to come (which digital will, I’m sure).

We recently sold a digital idea that’s a first for one of our clients – a mobile application that takes the form of a massive multi-player online role-playing game (MMORPG). Minus the fact that MMORPG sounds impressive to non-tech people like me, the real beauty of the idea is that this app allows youths to connect with other youths and gives them a platform where their positive lifestyle choices are endorsed through the functionalities of the mobile application.

The key point I want to make here is not the idea itself but how I’ve learned to develop an approach towards digital in the process of finding my way around this new and unknown territory.

Just like how I’d approach a new and exciting relationship, I’ve used my wide-eyed wonder to understand digital. This exploration and unearthing includes:

• GoingonlinetoreadaboutthingsI’dhaveneverreadabout(i.e.Googling“MMORPGgames”, “game developers”, “mobile application”, “how to develop a mobile application: a guide for dummies a.k.a suits”)

• Cold-callingdevelopersandembarrassingmyselfwithcountlessquestions

• TalkingtodigitalexpertsfromSocialMediaMarketingagenciesandFacebookandtryingto straddle between remembering what they said and trying to understand them at the same time

• Studyingandtryingtounderstandunfamiliartermslike“wireframes”,“coding”,“AppCache”and “API” when I’ve always been more used to terms like “artwork”, “layouts” and “illustrations”

• Sharingalltheabovewithmyteamandclients

• Andthenfinally,tryingtoapplythelearningsafterdoingalloftheabove

My point is, my contribution to the project didn’t just stem from knowledge I had already held but how I’ve gone about achieving that knowledge. Like a new relationship, you demonstrate commitment and do it justice only when you try, learn and apply, try, learn and apply.

It all sounds very work-in-progress, but I like to think that digital, being one of the newest disciplines that is constantly evolving, requires constant learning as a fundamental requirement.

I’m treating digital like a relationship. And I’m not quite done with it yet.

Financial: understanding and driving the financial success of the agency

The 1st thing that came to my mind when I saw this title was to talk about how I understand the importance of keeping an account profitable and how I’ve managed to pitch in proposals beyond the stipulated scope of work to the clients, leading to more revenue. Etcetera, etcetera. It was uninspiring to me having to talk about that, what more for you all having to read it. So I have decided to talk about something which I personally think is a practice that is important but often gets taken for granted: A suit’s personal tracking system. Let me expand on this.

With regards to maintaining profitability of my accounts, my responsibility includes but is not limited to the following:

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– Management of effective agency timehours

– Ensuring costs do not overrun

– Ensuring timely generation and endorsements of cost estimates

If there is one thing which can upset any of the above, it’s not having a proper system in place to keep track of information. I will not detail my own approach, as everyone has their own way about it, but I will give you summarized examples of what will happen if there is no system in place to adhere to.

Ineffective use of agency timehours:

No system in place > No timesheet tracking session with finance department > No reconciliation between timehours sold to client and timehours clocked in > No actions taken to manage effective use of agency hours > Overrun in timecosts by end of financial year > No grounds to approach clients for remuneration > No happy ending (I have witnessed this before and it is not pretty)

Costs may overrun:

The costs from a big account can come from several third parties, at different amounts, and at different points of time. If I do not make it a point to track every single cost diligently, I will not be able to:

1. Manage the total costs throughout the project

2. Ascertain if the client’s budget can accommodate the costs, and much less

3. Maintain a healthy profit

Unsigned CEs:

CEs are sent. CEs take a while to get sign-offs. 1 month later, everyone forgets about them. Sounds like a small deal, because really, how hard is it to keep on your radar an unsigned CE right? In the case of one of my accounts, we generate more than 100 ads per month for our regional markets. There was one time the courier lost a stack of signed CEs which my client had delivered back to the agency. If there wasn’t a system in place, it would have been $20k that would have gone un-processed because no one would have been able to identify the exact CEs which had been sent across. Enough said.

From my humble point of view, I believe it’s the small contributions from my own “personal system” that make the difference. A big order like financial success really starts with a small order.

Just remember the world of difference the decimal point in the wrong place caused.

Agency Pride & Culture: contributing to Ogilvy to make this the place everyone else wants to work in

There are 2 things which I have been surrounded with since I joined the company – Support and a nurturing environment. They are the reasons why I stay in this company, and also the same 2 things I choose to pass on and advocate.

Contribution is really a vicious cycle – you put in what you get, you get back what you put in. Let me illustrate:

Support:

Ever found yourself drowning under workload because there was only one of you handling a project? I’m grateful to say that I’ve always had the option to seek help from my team members and boss, even though they weren’t handling the same project. I have had occasions when I had 5 of my team members (planners & creatives included) and my boss herself, working with me to push out a deck till 3am on a Friday.

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Many people can say that they don’t like being in an agency where they have to work their asses off late on a Friday night. But not many people can say that they have a choice to do that alone, or with their willing team members.

I make it a point to provide that same kind of support with all my team members. It doesn’t matter if they are from another department or not working on my account; I extend my help all the same.

We all know the line, “United we stand, divided we fall.” I’m happy to say that I’ve done more of that standing bit.

A nurturing environment:

My AE works on one account solely, an account that doesn’t allow much creative involvement as it revolves mostly around adaptation work. But she didn’t want to be limited by the account and wanted to understand more about advertising.

I started a weekly Friday sharing session - we called it the Tequila Project. We would escape our desks every Friday at 5pm and huddle in some corner of the office. I would share with her my past campaigns, work or anything that I felt would help open her mind up. (This of course, was done over some alcohol. Hence, the name “Tequila Project”).

What really inspired me to do this was a nurturing spirit which I had learned from my own supervisors when I was an AE. I had been scared out of my wits when it came to presentations. So each week, my supervisors would give me random topics and trained me to present in front of selected colleagues.

Only a nurturing environment would have given me that opportunity. In return, I nurture what I am nurtured with. (By the way, in case you are curious, the happy ending is that I no longer pass out at presentations).

So my point is: You get what you give. You give you what you get.

And I hope I have passed this very point on to my Tequila Project partner.

The End Note (may just be the beginning)

Earlier on, I’ve mentioned how contribution is a vicious cycle. Coincidentally, my point on getting what one gives and giving what one gets will be my end note as well.

You’ve asked me to talk about how I’ve contributed to the agency in the past year and I’ve just done so in the most honest way I can. You’ve also stated that you will like the suit who goes to Cannes, to bring it back to the office.

In that case, I hope to return from this Cannes trip which you are offering to continue that vicious cycle of contribution.

An inner process stands in need of outward criteria.

– Ludwig Wittgenstein

Author:

Some people say Jamie eats, lives and breathes Ogilvy. But she does have some semblance of a life, loves music and currently plays the keys in a band.

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Jed McMillan

Just Do It

It’s quite difficult to articulate why one deserves to be named O&M’s Young Suit of the Year when the nomination comes as a complete surprise. How have I contributed to the agency over the last year? By doing my job. By giving people what they need. By making it happen.

I joined O&M Sydney in January 2009. Referred by a friend, I had zero experience and even less understanding of advertising process, just a burning obsession with communication and human behaviour. A fair gamble by my fearless leaders! Fortunately, it was meant to be. Since then, I’ve run international TV, radio, cinema, press, print, in-store, outdoor, PR and digital campaigns for Nestlé’s Snack, Beverage and Confectionary portfolios, BP Castrol’s EDGE and Magnatec ranges (along with their 2010 World Cup naming-rights sponsor activity), the New South Wales State Government and multiple one-off projects. I’ve also been lucky enough to work with the likes Zenith Optimedia, Mindshare, Google, Mediacom, JC Decaux, Millward Brown and many others as partners. Between the pitches, research, briefs, presentations, timelines, media plans, estimates, invoices and reconciliations, I managed to proactively achieve a Certificate in Strategic Planning Principles via the Advertising Federation of Australia: I’ve also recently approached the APM College of Business and Communication with regard to their international MBA options.

I’ve worked on big briefs, little briefs and little briefs that got big. Material instructions that require 8pt type over 6 x A3 sheets are no laughing matter! Through early 2010, I worked alone with the GM to realise the Department of Transport and Infrastructure’s ‘MyZone’ campaign, a mammoth public transport reform, beset with multiple regionally target variations of television, press, print, outdoor, digital, DM and brochure material. A full 360° campaign, this was a massive undertaking and although not entirely devoid of complication, this job met every deadline on time, was well-received by the consumer and the normally critical press and opposition politicians. Additionally, it secured the agency some $700K in incremental revenue. The inverse was a simple launch for a new Uncle Tobys snack product, modestly communicated by a straightforward TVC and outdoor touchpoint combination, which stimulated such great interest from our target that factory production lines literally could not keep up with demand. Stores were selling out! The case study for that particular campaign placed 2nd overall at Nestlé’s global ‘Hit Parade’ effectiveness competition and rendered a personal... commendation from O&M Global CEO Miles Young, praising our approach and delivery to the hallowed Twin Peaks.

I love both old and new business. My clients regularly make specific requests for my input at planning groups and strategy workshops, as I always try to add that extra value and insight to get the ball rolling in a new direction and I can’t recall a single moment of conflict in the last year. However, there’s something really special about the clean slate of a potential win. Free from the constraints of tenure, strategy and creative thought are at their purest. I have personally contributed to 10 pitches in the last 12 months, reporting to and working directly with the General Manager on the submissions, case studies and agency credentials that keep our lifeblood flowing.

I rant and rave about the so-called “new media”. Digital is a polarising medium: Those who ‘get it’ seem to think their knowledge entitles them to act with total disdain toward those less savvy; those who don’t get it, REALLY don’t get it. But as a whole, it’s great to work for a company that recognises we must lead the charge as online marketing matures. Championing engagement in the digital space can lead to interesting conversations, like gently explaining to a senior public servant that the function of a click-through means it’s unnecessary to include a URL, let alone two URLs, in an MREC design, or even demonstrating to a self-proclaimed “tech guru” that rich media placements don’t need to feature laptops to emphasise the destination, as consumers are already online when they actually start to interact with the creative. Over the last 12 months we’ve empowered staid government departments to invest in targeted social media placements aimed at reducing speeding and other traffic offences by

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young males drivers which far exceeded forecasted CTRs. Our recent work for Nestlé on a functional confectionery product, which halted a 7-year sales decline and created new relevance with the fickle 18-24 year old demographic, has been nominated at the Interactive Advertising Bureau Awards, the online advertising industry’s pre-eminent decoration for creativity and effectiveness in Australia.

I know which company I work for. That’s something a lot of account managers outside Ogilvy would do well to remember. A suit need to have much more than the gift of the gab. Some fundamentals: The spine to say ‘no’ when a request is detrimental to the work or your team, the knack of keeping perspective whilst others might be losing the plot, or the ability to ‘read’ other people in the room and then use that information to resolve the situation. And to be completely frank, I’ve grown less fond of the word ‘suit’ over time. We face enough hurdles every day just trying to bring ideas to life; we don’t need to create additional internal barriers from little more than which floor an individual’s desk happens to be on. That’s why I’ve taken a leading role in promoting activities like the ‘The DO’ (a monthly creative showcase coupled with ‘get-to-know-you’ presentations) or the formation of ‘Young Turks’, a nationwide career development programme, aimed at rewarding initiative and ambition from junior Ogilvites across every function of the business. Apart from making Ogilvy a great place to work, anything that promotes unity of direction and cohesive thinking will eventually result in better results for our agency and our clients.

I give a damn. What we do day in, day out, is much bigger than just making ads. We change behaviour in the world around us. If we hope to change behaviour within our organisation, new information and experience needs to be fed to those with the greatest breadth of influence on a day-to-day basis. To bring Cannes back to the office, first send the right people to Cannes.

Author:

Jed is well-known for driving overly precious art directors completely insane and often takes senior management’s “open door” policy far too literally. Most weekends, he can be found in the vicinity of Bondi Beach.

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Jiamei Tay

Life is like a golf course…

During a particularly tumultuous time in my teenage years, my father came to me and explained how just like in a golf game, each phase of life is a new challenge and one should never dwell on how badly the previous hole was played. If you do, you’ll lose focus and duff the shot. He was a huge golf buff and also made a lot of sense.

I would like to think I’ve inherited his passion and adopted his philosophy on life. How else would one survive the advertising industry? I’ve worked at a number of companies but never have I experienced such incredible highs that I felt like doing the can-can in the office. I felt this most profoundly when I was left to my own devices to lead a project or account. On Raffles City, I witnessed my own tremendous growth when I stepped up from being an Account Executive to managing the entire account on my own. I led client meetings and owned the relationship with the client and I knew I had their trust. On HPB, it was a challenge to produce great work for a conservative client. I knew all the hard work of chipping away at the clients’ safe approach paid off when we produced the first season of Not So Secret Lives, which was a saucy online blog that dramatized the consequences of having unprotected sex. We won a Silver Effie that year and the project paved the way to more great work.

Neither have I experienced such intense lows that all I wanted to do was hide in the bathroom and bawl. One of those episodes was when I was due to attend a close friend’s wedding. I had brought my evening dress to work, thinking I could head straight down from work. By 9pm, I was starving and still the clients were making FA amendments. I ended up staying till 5am and missing the wedding completely.

A year and a half ago, I was given the opportunity to embark on a new journey with the Coke Regional Team. To borrow from golf terminology, I was told it would be fraught with hazards and I couldn’t see the flag. Regardless, with passion and curiousity, and fully trusting the certified pros (Jonathan Aeberhard & Michelle Li) to guide me, I let the ball fly. The result was that my world exploded beyond creating ad campaigns.

Twin Peaks

Everyone knows that the strength of the network is in sharing best thinking. But not many can be a conduit to facilitate sharing of great work that works. I produced bi-monthly Coke regional team newsletters, which included sections on the best Coke work from Ogilvy offices in the region as well as the best creative work that was making waves around the world. All the Coke work from the region was also compiled in a “best-practice” library that we can tap into. The result is that the regional clients now depend on us to fill them in on their local work, and we are poised to deliver the best creatively and effectively.

Entrepreneurialism

Creativity exists in everything that we do. Ironically, the best creativity happens not on a piece of advertising. We were asked to develop a toolkit to educate students on recycling in schools. Instead of posters and TVCs, I drove the development of teaching tools which included: a comprehensive 7-session lesson plan, a card game, recycling process videos, and a show-and-tell board for students to showcase their recycling ideas. On Diageo, we were given 2 days to turn around an activation proposal. Not having an activation team on hand meant that we had to generate the ideas on our own. Through an intensive brainstorming session with Michelle, we put together a proposal of 12 ideas that the client

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loved and bought into. Most recently for the MCYS pitch, I had the opportunity to be part of the core team, and presented the creative work through an entertaining skit. Despite being up against 17 other agencies, and having gone through 3 rounds of pitch, we eventually won the business worth SGD600,000 in revenue for Ogilvy Singapore. My regional role also requires me to be a shrewd hunter of opportunities, identifying the ones to pursue and providing the required support. These times that I applied a creative lens, I’ve found to be most rewarding and memorable.

Digital

I believe that digital is not new and is in fact just an evolution of the way we exchange information. Just as we integrate the use of a mobile phone in our lives, digital is part and parcel of everyday life. After all, the internet has been around for decades. We should stop thinking about digital as a new thing to incorporate into our campaigns, and instead see it as it is – an evolution of life.

Financial

I love making money.

As part of the newly formed Coke Regional Team, there was pressure on us to continue growing the business. We were faced with a drop in forecast revenue of USD1.5M at the start of 2010. Through regular engagement with local teams, cross sharing of best practice and information, and aggressive mining of Coke contacts on all fronts, we managed to end the year close to 2009 Proforma.

A month ago, I spotted an opportunity for RedWorks to work with Coke Singapore. Coke Singapore traditionally has small budgets and had come to us previously with adhoc requests to produce collaterals. It dawned upon me that if they consolidated a year of such requests with RedWorks, it could make up a sizeable piece of business. Driven by this prospect, I engineered the introduction of Redworks to Coke Singapore. To my surprise, we were given a brief on the spot, and have been told there will be more in the pipeline. It feels great to make money.

Agency Pride & Culture

It’s certainly easier to get work done when you’re working with friends and there’s a sense that we’re all in it together. Few ever take the initiative to bring people together. Through the game nights I’ve organized, I’ve discovered sides to people I never would have known otherwise. I also drive monthly breakfast session where each time, a planner, creative and account person share campaigns that inspire them. Through these sessions, we’ve not only enriched our minds, but also given the presenters the opportunity to foster new relationships among themselves.

Most of the time, it’s simply about being human. I’ve paid constant attention to market requests, always being responsive, friendly and dependable. But during times of political turmoil or natural disasters, I realized that events that once seemed distant, are now real through knowing someone who has been affected by it.

The beauty of my experiences so far is that it has been an uphill climb. I may not have shot a perfect hole-in-one, but the triple bogey journey has taken me through an exciting multi-cultural, multi-faceted world. At the end of the day, I don’t really care for a green jacket, because that simply means the game is over.

Author:

Jiamei is part of the advertising team in Singapore. Her ultimate dream is to go on a global gastronomical tour to the best restaurants in the world

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Joanne Lee

(But you can buy concert tickets, which is kinda the same thing)

You Can’t Buy Happiness.

Prologue

I’ve always wanted to write a novel. To be a writer. I remember growing up writing lyrics for songs with melodies left uncomposed... I used to have this school-exercise-book-turned journal, where a handful of ghost stories surfaced, and sometimes even came to life in my own little world.

As children we constantly look for that safe place to express and find ourselves — our comfort zone. With my treasured Pilot mechanical pencil in hand, I lost myself far, far away in places found only in writing where fiction gets entangled with reality and nothing needs to make sense. It gave me a sense of security, knowing I wrote only for my own pleasure.

When the raging hormones kicked in, wayward and rebellious poetry began to flow. Ink spread on tissue paper, and on the back of my textbooks. Short quotes appeared carved into wooden desks and endless emails bounced between my best friend and me all the way through college & university.

As I traveled, a jumble of words threaded with scribbles filled pocket sized little black books — handy when I needed to jot down something quick, or a reminder about that must have coffee I learned of in a quaint London café called Flat White. And it came to a stop.

My relationship with non-existent characters ended even before you can say “Hello, working world”.

The Name Of The Game, Is Perseverance

3 weeks is all we have, for Hard Rock Hotel’s Corporate Video, so we’re making full use of it all - endless revisions and feedback via con-calls with clients, 4 to 5 rounds of getting the CDs of the footage all the way from Penang (land of awesome food!), tense internal moments at 8pm.

The clock is ticking!

12 more hours to final presentation to clients, now if only the video editor has 4 pairs of hands to work with.

Now we’re down to 3 hours – and, oh no! The machine decides to crash on us. Why, thank you Apple.

Half-an hour left, we’re rushing the finishing touches to the video and editing, overlaying the soundtracks and woot! We are ready to send.. IS THAT A TYPO ERROR THERE?

5 minutes more!! Upload, upload (thank God for Ogilvy Express) and we are set!

Okay, the catchy Hard Rock Hotel Corporate Video soundtrack is still playing in my head.

2 hours later, the phone rings…

Clients loved it! Everyone’s happy!

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The moral of the story? Even if it’s an initiative for a smaller business that doesn’t bring in that much money, the rewards at the end are always still great –because it’s always the first step to creating great work for bigger businesses.

Where The Wild Things Are

RAWRS!

We embarked on a mission to save our furry friends the tiger, for WWF’s Tigers Alive initiative. It was a flurry of briefs, meetings and presentations crammed into 10 days.

The challenge here was to get the execution bit approved. The clients wanted a film, but we proposed using motion graphics to tell the story.

I felt it would work because the script was powerful— it moved me and made me want to stand up and tell the world to help save the tigers! How often does one get to create great work that inspires and move people?

Right now, we’re just crossing our fingers (and paws) for the good news!

Not A Battle To Be Lost

We pushed. We pushed clients to attend Webinars, Search workshops, and engaged them with workshops on making the business work through Twitter and Facebook.

It felt like a whole new level of getting to know each other; we made clients aware of the existence of social media.

Exposure is the key. We taught clients about the wonders of tapping into a new, unknown, so-much-to offer channel- yet great and powerful tool.

Clients saw an opportunity, and we suggested having a Facebook contest for Pizza Hut fans during the launch of the Cheesy 6 Campaign. The prizes were attention grabbing: free iPads, iPhones and cash vouchers.

In less than 2 months, Pizza Hut’s Facebook fan base spiked from 70,000 to 150,000 (the numbers are still increasing).

The ball kept rolling.

We launched a Search campaign for the clients, and the results were outstanding. We generated RM24,000, where we delivered 58,000 visits to the Pizza Hut site, consisting of 1,065,001 total impressions/keyword searches and 57,917 total clicks at the end of the campaign.

We were impressed. And so were clients.

The World Is On Fire

I love. The adrenaline rush. The stress. The endless discussion and debates on what should be in the strategy deck. The weeks and weeks of brainstorming. The sleepless nights editing and cutting videos. Revision, after revision, after revision. It made me feel like I’m part of this –

it’s OUR award, it’s OUR submission, it’s OUR time to showcase all the amazing campaigns that have been done.

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The anticipation. It was the feeling of handing in an assignment that you trust you’d get a 100 marks for. Sealing envelopes never felt so exhilarating. And it has only just begun.

The waiting taught us patience. Then we forget about it. We move on with our daily lives.

One fine day, you get an e-mail saying that you’ve been shortlisted and the next thing you know you’re up there, on that stage (looking pretty), holding that shining, heavy piece of metal that represents all the blood, sweat and tears that you’ve shed for the longest time.

That feeling of relief and satisfaction is indescribable. It’s overwhelming, yet exhausting. Because you know at the back of your head, that the madness will begin again (As if winning 3 bronze EFFIE awards, and 2 YUM reel Awards for Pizza Hut isn’t enough.)

I say bring it on.

It’s Never The End Until You Give Up

Ogilvy’s all about the food, the long lunches, the weekly Friday OBar party (with free flow of drinks, of course) and the non-stop happenings and laughter across the hallway of O & M Advertising (which happens to be across the ECD’s room all the way from our GM’s room). The fun never stops.

The after “working hours” ping pong match, the jamming sessions with our self-formed band (consisting of a lead vocalist, back-up singer, songwriter and the oh-so-cute guitarist), planning for surprise birthdays, random “Have a good Friday” notes – Ogilvy’s not a place where you just go to work the next day and leave for home when you’re done. You leave with a permanent impression on people’s hearts, building long lasting friendships.

So there- in a nutshell, a 1000 word short story of all the things I’ve learnt since I stepped into the Ogilvy building almost two years ago. And I must say that as essential as it is to look back and reflect, it is even more important to live for the present.

Author:

Often crazy but ambivalent to what’s going on around her, Joanne is fueled by good music and dabbles in writing to her heart’s content. Life’s too short for what ifs!

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Kate Yung

Climbed the Great Wall

Having worked at Ogilvy for more than 5 years, this is the first and only time I would say that “I deserve to be one of the Best Suits of the Year!” Why I am so confident to say this is because I’ve helped transform a year which was full of storm, confusion into applause, appreciation and recognition.

The story started when I was transferred from HK office to Shanghai office last January. Facing a new city, new account & client, new working environment and relatively new language (because my Mandarin was still poor at that time), I began work on ‘difficult’ Dove – the global client of which was threatening to fire us globally, if we failed to win in China on his new Dove bodywash campaign.

With this ultimatum, came complexities. There was a lot of ‘everyone’, from multiple offices and disciplines, and everyone was under tremendous stress. Furthermore, Shanghai was used to adaptation work, and this project required origination. This implied significant collaboration from different offices, in different time zones, in a very precise way - which the Shanghai office was not used to handling.

And we started off with a failure. Clients and colleagues got even more agitated than they already were, when the first TVCs tested failed in Preview. It was like a time bomb that had its time left shortened. Quite a few could not handle the pressure. This situation lasted for more than 9 months and I saw resignations almost every day.

Facing this tough situation and never-ending problems, I used my passion for Ogilvy and positive energy to deal with all the challenges. This was because when I decided to work in China, I told myself that I needed to be strong and get the most out of China.

I therefore took the lead to manage all global coordination work, and provided guidance and support to all offices. I motivated creative teams by persistently selling work to clients, and solving problems together. I forecasted any potential problems, to minimize chances of failure. I developed relationships with clients and worked closely with them. I encouraged and nurtured my team on a daily basis.

To ensure our campaign not only delivered what the client asked for, I pushed colleagues in One to develop digital ideas, and played a brand ‘tour guide’ role to make sure that everything was on brand. I was determined to help everyone win this battle.

Our Dove ‘Better Than Milk’ bodywash campaign became living proof of Great Work That Works – not only did we zag when all competitors zigged, we delivered a 4X growth in market share, from 1.8% to 7.6%.

In the TVC, we did not follow any of the beauty category norms. Instead of extensive scientific demos, we held the bar higher to milk, to prove how well the product worked. Instead of stunningly, flawlessly beautiful woman, we celebrated ‘girlfriends’ just being themselves. Instead of just a TVC/KV, we put digital at the heart of the campaign, and used social media like no beauty brand had ever done before.

Our bravery helped Dove achieve a four-fold growth to 7.6% national bodywash market share in December 2011, and Dove gained the no. 1 position in Shanghai, China’s most competitive market, with a huge 20% market share in bodywash. The TVC was so well-received that it achieved higher persuasiveness than Olay’s, even in Guangzhou, Olay’s core market. Our social media campaign drove 1.5 billion impressions, with over 9 million click-throughs and over 130 thousand daily visitors. These results are second-to-none in the history of the category in China.

Being a newcomer to this city and this office, I feel very grateful for the chance to experience this valuable and unforgettable adventure, and to enjoy the triumph with everyone. I learned a lot about how to excel in difficulty and complexity. I gained trust from clients as well as my colleagues, and

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pushed our agency’s creativity, effectiveness and digital to new heights. Please allow me to share the following quotes from notes colleagues and our key client wrote to or about me:

“Kate is a valuable team player to the overall success of Dove skin business and is a talent Ogilvy could continue to nurture to be future leader.”

– Katherine Sun, Business Director, Ogilvy Shanghai

“It goes without saying that Kate is passionate and has talent with what she is doing but what makes her a great partner is her undying enthusiasm and desire to be as positive as possible no matter what.”

– Geoffrey Ogay, Head of Planning, Ogilvy Shanghai

“The success of Great Wall Campaign gives me the taste of triumph. Now Olay and J&J feel panic to our campaign and plan to attack us. I am happy to see this and this really means marketing to me.”

– Lizzy Chen, VP of Personal Care Category, Unilever China

Author:

Kate comes from Hong Kong and has been working in Shanghai office for 1.5 years. She found herself in love with the beautiful environment and dynamic lifestyle of this city.

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Leah Carew

AstrayLeah from Ogilvy Australia

I’ve just finished reading ‘Confessions of an Advertising Man’ so please excuse any Ogilvy nostalgia I may have wound into my thoughts on pride, effectiveness, initiative and finance. Luckily, my copy seemed to be missing the chapter on digital, so in an effort to curb the nostalgic vibe, this feels like the best place to start.

So first, a confession of my own; AAMI digital is where the action will be in 2011/12.

To date I’ve helped deliver numerous banner and EDM campaigns for AAMI Insurance. Enter new vocab. Publishers tend to communicate in a language of their own, one spoken at a hundred miles an hour, littered with more acronyms than full words. Learning to navigate this terrain was quite the undertaking, though I’m pleased to say I now speak ‘publisher’.

Understanding the constraints and possibilities of digital when working with a client who is quite new to the digital realm and quite cynical of its merits, means uncertainty is not an option. Not only does our client want answers, they also demand a level of confidence in the advice we give and the ideas we put forth. The result? We’ve got a cracker of an online campaign in the works for AAMI; a campaign that will live online with little to no above the line support. Selling the idea and keeping it sold is proving to be an ongoing challenge; but one that we’re continuing to deliver on despite the client’s hesitance to embrace social media channels.

Mattel is a different kettle of fish. We got 27 of Mattel’s TVCs online last year. That’s 27 more than the previous year. This may seem like a small achievement, but we’re proving the merit in online to a client I’d argue is more fitting and able than most to have a stronger online presence.

Cue segway into initiative. The opportunities to pounce on proactive jobs with AAMI can be few and far between. But, like any client, AAMI appreciate and commend the result when you push their briefs further.

AAMI’s ongoing sponsorship of horse racing events across Australia and the creative requirements this brings has been an area in which we’ve excelled creatively over recent years. Our last brief was simple; ‘Last year you produced a stand-out suite of sponsorship collateral. If it’s possible, we want the same again, but better’.

We jumped on the front foot and began chasing the client for extra details, giving us maximum time to work on the brief itself, and build up amazing concepts. Come shoot day we had the next 12months of AAMI racing sorted and a very happy client. In fact, the client was so happy with the resulting look and feel we created we were asked to extend the usual scope of work to invites, EDMs and marquee imagery. In doing so, we’ve helped align AAMI with a new dimension of creative, one that extends beyond the humorous, white-type on red headline, into a realm of sophistication and glamour.

You have to be pretty special to get into the AAMI marquee on Derby Day - kudos to the creative.

Now for a word on pride. Ogilvy Melbourne has a phenomenal number of grads. When given the task of bringing this group together I saw jumped at this exciting opportunity. We (a committee of two) realised we had the potential to start something great.

Unfortunately Ogilvy Melbourne’s 300+ staff are spread over a few locations, meaning there are often many unknown faces at all-staff meetings. By initiating a monthly group meeting of ‘Young Turks’, we’ve managed to bring some of these 300+ together.

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I’ve led the charge in organising functions and rallying the troops for a series of guest speakers, information sessions on disciplines within the agency and regular meetings. I’m proud to say the ‘Young Turks’ are going strong. A bonding bus trip to the country for the races as the first function set the bar quite high as far as functions go, and as a collective group we have big plans to initiate involvement in new business work, training, and hopefully more racedays..

As a prelude to my thoughts on finance: my marketing degree was devoid of maths. I missed it. I ran out of university screaming for someone to hand me something maths related. Instead I was handed a stack of JDRs. Challenge accepted.

Coming on to the Mattel account presented somewhat of a finance challenge. A mix of local and international billings, and a process that allowed for invoices to be handballed back and forth across the Pacific before eventually finding an accounts department willing to make payment, meant there was a bit to grasp and opportunities for improvement.

Streamlining the international billings process has helped ensure there is minimal lull between international agencies issuing estimates to the final invoices being received and paid. In the past this had meant fluctuations on the exchange rate played havoc on the actuals. Clearly communicating deadlines for and chasing the invoices on jobs has helped rectify this as has ensuring possible fluctuations in talent fees (another problem area) are avoided.

But. At the end of the day, proven effectiveness speaks louder than words in an essay, right?

I’m proud to have played a role in producing what is arguably some of Ogilvy Melbourne’s most effective work in recent years. Namely, AAMI’s What About Me Campaigns, the original and the Sequel. Both slight departures from AAMI’s regular mix of chaos/flying dogs and but both highly effective initiators of consecutive record sales and opportunity calls for AAMI.

Our task was to launch a new product: AAMI Safe Driver Rewards. Devising an anthem-like TVC execution supported with a mix of retail and branded print, online and outdoor, we managed to increase sales in an otherwise stagnant category by a record 14%. Way to please the client!

And Mattel; where often the effectiveness of our advertising is threatened by the need to get multiple messages into one communication. Not always possible, and rarely advisable in a 5 second endframe ‘thatalreadymentionsbatteriesaccessoriesandsoldseperately!’. The ability to remain diplomatic and focused on the greater goal has meant that thankfully, ultimate consensus is that the endframe is not the place for an extra three logos and two packshots.

Author:

Leah is part of the Ogilvy Melbourne team best known for creating ‘those singing AAMI ads’. When not working on insurance campaigns, she likes to escape the city for her home town in rural Victoria.

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Louisa Leung

the challenge and the fun of introducing an old brand in a new market

Launching Dove in China

Instead of putting this important thought of mine at the end like a disclaimer, I’d like to start by stating one clichéd fact that I truly believe in:

It is always more about team work than about me. Individual awards are certainly worthy recognition and I feel honoured already having been nominated alongside some outstanding colleagues in the Young Suit of the Year 2011 Awards. But good work is a function of many factors other than individual performance. This is why this essay is a personal reflection of how I have contributed to the team’s good work by effectively playing the ‘suit’ role over the past year.

Old Account, New Team

The story is special because we started in 2010 as a newly-assembled team at the Shanghai office, albeit working on an account with which Ogilvy has enjoyed a long-lasting relationship – Dove. To launch a new product is interesting enough, to launch a new brand with a full product range in the biggest market in the world for a consumer goods giant like Unilever is highly exciting. This was part of our motivation when we took on the challenge of launching this international brand in China. The challenge was twofold: to successfully launch the Body Wash Range from Dove Skin and the Damage Therapy Range from Dove Hair. I was privileged to play a key role in the latter.

The project kicked off as the team was taking shape in parallel. At first limited resources posed a challenge to the creative development process. This, coupled with very tight timing for creative research, added pressure and difficulties to the early operation. It called for an intelligent, flexible and efficient approach to the task at hand:

One of the first and foremost condition I as a suit had to fulfill, and successfully did, was a high level of understanding with the client. With multiple decision-makers and stakeholders based in various locations, we struck an almost immediate rapport and strong trust with the whole client team and global and regional agency teams. It was vital that we gained access to a more complete picture of the client’s business and their feedback on Ogilvy’s work. Not only did it ensure that our work was of Ogilvy and Dove quality and on-brief, it also enabled us to quickly and firmly establish Ogilvy as a trusted partner for Unilever’s Hair team who had traditionally worked with other agencies in this category.

To achieve that I demonstrated a strong grasp of client’s needs through communication, observation and market intelligence. We married this with the agency’s strength in planning, creativity and execution to provide solutions as effectively as possible. A prime example is the complex adaptation of Dove’s global Favourite Things campaign:

Old Song, New Campaign

The campaign was developed at the global level and well-received in testing and feedback in many countries. Not only does it take a uniquely non-judgmental approach to women’s hair-damaging behaviour, it actually celebrates all these things that women enjoy doing in their lives – instead of criticising women for damaging their hair by perming, colouring, blow-drying, etc., Dove embraces these things as much as women do, and encourages them to keep doing their favourite things and let Dove take care of the damage. This very inclusive, liberating attitude makes Dove’s brand personality

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shine through the campaign. This was the Ogilvy quality of work that we aspired to and were determined to deliver just as well locally.

With a strong campaign originated, the challenge lied in adaptation for China. The song My Favourite Things, a key element that makes this campaign special, is not well-recognised locally. Only a minority of consumers recall it from the classic film The Sound of Music. We therefore set ourselves a target of ensuring a high level of consumer engagement despite the relatively low awareness of the original song. The situation and magnitude of the campaign also warranted more flexibility with production methods and intelligent attention to detail to deliver quality work for testing and launch. We therefore put extra effort into communicating the benefit message with locally-tested support, the pace and rhythm, visual impact, down to every detail in production, to deliver the right creative work to the market.

Old Brand, New Market

The communication was well-received by the market indeed. Dove Hair, having started with a clean slate in China, matched other heavily-promoted brands in market shares of key segments shampoo and post-wash in the launch period. Dove’s value share was also the key driver behind Unilever reaching a record-high post-wash share in recent data – a very positive leap towards achieving their stretching ambition of becoming a strong player in China’s haircare market. Word-of-mouth also continues to grow to this day with many users enthusiastically discussing the commercial, the song and the brand online and otherwise.

To continue to help grow the client’s business means growth potential for Ogilvy in terms of revenue streams and opportunities to achieve twin peaks. While we have established a strong grip in non-advertising components like digital content development, pack designs and activation planning, the next goal was for us to conquer digital by expanding Ogilvy’s relationship with other client teams within Unilever.

Building on Ogilvy’s achievement in launching the Skin and Hair campaigns, we are gearing up to propose digital-driven initiatives for Dove Hair. Having identified gaps in the current digital campaign, we are moving in the right direction by developing content for digital PR and official micro-blog, which has a superior following to competitive offerings online. Despite the segregation between two marketing departments at Unilever, we have kept the client teams updated on our digital observation and monitoring. Further agency initiative development is underway.

By constantly improving the quality of work through collaboration with creative, planning, production and other teams as well as coaching account team members, I have full confidence that we will keep strengthening the long-standing and trustful relationship with Unilever and produce even better Dove work that we at Ogilvy will be proud of.

Author:

Louisa is part of team Unilever in China. As a football fan, she sees some parallel between advertising and football – it’s all about creativity and teamwork in the beautiful game.

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Martin Condivi

From One Suit to Another

In my final year of school, my uncle organised for me to meet his friend, Adam O’Conner, a Senior Account Manager at Singleton Ogilvy & Mather. I know what his title was at the time because I still have his card. He had agreed to meet with me as a favour to my uncle, to discuss my interest in working in the advertising industry.

I walked in to that meeting with little knowledge of the ad world, only a vague interest and almost no direction. I walked out of that meeting with something very special. I knew what I wanted to be.

A Suit

And so, with my course set, I went about my studies at university, achieving my Bachelor in Business Marketing - interning at the agency whenever I could. I started work at Ogilvy one day after my final exam, and have now been with the agency for over four and a half years.

During my time with Ogilvy I’ve been lucky enough to work on some well known and highly rewarding brands including Coca-Cola, Sprite and Fanta, as well as the Wallabies (National Australian Rugby) and more recently Foster’s.

The following details some of the more recent projects I’ve worked on, which I hope will demonstrate and support my case for Ogilvy Asia Pacific – Suit of the Year.

During my first year as Account Manager on the Coca-Cola business, rather than briefing the usual designated creative team, well conditioned to the conventional approach to the brand and the expectations of the client, we put our Coca-Cola Mini-Cans brief out to the entire agency via the ‘Czech to China’ program. This allowed people from all disciplines to submit work, with only the best, potentially award winning ideas selected. This approach allowed us to pro-actively surprise, and impress, our client with a breadth of outstanding ideas, two of which we were able to successfully sell in and produce.

One thing I’ve learnt during my time as Suit is that being able to share the story of effective work, more than creative work, demonstrates worth in what we do as advertisers. Ensuring effectiveness is looking for the story to tell about the work, good or bad. Effectiveness is a discipline that a good Suit will apply constantly. It involves setting up what the work needs to DO and then looking at what it has DONE. Keeping a running case study on individual campaigns as they progress from the original brief to the end of the project is a good way to do so.

Also, with so much of our clients advertising spend shifting into digital channels; I believe that the importance of a Suits holistic understanding of the digital landscape is now more important than ever. It is the responsibility of the Suit to identify, facilitate and champion opportunities for Ogilvy to DO great digital work for our clients.

An interactive banner that was recently developed for The Australian Rugby Union (The Wallabies) was a recent project that allowed us to really promote the agencies digital expertise. The banner, which was developed for last year’s test series, was displayed on the Rugby Heaven website throughout the domestic test period.

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It was multi-function banner that allowing users to:

– View, place and send messages of support to the team updated in real time.

– Selected messages were also displayed on ground and in the players change room at the match.

– Automatically update their Facebook profile, changing their status in support of the team and turning their profile picture gold.

The banner also displayed localised, upcoming match information with click through to purchase tickets online which allowed us to convert the user’s engagement directly into ticket sales.

The key role for a Suit is to be this lead this integration across disciplines, so that our clients can access the added value and efficiency of operating with a single agency that can deploy a truly integrated solution across a spectrum of specialities. Constantly applying a 360®approach to our clients business problems and campaigns will ensure that we’re always engaging our full range of service offerings and in-tern maximising the financial success long term prosperity of Ogilvy.

I recently transferred within the Ogilvy offices from Sydney to Melbourne which has allowed me to really broaden my horizons and experience living in a different city whilst building some great people within the Ogilvy network. Prior to moving to the Melbourne office, the management of the Ogilvy Sydney Scholarship program with Charles Sturt University allowed me to spend time engaging with the university lecturers and students. Student’s would submit an application, and if selected, would then progress to the second round where they would make a presentation to me and a member of the teaching faculty. Topics would include their knowledge of Ogilvy, why they would like to work there, a favourite campaign etc. We would then interview each of the finalists to select the successful recipient, who would receive a paid internship with the agency. This was a great way for me to engage with next generation coming through the ranks and make Ogilvy a place that everyone else wants to work in.

Hopefully the above has given you some insight into how much I’ve enjoyed and valued my time as a Suit with Ogilvy. Writing this has allowed me to reflect on how far I’ve come with the agency.

Am I the Suit of the year? Amongst such great colleagues, possibly not... however I move ahead knowing that the decision I made in my final year of school to become a Suit was the right one and I feel now how I would imagine Adam O’Conner felt back when he met with me ten years ago.

Proud of the work I do and proud of the agency I work for.

Author:

Marty has recently turned his back on the warm weather, sandy beaches of Sydney for the cooler weather, cafes and bars of Melbourne – transferring offices within the region to take up a position as Account Director on the grocery and wine client services team at Ogilvy Melbourne.

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Neha Khaneja

Dizzy On The French Riviera

It can be said that the thing that drives people to agencies is the idea of being dressed up in your favourite dress and a chance to get clicked next to the azure blue waters of the most well known town on the French Riviera. Though in reality it is the Delhi Metro or the Mumbai Local, but again reality is known to be a habitual spoilsport.

A Cannes is to an advertising guy what an American jaunt is to a Tam Bram techie.

4 years in Ogilvy, an employee of the year award and enough grey hair dealing with clients later I very well deserve to be in my favourite dress and shades on the waterfront. And that is the truth; you just can’t make things like that.

But then no one got photographed on a Yacht on a sunny day in the south of France because of truth.

So here are the facts.

In 2009 Sprite’s global agency, BBH NY chalked out a global positioning which was mandated to be followed across the globe. Having lived with the brand for 18 months and surpassing our arch rival Pepsi, our most important task was to marry the global format and to make Sprite a transcending badge value for the youth. While the aim was to achieve this daunting and risky task, our bigger worry at hand was to retain our business. Hence it was essential to ensure accuracy in driving all operations for the two rounds of pitch and aligning smoothly between various teams and departments.

Thus we set out to work on this new format of the charter process which mandated driving operations across India, Pakistan, Istanbul, Atlanta Global office while simultaneously working on the pitch and handling the complicated final production process.

Managing such a large group, with people sitting across not only in different chairs but also in different time zones with contrasting opinions had its own unique challenges. Making everybody on board happy over con calls yet aligning them was a new experience all together. Thus handling an extremely volatile category with crazy deadlines and unreasonable demands, what was required were diligence and an approach to turn roadblocks into stepping stones. Thankfully major cosmetic companies these days have products that work on first signs of ageing. There is yoga too.

Thus the task at hand was of communicating the new global positioning of the brand however at the risk of diluting the previous equity built especially in terms of the credibility of the communication coming from Sprite.

To arrive at a common insight of this diverse youth across the EAG group was a challenge. Harping on this opportunity a thorough research was done on the Facebook pages & groups across the Charter countries. Delving further into their updates, groups formed about their daily chores, likes & dislikes gave an insight on this generation which lives vicariously through Social networking, courtesy Facebook.

This inspired us and led us to our understanding of this unique yet diverse generation which helped us in our creative developmental process.

Long story cut short I had to ask my feet to step into shoes of a creative, a planner, a suit and various other nice folks sitting across different chairs in different time zones.

This every day new con-call adventure went on for more than a year. Such a long gestation period resulted in strong feeling of motherhood to what was going to be delivered.

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So Sprite “University of Freshology” was born.

This milestone took us another 18 months.

And while this was not enough, another challenge in the forefront was to babysit another brand on the Coke business in India.

Hence Fanta came under my parentage, a brand which was also gearing up for its annual onslaught.

Coming back to Sprite, the University of Freshology was brought alive with an integrated campaign through six tvcs (3 teasers and 3 main campaigns), the website, digital, interactive, OOH and radio.

True to wanting to keep Sprite relevant for youth a website was also created, www.sprite.in, where consumers could be a part of the University of Freshology, giving them an opportunity to express their fresh ideas and be involved. We moved beyond traditional advertising and focussed on shopper and mobile marketing (the most accessible mode of communication for our TG).

In spite of heavy work and stringent timelines, basics in finances were never compromised. All estimation, billing, outstanding were cleared within the 30day credit period. Ironing out the complex financial process of incoming finances from Pakistan, routed through Istanbul via approvals from Atlanta, was a mind-boggling task. And the agency saw an increase in revenue due to the charter countries joining in and with the sheer amount of work happening, Sprite became one of the most successful brands in Ogilvy Delhi portfolio.

Over the 4 years that I have worked on myriad of projects, Sprite “University of Freshology” was the biggest, probably the best and yet toughest of the lot.

In hindsight it helped me grow and get more confident about the work I do and how I do it. From an unsure someone who tiptoed into this big world of advertising a few years ago to someone who confidently handles a brand across markets, which together is home to almost 47% of the world’s population.

No wonder then that Ogilvy Coke team is one of the most coveted teams in the city with suits wanting to be part of this team. To make your team a brand in itself, while working on a brand, is my biggest contribution to Ogilvy while also being my proudest achievement.

In the end I would like to just say that I look really nice in flowing breezy dresses, especially near water bodies.

Author:

Neha Khaneja has been with Ogilvy India for the last four & a half years and has grown proportionally in size along with her Coke knowledge. She is an avid movie buff and has a voracious appetite for reading.

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Nitchanun Attanon

Advertising is not my job. It is my career.

It was a one-minute moment on December 9th of last year on the night of the Bangkok Art Directors’ Association Awards that made me realize why I am so much in love with what I am doing, as an Account Manager.

Amidst a crowd of advertising folk, the spotlight gradually moved from the MC podium to the center of the stage, where the crowd, including myself, was anticipating the announcement for the best radio spot. Of course, I knew our work was shortlisted. The moment flashed me back to those days after the client briefed. Our team endeavored to create the best script to be approved by client and strove for the best production quality while also selling the product. This radio spot paid for itself as it generated leads higher than estimated. And that night, it was also creatively awarded as the best radio spot of the year. The voice from the stage announced our account, KASIKORNBANK and our agency, Ogilvy & Mather Advertising. The moment the copywriter and I were on the stage under the spotlight, I told myself, “this is how my passion for my career is repaid. I will strive for more great works that bring me here again and again.”

At Ogilvy and Mather Advertising, the philosophy of ‘great work that works’ has shaped my belief and pride in my career. It is the place that redefines the role of account people at all levels by empowering them to contribute to the creative process. As a results-oriented person, driving ‘Creative Excellence’ is the most essential quality that I always try to maintain. This comes from my belief in using creativity as a psychological tool to change human behavior because it directly communicates to people’s emotions. In advertising, therefore, creativity and effectiveness are indispensable. My belief only grew stronger with one campaign our team previously worked on for KASIKORNBANK. It proved how creativity effectively changes how people feel and act towards the brand. In contrast to the market circumstances in which all banks in Thailand faced the stagnant growth, KASIKORNBANK generated almost 30% new acquisitions after the TV commercial was aired. The challenge of this campaign is how to resolve consumers’ perception as they feel negatively towards all touch-points; service, product offerings, convenience, etc. To cope with this, the agency proposed to the client an inside-out strategy with the communications that directly talked to consumer’s mindset. The TV commercial titled “Fark” (In Thai, meaning “entrusting someone to take care of something” and also “to deposit”) was launched. This message with a double-meaning came across very effectively together with the creative execution that ignited people to open their minds and perceive the bank in a more positive way. Apart from the successful figures, the campaign effectively changed the perception towards the bank by achieving the highest score for ‘approachability’ and ‘trustworthiness’. The campaign was ranked as ‘best-in-class’ in the banking industry. This campaign won Bronze in the TV commercial category as well as Silver in the ‘Ad that Works’ category from AdMan 2010.

One quality I have is a strong sense of ownership with everything I do. This coalesces into an entrepreneurial spirit which becomes the key motivating force for me to do my best, everyday on every task. In November last year, our team won the business pitch for Amway. For the first campaign, my initiative drove the client’s business at a deeper level. For the Amway brand, ‘Amway Business Owner (ABO)’ is the key asset in driving the business in the direct-sales model. Apart from the end consumers, the communication was tailored to ABOs’ insight and behavior, which will help the client achieve their business objectives faster. This led to my initiative for creating an online communications platform based on the fact that most ABOs use their mobile devices as their sales tool. The idea from the TV commercial was further executed in online channels, especially the social networking activities that engaged with ABOs and also encouraged them to generate conversation in their community. The entrepreneurial spirit and pervasive creativity are my arms driving me to seek further opportunities that go beyond my given tasks.

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Not only leading the digital campaign for Amway, winning the digital pitch for KASIKORNBANK is also another success story. On my first day at Ogilvy and Mather Advertising, my first assignment was to win the digital pitch for K-My Debit Card. This digital-led campaign not only aimed to boost the card’s acquisition rate but also card spending. The online communication strategy and the website usability were developed around the target’s insight. The portal website was created as a key vehicle engaging the target through the core value of the card. It was tangibilized by the online self-redemption platform due to the fact that the target loves instant and tangible benefits. From the proposal, we won the pitch. Throughout the process, from idea development to programming execution, I was a part of the team driving the campaign until it generated the promised acquisition and this campaign was after all extended in larger scale.

Winning two business pitches is one of the milestones during my tenure at Ogilvy and Mather Advertising. These achievements contributed to the agency’s financial success. However, overcoming the challenge in managing limited resources for the greatest outcome is, for me, the greater success. This further builds the client-agency partnership in the long run, which will convert to more investment from the client. On the first campaign we worked for Amway, our creative idea was promising to be the talk-of-the-town campaign. For the best output under limited resources of time and the client’s budget, we strove for the best media tactic, the best film director and the best production value. Eventually, the campaign turned out to be so wonderful and successful that the client invested more in the campaign.

The Ogilvy culture not only uplifts the staffs’ morale and pride, it also inspires young people who are passionate about creativity to want to work here. Internally, ‘Ogilvy Play’ is the event that encourages all staff at every level to engage in leisure activities. For this year, we held a table-tennis tournament and a karaoke contest. Even though I am not skillful in both of them, I am willing to be a part of the activity after busy hours. We held the activity every Thursday for a month. At 5.30 pm, most of us left the desk for a while and stayed together at the office lobby to cheer our peers. I joined the game twice and lost all through the tournament. Then, I realized I should change my role to be a cheerleader and it proved to be much better. In addition, holding the team together, between creative and account people is one of my hobbies. To build the team spirit, tightening the relationship among us after work by organizing the parties and the vocational trips helps enhance the team’s harmony. Outside the company, my commitment to do great campaigns is the key contribution to make this place inspirational for everyone. When people say “I love what you are doing”, of course I reply, “it is Ogilvy that enables me to do so.”

People usually asked me, “What makes you so happy with what you are doing?” The answer is simple. What I am doing is far beyond the advertising job that routinely pays me a salary. It is how I follow my passion. Advertising is my life path and creativity is its essence. On top of that, being surrounded by great partners at Ogilvy keeps my passion fueled. David Ogilvy said, “First, make yourself a reputation for being a creative genius. Second, surround yourself with partners who are better than you are. Third, leave them to go get on with it.” This is how my passion for my career is never used up at Ogilvy & Mather Advertising.

Author:

Being a part of advertising team in Bangkok, Nitchanun always believes that her attitude and persistence drive her forward, while her family shapes her to be a friendly and considerate person.

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Oli Goulden

Fanta case study – a story of making the impossible possible and delivering Twin Peaks

April 2010

Isobar WWWins has total monopoly of Coca-Cola brands’ digital work in China, without so much as a chink evident in their armour.

April 2011

Cannes entry of interactive content idea with over 1.2 million participants over a 10 day period 28% increase in sales compared to same period last year.

Big changes can only come about through great creative ideas. But before the idea for the “9th Class” on Fanta came about, an awful lot of groundwork had been put in. It was a case of “hunting” on the “farm”:

Prime – Probe – Perform

Innuendoes aside, these three guiding principles made the 2011 Fanta digital entry for Cannes possible. Priming the client is a key part of the process but often drops off the radar because it’s not seen as a necessity. However, it is a long term initiative that on the surface appears to not have any effect but in the subconscious of the client lays a seed that will grow once watered. A number of presentations on digital were presented over the first nine months of my arrival on the account – credentials, great work, digital influence, LABS and ideas across the board for Fanta specifically. If there was something digital, a new angle, a new philosophy, a new approach, it was presented. Great support from the regional team certainly added momentum to our cause. However, given Fanta did very little digital work – and that which was done, was by Isobar WWWins, who has a monopoly on Coke digital in China – the efforts at times appeared futile.

Progress isn’t always tangible or visible.

Having primed, it is the job of the lead account man to probe. Once the seed has been laid the in the client’s psyche that Ogilvy would do interesting and different digital work, it was a case of keeping top of mind and probing for real opportunities. For new briefs, it’s often a case of who is more top of mind at a given time. That is why probing is so important. The 2011 brief on Fanta included adapting the global TVCs, originating a China specific print ad and creating three banners (which was to be done by Wins). One year after Agent A. Wong presented his business acceleration plan to the Fanta management, they were finally taking action and we saw some additional funding come in for the campaign. This was the real opportunity we were looking for and after some serious lobbying we were granted the brief to produce the banners.

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With the first foot in the door, the only rule to follow is over deliver, over deliver, over deliver. I convinced the client that there was much more potential on this brief to only do banners. The compromise was to present ideas that answered the brief, and then we were free to present other ways of making the relaunch of Fanta BIG. Credit here goes to the creative team, led by Natalie Lam and Kama Zhang who came up with an idea that was so big it was almost too ambitious to undertake. This can often be a problem and can do more damage than good, especially since it was our first brief. Managing client expectations began straight away to ensure our one rule was not broken. It was very clear that the scale, technical complexity, and need for local production contacts were such that we needed to get more people on the team to make the idea a reality. The production budget we were given was $US90k which had to include all set design, filming, as well as the website build and supporting communications. Having been quoted US$250k just for first two elements, we had a monumental task ahead of us not to collapse in a heap at the first hurdle. For the price of two rich media banners in London, we were going to have to pull off something nothing short of a miracle. The Ogilvy One team, led by Morgan Cao did a fantastic job making the project come to life and without them it would not have happened. Big ideas need talented people in all areas of the business to contribute their best.

Twin Peaks work does not come from an amazing individual but from an amazing team.

Having briefed 6 production houses, amended the mechanics of the idea 3 times, filmed for 22 hours straight, watched 3014 real oranges being thrown into a giant bowl, and one orange finally squash, the first experiment of the 9th Class “how many oranges does it take to squeeze its own juice” finished after 10 days being live. Over 1.2 million people entered the competition in this time, making it the most engaging online campaign Fanta had executed in China. Along with a 28% growth in sales compared to the same period the previous year, this campaign shows Ogilvy’s Twin Peaks in full force.

This campaign has yielded results not just to the client but to Ogilvy as well. Great work speaks for itself but that doesn’t necessarily yield more projects in the future. The priming continues, as does the probing. Since the launch of the 9th Class we have secured meetings with the Head of Digital at Coke, a feat not achieved for two years and from which we have a potential 4 new briefs that Ogilvy are being considered for, when before now we were seen as just an ad agency. Clients like Coke have all the best agencies in the world knocking on their door to try and get on the roster. It is exceptionally hard to get projects outside of the globally aligned relationships and this is one of the rare times that the Suit is more important than the Creative.

This is the battleground for the tacticians and play-makers, where only the fittest schmoozers survive.

Author:

Oli has been at Ogilvy for almost 6 years, first in London and now in Shanghai. If he didn’t work in Advertising he would be an explorer.

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Philip Wang

Gome Was Not Built in One Day

Why I believe I deserve ‘Suit of the Year’ is my experience moving a mountain called Gome, the largest electronics retailer in China. Gome as a client embodies all the challenges that come with servicing local Chinese clients, which are going to be increasingly important to Ogilvy’s future growth. I believe I helped our agency gain new know-how on how to crack the China code.

Gome, like many Chinese clients today, acknowledged the importance of the brand. They knew that a strong brand was crucial for future success, in the face of heavy competition. Opening new stores as the only growth strategy was no longer viable. But they didn’t know the how, and really didn’t like to admit it: Such as how to build brand image, how to own a strong emotional relationship with their consumers.

To top that, Gome did not know what an agency was. They hired us because we were a good brand. Client equated us sometimes with Millward Brown, sometimes with McKinsey, sometimes with Mindshare. I recognized with the team that if we still positioned ourselves as a communications company, we would never satisfy client’s needs and never would be a business partner who should be helping increase the market share the client wanted. Gome wanted Ogilvy to be an all-around multifunctional company that provided marketing, communications, consultancy and implementation expertise. We transformed Gome from a typical ‘local’ client in China that only does execution, to a global-like client who use as a thinkers as well as do’ers.

Moving a mountain takes effort; shovel by shovel we persisted. In the first 6 months, we engaged client in all kinds of workshop not only for educate them what an agency can capable of but also let client help us understand electronics retailer market deeply. Besides sitting in the office, we initiated to visit all kinds of electronics retailer stores including local competitor Sunning and ShunDian, Global competitor Bestbuy and Yotobashi in Beijing Shanghai Shenyang and other cities. I was very proud that I visited all the electronics retailer stores in Beijing and Shanghai and was familiar with their daily operation and marketing. It also helps me to work with creative team to give a clear direction when they started to losing their patience. After months of hard work and hundreds of all kinds of meetings: workshops, ‘educational’ lectures, Gome Senior management interviews, stores check, and thousands of argument with creative team and client team, the client team and the Ogilvy team finally became like one. We together developed retail business model strategies, the core marketing strategies, communication plans and core creative strategies.

With this foundation set, Gome gained enough confidence in marketing and branding to launch a new logo and a new slogan, in its first-ever brand campaign. There were 3 key contributions I helped make possible on this campaign: A tagline consumer loved: “大国” (‘big country’) and “小美” (‘small beauty’); the first time Gome ever produced a branding TVC; the first time Gome communicated with consumer in digital ways such as viral videos, online mini-sites, e-coupons.

The effectiveness of the campaign was encouraging. According to the Research, the brand image of Gome was changed from well-known to also be a “Reliable” “Approachable” brand. Meanwhile, soon after launch, there were more than 400,000 viral video views, and then went on to become one of the most popular videos on video websites such as Tudou and Youku. Today, no matter brand campaign or promotion campaign, Client uses some digital tools besides traditional media. We are very proud that we were able to take a client from zero to embracing branding and even digital.

David Ogilvy said “We sell or else”, and fact is promotions play an important role in retail sales growth. We developed a new strategy to help client to sell not only products, but also solutions: For example Breakfast solutions by packaging all kinds of cook appliances which can make a meal of delicious breakfast. We helped clients sell many solutions, such as entertainment solutions, hairdressing solutions, water solutions, air solutions, etc. Creating consumer needs, and then provide them solutions helped Gome grow sales significantly.

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In the past 2 years, we moved a mountain: From knowing nothing about branding and marketing communications, we gave our clients confidence to launch more than 12 major campaigns, more than 25 national promotions, 2 CSR campaigns, especially participate in Earth Hour. Maybe all of these are a little step to a global account, but to a local client in China, it means a big step forward.

On the other hand, we also pursued the financial success of Ogilvy. In the past 2 years, Gome was the biggest local account in Ogilvy Beijing Office. The revenue of Gome account reached more than 2 million US dollars a year.

‘Gome was not built in one day’, I like to think. We helped Gome get to know more about how to build a brand image, how to enhance the relationship with their consumers and how to be digital. What I believe I have contributed to Ogilvy is that this client serves as a case study to access the numerous local brands in China, who are all just getting started. It’s a big and tough challenge for us, and it’s also a great opportunity for us to grow our Ogilvy brand, grow with our clients, and grow with China.

I started my adverting career in Ogilvy at D.O day three years ago. In the past three years, no matter what kind of client I served, I was always sticking to being an Ogilvyer: Passion, Professional and Curious. Spread this spirit to the people around me colleague, friends, schoolmates even family is my contribution to make Ogilvy everyone else wants to work in.

Author:

Philip is a senior account manager based in Beijing. He spends his leisure-time on reading, basketball and traveling.

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Sabih Ahmed

1000 Words & Me

“Great things are done by a series of small things brought together.”

Never had a clue how this excerpt from Van Gogh would be the perfect answer to “why me?”. For an adman who sells campaign ideas for brands for a living, it wasn’t the usual child’s play to sell brand “SABIH” and keep it sold! To my utter surprise, five years after I baby-stepped into the mad world of advertising, nothing described my achievements better than the quote above.

Back in 2007, joining Ogilvy was a gambit for me. The agency had just opened its doors in Bangladesh - a bagful of prospects but little accomplishments in reality. As exciting yet enduring the journey was, it was only in 2010 when the hard work started giving dividends. An idea that was simple in concept but fabulous in action did the trick for Ogilvy. The first 360° campaign, in which I double-timed as both a suit and a copywriter, the launch of Air Action by Mentos broke the deadlock of creative recognition for Ogilvy. Scoring our first ever metal for effective creativity (at the national Commward 2010) and that too in a prestigious category (Most Effective Launch) was just about perfect. However beyond that fanfare, it gained us the client’s trust that let us practice better creative freedom (developing the first of its kind radio engagement campaign, Mentos Monday that won in Dhaka Adfest 2011) and reinforced Ogilvy’s image as the preferred partner (leading to handover of the McCann business to us). In a matter of three years, the PVM account had grown by over seven times and was the second largest business of Ogilvy Bangladesh. All this achieved by getting the basics (of creating great work that works) right!

However, being a brand steward often calls for going beyond the call of duty. Over the years, I have consistently tried to develop and deliver on the stewardship principals again and again. For me it was always about owning the brands I worked for, instead of being employed to look after the brands. When TANG was losing market share to me-too brands, an initiation on my part resulted in a sampling program across eight metros that regained significant market share. In addition to that, I helped identify a need-gap followed by writing a business case on how Kraft could grab share off carbonated drinks by making TANG available at vending machines. The idea was well appreciated and approved by Jiri Hejl, the then Regional Business Director for Kraft Foods, but could not see light of day. Kraft’s acquisition of Cadbury had unfortunately put the plan back to the drawing board. A few months back, at a social gathering, I stumbled upon a group of Italian photojournalists working on the RISHI community. Hearing what they had to say, I was in my MD’s office first thing next morning explaining why we should take up this opportunity. If pushing forward with a one-off campaign wasn’t risky enough, there was almost little or no money to be made. All I could foresee back then was a social cause that would make headlines and an outstanding campaign in the making. A year later Khachar Bhitor Aachin Rishi became Ogilvy Bangladesh’s first ever entry into AME. It’s remarkable to recollect how I could convince an “it’s no good” to “it’s our shot at fame”.

It really doesn’t help being a blogger, a social network junkie and a tech geek from a country barely beginning to embrace the “digital revolution”. However, I try to keep myself and the rest of Ogilvy Bangladesh updated on what’s the latest and greatest in digital around the world with regular mails that read “daily dose of awesomeness”. Managing the Ogilvy Bangladesh fan page on Facebook, attending webinars on social media by Thomas Crampton, subscribing to Digerati by Barney Loehnis are just a few of the initiatives I am part of. My newest undertaking was to be nominated as the Digital Lead of Bangladesh. Following Ogilvy’s global drive towards Digital, when my MD offered this opportunity, I eagerly took it up. Our first digital project – Grameenphone Brand Page (a brand activity showcase) was also my responsibility.

In the end, it all comes down to the realities of the bottom line. When it comes to business, I have always considered myself numbers-oriented. Not so long ago, PVM was having an artwork

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redevelopment across all SKUs. Instead of getting this done by Selection (their central design house in Italy), I pitched and sold the idea of using Redworks as the studio operations partner. Since then PVM has used the local Redworks facility as and when required and that resulted in additional revenue from unidentified new business. After a few years of absence, when Kraft/Cadbury was reviving their Bangladesh operations, we were asked to handover the business to their media partner. Instead I was successful in getting them to keep not only the creative but also the media business with us, adding substantial greenbacks in the process.

Google Ogilvy & Mather Bangladesh and you are most likely to find either my blog or professional profile in the Top 10 results. Innumerable times I have been the introducer of new faces to the agency. From talent scouting in campuses to headhunting from other agencies, I have been instrumental in getting recruits across the hierarchy. Considered the blue-eyed boy of Ogilvy, I thrive at instilling a sense of pride that comes from working for Ogilvy. The long hours, and unfriendly clients become irrelevant in the face of the contagious enthusiasm I nurture. The Duracell Bunny-like passion and devotion to my work was always held in high regard and aptly recognized. When the moment of truth finally came, I found myself up against the very best of Ogilvy at Ad Champs 2010. Although I was the youngest delegate by age and experience, my team was the eventual winner by a margin nonetheless. This meteoric rise (though the Ogilvy ranks) and the budding fame (TV and Magazine interviews) has been an inspiration for everyone in and beyond. And as a people’s person, I always try to make the best of it by motivating the apprentices.

It has been nothing short of a spectacular journey at Ogilvy for me... and I believe it is only to get better with time. While being nominated for the YSOY 2011 competition is definitely a moment of pride, I’d rather win it to turn dreams into reality. Passion for advertising is my reason for being, and what place to showcase it better than Ogilvy… I am Sabih Ahmed, and I am here to win it!!!

Author:

A freelance blogger. An untamable soul. Sabih Ahmed can be best described as a madman who remains confidently confused and cockily cynical!

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Sean Chan

A Tap Dancing Client Service Star

In his young heart Sean is a dancer and he brings all the precision, flexibility, flair, passion and joy that he displays when tap dancing on stage to his job as client service director in the office. His extraordinary talent for team building both externally with clients and internally with staff, combined with an innate flair for performance and a meticulous focus on detail have produced astonishing results for the agency.

“The discipline, rigour and showmanship tap dancing requires really inspires me in my work”

Shuffle, Hop, Step

Sean moved from KL to Saigon 6 years ago and started out working as a group account director on Ponds and Parkson. He progressed rapidly expanding his portfolio to take on several key local accounts and in 2008 was promoted to Client Service Director for Ogilvy & Mather Advertising. During his tenure in Vietnam Sean has consistently made the challenging seem effortless, truly the ultimate talent of a dancer. He has not only learnt to speak Vietnamese, but also grown the department, built a highly dynamic and loyal team and taken on a raft of local clients including the Vietnamese beverage giant called THP.

Building Local Business Success: Star Turn

Sean has led the team on THP and its flagship tea brand Zero Degrees for 5 years and in that short period of time it has become the largest beverage company in Vietnam. Zero Degrees was named Vietnam’s fastest growing brand by The Economist and has consistently maintained over 50% market share of the category – which it founded – as well as having one of the strongest brand equity indexes in the market across all categories. The brand has continued to go from strength to strength and in 2010, in spite of a general levelling off of category growth Zero Degrees outgrew the category in terms of both value and volume. Moreover the brand still maintained its BEI score at 6.0 (only 8% of the beverage brands in Vietnam had BEI score above 5.5). (Source: The Nielsen Company).

Following the success of Zero Degrees the bottled tea category has witnessed a flood of more than 20 new brands including ones from international players such as Pepsi, Coca-Cola, Kirin, San Miguel and URC. Nonetheless Zero Degrees has managed to maintain an average share of 51.5% over the last 3 years. (Source: The Nielsen Company)

Building International Brands In Vietnam: International Glamour

In addition Sean has also led the team that has made Parkson Vietnam the only foreign retailer to achieve significant in-roads in Vietnam’s notoriously challenging retail market. In fact over the last year Parkson’s growth in Vietnam has even outstripped its performance in China. (See chart below for market share growth from 2006 to 2009). Opening 7 stores in 5 years, 2 more than originally planned, in 2010 Parkson estimates its market share is at 42.5%. Its 5 year plan revenue target of US$150 million for 2010 was exceeded by US$30 million.

“Sean’s flair for retail communications as well as his deep understanding of the Parkson brand have played an indispensable role in delivering the success we have achieved here in Vietnam. He is a huge asset to the team which he leads with great style and passion.”

– Tam Tuc Choy, CEO and General Director of Parkson Vietnam:

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New Business Wins: Stepping Up

Sean has also led key pitches in the market including Vietnam Airlines, Vinamilk and Thien Long Stationary. As a result in 2010 Ogilvy & Mather Advertising’s annual revenue came in 16% ahead of budget with an operating profit 24% ahead of budget.

Creative Excellence: Fancy Footwork

“Seeing opportunity where others see obstacles Sean has been able to deliver great creative work across several accounts. The recent work for Thien Long Stationary is some of the very best creative work ever produced in Vietnam and can be compared to the best in the region. Thien Long’s ‘knowledge is power’ campaign has dramatically raised the expectations of creative work coming from Vietnam and without Sean’s fancy footwork it would never have seen the light of day.”

– Todd McCracken ECD Ogilvy Vietnam

Social Marketing: Step By Step

Sean also led the team that worked on developing a communications program to help prevent the spread of Avian Influenza in Vietnamese rural communities. The complexity and urgency of the task required a highly coordinated yet engaging response. Bringing together parties as varied as the Ministry of Health, The World Health Organisation, USAID, The Ministry Of Agriculture, Vietnamese Media Owners and members of the private sector Sean and the team were able to produce a communications response for the Community Mobilisation Units that went out into the countryside that was so successful it earned Ogilvy & Mather Vietnam’s PR department the first AME award ever given to a PR company in the country.

A Natural Leader: Front And Centre

“As a team leader Sean’s ability to balance a sense of fun and joy with a disciplined professionalism has inspired deep loyalty amongst his teams as evidenced by the consistently high scores achieved by the department in its EAT scores.

Sean’s unique skill is that he is able to make genuinely complex and challenging situations and tasks seem effortless. And it is this ability that inspires great respect and loyalty amongst his team.”

– Katryna Mojica Group Managing Director Ogilvy & Mather Vietnam

“Such a unique combination of discipline and creativity is extremely rare. Vietnam is a challenging market requiring great flexibility, determination and a restless passion for excellence, all of which Sean has displayed consistently over the years but particularly in 2010. He is undoubtedly the Suit Of The Year!”

– Alex Clegg Managing Director Ogilvy & Mather Advertising

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Syakirah Mazrah

The Heart of the Team

“Some of our people spend their entire working lives in our agency. We do our damnedest to make it a nice place to work. We put this first”, David Ogilvy

I’ve been with Ogilvy & Mather Kuala Lumpur for the past 2 and half years and out of the many things I have read about our great founder, the quote above was what caught my eye. I was sold and have never looked back since. For as long as I’ve been with this company, I have embraced and firmly believed in its corporate culture; that it is all about the people. If anyone asked what the role of a suit was, I would reply without hesitation: we are the heart of the team. What I am about to tell you is my story; about how a young, fresh executive stumbled upon this international ad agency and fell deeply in love with it.

Coming from a background of Politics & International studies, I was never exposed to the world of adverting. Yes, I was aware that all the ads that I see out there must have come from somewhere – those short witty copy and inspiring images I thought must have come from an eccentric, misunderstood but a really creative bunch of people. But I was oblivious to how much work was put in to come up with something so good. So when I was given a chance to work in an advertising agency, I jumped at the chance thinking that I will be able to lend a helping hand in the creative process. I planned to stay for a year to gain some experience then move on something that I initially studied like writing or perhaps dabble in local politics.

What I didn’t anticipate was to instantly be so dazzled by the company– to feel completely in awe being in the presence of such inspirational and charismatic people. I first started out in the biggest account of the agency, Maxis – the largest telecommunication network in Malaysia. I believe, the fact that I was involved in such a big account made me the suit that I am today. I had my own support group, a dynamic team that believed in making the client’s business better than what it already was. I was the blue-eyed girl who wanted to learn absolutely everything. I worked under immense tight deadlines and with such an irrational yet absolutely brilliant creative team. I was taught humility, patience, how to be responsible for my own actions and how to sell the work.

My proudest achievement was when I worked on the Pilgrim Campaign. Malaysia is a multi-ethnic country with Islam being the official religion hence it had a large Muslim population. Every year, thousands of Muslim head to Mecca to perform the hajj right after Eidul Fitri. In between this, Muslims will fast for a month during Ramadhan for 12 hours during the day so this was the biggest festive event for them. Maxis then came up with a mobile phone application that keeps the families and loved ones in Malaysia connected with the pilgrims performing hajj. We were given a task to come up with a campaign to promote this mobile application and we were the first telecommunication network to do so – how we did it was by giving out a SIM card that instantly installed the application onto your phones. Not only were you able to connect with your family at cheaper rates but you were able to check on prayer times, break fast times and so forth.

Being a Muslim, I contributed ideas and thoughts about what were the key occasion every Muslim celebrates before Hajj and Eidul Fitri and with the support of the team; creative and account management, we came up with a series of ads that not only promoted but connected the brand with the customers in such a personal level. We came up with a simple proposition where we signed off in every ad that said Salam Ikhlas Maxis. To translate this sentence directly, all it meant was Yours Truly, Maxis but in the eyes and hearts of consumers we showed that the brand genuinely cared for its customers – we cared for the safety and well-being of your family members or loved ones performing the hajj and we cared for ensure that you, at home were well informed and at ease to know that they were perfectly fine. To many, this may have seemed to be such a simple campaign but to the consumers going through this situation, we touched them just by simply saying we cared. We did not merely run print ads, we helped the client organize events, mechanics of the applications, come up with a digital strategy and

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even to coordinate and team up with the Pilgrims Fund Board (a national organization) to ensure that this campaign would run smoothly. Many hiccups happened along the way but I because we worked together as a team and passionately believed in the campaign and what it stood for was the reason why it was deemed a success.

Fast forward to the present, with 3 accounts under my belt I am still learning everyday how to become a better suit. The fact that I still wake up everyday and still want to be known as the heart of the team, I know this was where I belong.

“I admire people who work with gusto. If you don’t enjoy what you are doing, I beg you to find another job” David Ogilvy

Author:

Syakirah is a suit based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. She is an adrenaline junkie who spends her free time (when she has any) climbing mountains, diving in the great blue sea and much more.

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Tessy Wulandari

Cooking While Working

I see myself in two different world; cooking and working in advertising. I’m passionate about this two because they have similar character about the function itself. I would like to use this analogy so I can put some of menu from my own kitchen into advertising world.

I’m a restaurant manager, been here for 2 years and still counting. I’m really proud of my restaurant because my restaurant is one of the best. We served the best menu in town and my chef is amazing. At the end, my entire customer is satisfied and very happy. It’s not about what is on the menu but it’s all about how we served the menu.

Taking an order from our guest is a challenge. I need to be more specific to meet their needs. I know them well for the past of two years so I would like to say I know where and how they spend the money is. Some of their issues are small budget, limited budget and budget constrain. Yes, what a typical. I love to served them is because they are willing to try so many menus, very open minded and positive thinking. My challenge is how to convinced them and make it all real. Let’s move to my kitchen.

My chefs are the greatest team I ever have. The uniqueness is their strength, I need to focus and prepare the strategy to brief them well. So they have their own direction with the menu. I trust them well like; how they going to cook, the ingredients, the taste, how to served and naming the menu are what I believe is one of their expertise. One chef doing the appetizer, one is doing the main course, the sauce, the dessert and from their kitchen I always can smell the goodness of their dishes. Served it to my customer and explain about the menu is another challenge. I always confident about the dish from my kitchen, they always like our presentation and their happiness is our goal.

Agency is all about the people. I always try to make sure everyone got their full information so they can work effective to meet the deadline. Always to make sure if they can picked up the good information of the brief so the result is always there. Dedicated to a pharmaceutical company is why I’m here now. They always have some strict rules from government regarding the campaign, like how to build a consumer promo. We need a strategy to make the brand alive and make everything possible at the end.

Our challenging menu is Feminax. Feminax is a pain killer for menstruation. Their target market is teenager. Young, junior and high school students, smart active and some of them are in their first years in having menstruation. Feminax helps them during that period moment, and take the fear out of menstruation. We need to create Feminax as the interesting menu that close to the target and always be there for them, so they keep stay active.

So what I have in mind with the constrain budget? I need to try new recipe that I believe work for them. I will have consumer promo through writing competition and have fun in Bali for the best 20 writers. It should be promoted in all of teenage channel and collaborate in all of sectors. This is not about the display ad only, because I want to see the result by the entries. So I make some innovation by utilize some tools to promote the writing competition itself. After some brainstorming with media, I have the good feeling about this consumer promo by finding some exposure that close to our target. The trend of teenage now is very simple. They need to acknowledge as a teen and among their peers. Narcism is another thing. I create something to make this thing happen. One was deal with social media and the other one was making activities in some schools to support the promo that goes well beyond advertising

Digital device is very close to our target market, especially in Indonesia, they are active users and we are a population number 2 in the world for Facebook and twitter according to asiancorrespondent.com. I create an icon, a teenage who active, helpful and always stay positive called Femii. In 3 months Femii facebook has more than 1200 friends with approval method. They like to share about anything from menstruation, school, family and friends. Femii is like another teenage that understands their problem

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and likes to share some positive feedback. Now the writing competition has been opened for 2 weeks and we have more than 100 entries already, compare to last year writing competition that only had 300 entries in 3 months. I would like to say that digital is a promising tool of limited budget. Another tool to support these activities is a road show from school to school. We started two weeks ago and now we have so many entries from our drop box in their school. This event also generates some awareness and increase more trial. We still counting the entries and I believe that the writing competition about Feminax will be successful this year. From small budget to another level of budget is how we make everything possible. My client always increase their budget if they know where and why the spend the money also this is a good news to agency at the end we can achieve something from financial report.

Working at agency is one of my passions besides owning the ‘restaurant’ one day, we sell something different everyday and learning how to make everything easier to work is another challenge. Contributing to the agency by start from a small positive thing can become something that can make the difference. Successful is not because of the good job and the contribution from my team only but also how I deal and having a good partners. Another process is dealing with third parties and from that point people will start talking about us. A good image can build from the people itself being part of the culture and to make the better place that everyone else wants to work in. I’m proud of my new brand office. Prime area, nice building, this is make us comfortable and feels like home. People will definitely start talking about how good we are. We are moving because of the business growth and we have a lot of more people coming.

All is about how to integrate the people by given the correct information. From greeting the guest, give them some great menu, taking an order, talk to my chef and served the dishes with the right presentation is how I worked. At the end it depends on how I served the dessert. I just want to have the cupcakes with strawberry on top or the cupcakes with Belgian chocolate and cherry almond with vanilla ice cream.

Bon appetite!

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An Introduction

Verna joined Ogilvy & Mather Beijing in 2010, with ten years of marketing related experience, she thanks to the solid cultivating in FMCG industry. Verna accumulated the client side experience (worked in Unilever Taiwan in 2004 – 2006) besides experiencing LOWE, DDB and McCann 4A agencies. In recent years, she leaded MasterCard advertising campaigns cross Greater China markets and Nestle advertising campaigns in Beijing.

In 2010, Verna joined Ogilvy Advertising Beijing. She was placed in-charge of the GSK China account.

I helped GSK create a “reaching down” creative strategy for Fenbid.

• IfirmlybelievethatFenbid’sbusinessopportunityshouldcomefromlowtiermarkets.Tothatend, I would not give up pushing clients on how to evolve the creative idea of “Unsung Hero” to enhance brand affinity cross tiers.

• Theresultofthispersistenceistheclient’sadoptionofDonnieYen,akungfumoviestar,asa spokesperson for the brand. This move we believe will increase Fenbid’s brand strength in low-tier China rapidly.

I drove digital opportunities for Ogilvy.

• Iinitiated360communicationswiththearchitectureof‘invitation,experienceandamplification’. For example, we kicked off the TV campaign like a movie trailer, on general social media as well as on Donnie Yen’s and his fans’, to create immediate talkability and maximize our bang for the celebrity buck.

• ForIntel’sdigitalcampaign,IhelpedourteamsearnaGoldenFingerInternetCampaignoftheYear Award, and 4A Digital Silver Award.

Financial success comes from talent success, win win!

• Talentsareassetsandcostsusiftheyleave.Ihelphirepotentialtalents,encourageeveryonetowork hard and also play hard. I believe inspirational things need to be proactively pursued to make work and life fun, it should be a passion not a to-do-list.

Verna Chen

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Yushin Ito

One Reason that Motivates Me to the Cannes Lions 2011

There is one reason that motivates me to the participation of Cannes Lions 2011. That is, “I want to know more about what advertising really is” in a larger scale. I have always had an internal conversation within myself of why I was so attracted by advertising. My emotions may change as time goes by, but what I have in my mind currently is, is that advertising is a “key” to understanding people.

I encountered a phrase that I could never forget when I visited a Buddhist temple in the past. In Japanese, the word for “human” is “ningen (人間)”, which writes “the person between” in Chinese characters. This is not a word-for-word quotation, but it goes something like “humans live between life and death, between each other, between aspiration and depravation… humans could go either way, that’s why we are the person between.”

This phrase may seem to not have any connection between advertising, but one strong emotion that I have, is that without the deep understanding of people, we will be never able to execute advertising that really works, a notion that is crucial to driving the TWIN PEAKS and our big ideaL successfully.

What TWIN PEAKS illustrate is I believe, the strong possibility and power that advertising hold. Anyone (clients, governments, even us!) could communicate their emotions by shouting out using gestures and etc., but we invented advertising to further drive the message. The creative works brought by the buildup of various collaborations play a role as a driver to overcome the limits of communication.

When I was an intern at a different Japanese agency during my university years, one of my superiors told me an interesting quote. He mentioned, “to be a good advertiser, you should go beyond studying advertising from books, you should go out, watch art shows, movies etc., fulfill your life”. His words struck me and at the same time, gave me reassurance of why I really love this industry.

After joining Ogilvy after university graduation in 2008, one of the first projects that I faced was the “Questioning Man” project of Audi Japan. Honestly saying, as I joined the interactive division of the Audi account without any concrete digital experience, I was anxious of whether I really could become a support for the team. However, everything came out to be really positive while I enjoyed and repeated questioning myself, “are there any better ways to make this execution even better?”

The key to “Questioning Man,” was the simplicity of its platform and the twist to make people try repeatedly. The platform enabled the targets to ask the Questioning Man anything they wanted to ask. After writing the question and registering their e-mail address, the Questioning Man instantly replied to the question, with an answer which goes like below.

Q: What is a design that incites my desires?

A: First of all, go out and see the bigger world. Then think. (Taken from the Japanese dictum, “the frog in the well know nothing of the great ocean”)

Built within the 360 degrees brand campaign, the project played a successful role in increasing awareness of how the quality design of Audi cars were created through the repeated questioning by their founders. As a result, the project won the Silver Award in AME 2009 (Best marketing campaign for national brand development) and Bronze Award in tokyo interactive ad awards (Integrated campaign, interactive).

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These experiences in the early stage of my agency career have inculcated the importance and essence of holding the “going one step further” mind at the creative production procedure. “Are there any information that may support the creative team to come up with a creative that cuts through in a different angle,” “how could this creative presentation be a better presentation”… These thoughts always come up to my mind.

An agency brief that I received from American Express (one of my current clients) in December 2010 was a showcase that I strongly have in mind, which I cooperated with the client and creative teams.

The brief requested the agency to create a poster (base creative) that would be placed at 7-Eleven stores throughout Japan (approximately 13,000).The fact of “nation-wide” excited me a lot. The brief requested the agency to focus on the announcement of the campaign (if you use the AMEX card for a certain amount, you win…), however, I thought that it would be far more important to fully announce the partnership that American Express and 7-Eleven concluded (until September, 2010, AMEX card was unable to be used at 7-Eleven) when thinking about further expanding the business sources of American Express and notifying that the card is able to be used in any occasion (even in daily use). The Ad was successfully launched in January 2011.

As I have mentioned above, I have learned and acquired many experiences and skills through my two and a half years at Ogilvy, and I wish to do so further on. As Ogilvy is my only company that I have done real business, I believe I am truly an Ogilvy person.

Advertising is more than “advertising” for me. It is understanding more about how people act, collaborate, think, and further on. It is similar to a karma, where I devote myself to understand more and more about myself. I believe I could climb further towards the peak ahead of me, passing through the cliff called Cannes Lions 2011 to explore the world more in depth through the lens of David Ogilvy.

Author:

Yushin is a member of Ogilvy & Mather Japan and have been working on various clients since he joined. He loves to watch art shows, football and gigs regularly.

57

So, there you have it. 22 essays written by our youngest, out brightest and our best. From the hip. From the heart.

We believe that Ogilvy should reflect the values and the aspirations of the people who work here and that we should both grow up and grow rich together; morally, professionally, spiritually.....perhaps even financially. We believe that creativity exists in order to spur business, to make a difference. But not only to the balance sheet but the world around us; socially, environmentally and culturally.

This is the way we encourage people to think and express their thinking at Ogilvy; free, open, creative and honest. We conceived the Young Suit of the Year project in order to put the Account Leader back at the centre of the process; through the selection process and with the prize itself - a week at the Cannes Lions 2011.

The world of Advertising and Communications is on the steppes of its next epoch; technology has enabled multiple new channels to open but the layer which makes this more fascinating is the way technology allows it - and us as humankind – to interact with it and one another. To make this work, you need someone at the centre making it happen. That person is the account person.

In the future, we hope to run the Cannes competition again but in the meantime, we will be running similar, local and regional competitions which will re-state the crucial role of our Account Leaders – to be the impressarios, the entrepreneurs and the creative catalysts of our – and our clients’ - business.

We feel that there has probably never been a better time to be in the industry and these essays prove it!

David Mayo

President Ogilvy & Mather Advertising Asia Pacific

David Mayo

The Back of the Book

Notes

Back Cover

© Ogilvy & Mather, 2011