In business, the team takes priority. Or should take priority. Take care of the people and they take care of the rest. A mantra well understood and well implemented by Ogilvy’s two co-CEOs.

Affixed comfortably on top of the APAC creative business rankings for several years is largely a product of its enormous footprint in the region. But Ogilvy’s brand and business has not had the same identity crisis as other creative agencies, including its sister agencies at WPP. That doesn’t happen without ‘outstanding’ managerial efforts. Leadership understands that creating an equitable culture of inclusiveness is no longer an HR issue; it’s the engine of growth and innovation as was visible in Ogilvy’s 2022 performance. 

Not only is it leading the creative table rankings, it is doing so with a hefty 60% margin in net year-to-date revenue with the closest competitor, Wunderman Thompson.

Consolidating the agency in five core areas (advertising, brand and content; experience; growth and innovation; health; and PR and influence) has been a boon for creativity and efficiency. And so has the strategy to rely on Asian and local brands worked well. 75% of revenue generated last year was solely from Asia-based engagements. It’s a commendable business achievement, given the battering which China took in 2022, and a third of Ogilvy’s Asia business relies on the country. Investments in data, experience and emerging AI tools were key to offset the damage done by Covid.

Category 2022 2021 Business B+ A- Innovation B- B- DEI and sustainability B B Creativity and effectiveness B B Management A- B+ *2021 scores adjusted to new numeric scale. Read about the grading methodology

Business (B+)

Yet again, the strength of Ogilvy’s giant network in Asia remains undisputed. The shop sits comfortably atop the creative table ranking with an estimated net revenue of $80.8 million according to Campaign AI, which taps into data from consultancy R3.

A third of Ogilvy’s Asia business is concentrated in China. Naturally, the unprecedented Covid climate in the country put a dent in their financials. Overall revenue margin closed at 5.5% in 2022, that’s down from the 7% figure of 2021. 457 businesses were won this year, that’s nearly 50% more than the closest competitor (Wunderman Thompson), but new wins remain 20% down from 2021.

However, the strategy of relying on Asian and local businesses instead of only global clients has worked well for the company. 75% of revenue last year was generated solely from Asia-based engagements, that’s almost in line with 78% in 2021. Ogilvy’s top ten clients in Asia contribute to 30% of the total client revenue.

Significant business wins can be credited to a diverse collection of markets and domains: Audi (China and Japan), Mercedes-Benz (China), Lakme (India), Shiseido (China), Zuellig Pharma (Singapore, Philippines), Nutrilite (China, Thailand), Uber Eats (Taiwan), Bank of China (Singapore, Southeast Asia). Although minimal losses include Bose (China), SK Magic (Malaysia) and Tourism Authority of Thailand (Thailand), and a few pitches—The Woolmark Company (China), TCL (China, Hong Kong) and West Kowloon Cultural District (Hong Kong)—did get away.

All five of its businesses grew; none as fast as Experience. Advertising, Brand and Content, the core revenue generator (55.6% of the business), increased by 2% in 2022. Experience (26.1%) emerged as a high-growth area and expanded by over 23%, PR and Influence (13.8%) witnessed a 5% spike indicating solid room for improvement; Health had a relatively small share to begin with (2.9%), it took a nearly 35% leap in 2022.

Innovation (B-)

AI influencer technology has been the big regional push this year. Centred out of Vietnam, the leadership says it has become a vital part of the agency’s PR and influencer marketing mix for existing and new clients. Successful implementation includes Unilever Clear’s celebrity endorser (Toc Tein), which made compelling online connections to generate a 3.3% increase in market share for the brand. In addition, the agency automated a 24*7 AI product consultant for Dove Hair to create empathetic, bespoke customer care and video content. As a result, 11.4 million online users were reached, and 410,000 personalised engagements were achieved in just two months. Still, the application of AI influencer tech is in nascent stages; Kent Wertime and Chris Reiterman, the regional co-CEOs, admit that regional adoption has not been as rapid as anticipated but they expect it to pick up in the next 24 months. 

Verticurl, its technology and martech services unit, remains the biggest innovation growth driver and a continual revenue contributor for the shop—more than 1,800 certified staff service clients from hubs in India (Hyderabad and Coimbatore) and Vietnam. Verticurl registered a 30% growth rate in 2022. 

C2 Hubs, or the content and context hubs, have grown in size from studios in Manila, Guangzhou, and Mumbai to 14 across the region now. To explain further, C2 Hubs are Ogilvy’s high-volume content hubs that combine performance marketing capabilities to ensure that content reaches the right audience (context). Prominent clients include Huawei, Coca-Cola, Volkswagen, Nestlé, Mondelez, MSD, Rockwell Land, and Kimberly-Clark. Some of these were existing Ogilvy clients who signed up for Hub’s innovative services. In fact, one in three of Ogilvy’s clients work across two or more of its businesses. This capability to commercialise ideas for the existing client base and propel it to scale across geographies to get a more significant share of their wallet earns Ogilvy a ‘good’ score like last year. 

DEI & Sustainability (B)

At the group level, a pay gap audit is underway; we’re told “necessary corrections are being actioned concurrently”; however, the agency divulged no specifics. 

Regionally, Ogilvy’s gender split across all levels is 56% in favour of women, up 1% from 2021; 41% of women comprise senior leadership roles.  

Some key initiatives which help the agency retain its DEI score are partnering with Meta’s Pass Her The Mic for better female representation, the ongoing 30 for 30 leadership program which identifies, trains, and elevates female leaders through an intensive 9-week course, assessments, external coaching and internal sponsors—further,  LGBTQ+ inclusion and fair and equitable treatment regardless of ethnicity. 

Shifting gears to sustainability, the agency’s Sustainability Practice led by former BBDO executive Andy Wilson announced in December 2021, was brought to life in 2022. The agency sees potential growth in advising clients on its sustainability programme, followed by its implementation through a campaign or PR stakeholder engagement. 

Beyond that, the network has several original thought leadership research projects on Sustainable Transformation and Communications to its credit for the benefit of clients and the larger industry. 

In addition, the agency supports WPP’s sustainability commitments. For these propositions, we stick with last year’s B. 

Creativity & Effectiveness (B)

The creative giant pulled its weight in awards, but the showing was not at par with 2021. 13 Cannes Lions, 37 LIA, 17 Clio, 7 D&AD, 4 The One Show trophies, among others were added to its metals cabinet. However, the agency flexed its heft at Campaign’s Agency of the Year awards winning the APAC creative network of the year (which it has won every year except 2016), APAC digital network and PR network of the year awards. The network awards are a result of metals won in individual markets which benefits Ogilvy’s massive reach. In the creative category, Ogilvy bagged awards in 12 different markets, eight of them being Gold. 

The agency’s ‘Shah Rukh Khan My Ad Cadbury Celebrations’ continues to be a permanent fixture at the awards circuits. It’s picked up five Cannes Lions, 11 LIA’s, five CLIOs, four Effies,  among others.

Other impressive works which marry creativity and effectiveness include the Year of the Tiger campaign by Ogilvy Shanghai, created for Coca-Cola China. Including a variety of marketing activities such as film, 3D OOH, mobile games, and ecommerce integration, the campaign is essentially about a father and son reuniting over a playful adventure involving a bottle of Coke. The game-version of the campaign was played by over 10.7 million families over the Lunar New Year holidays in China and accounted for 208 million social media impressions, 1.6 billion in earned and paid media exposure.  

A cheeky and inventive ‘chicken coup’ for KFC Australia resulted in exceptional organic publicity with 127 food reviews about a KFC meal, 1,372 media articles in Australia and overseas, plus a total of 1.2 billion impressions. Safe to say, the campaign effectively improved the perception of KFC’s food quality with 99.5% positive reviews. 

Others, like the China launch of Audi Q5 e-tron with NFTs and Cadbury Five Stars in India, take the concept of simplified creativity a notch higher. 

Management (A-)

Business success is in large parts down to people — a strong agency culture has not been a problem for Ogilvy helped by its overall gender balance. The agency has lowered the churn rate by 2% year-on-year, but without any indication of 2021’s corresponding figure, we cannot say if attrition remains at industry standards or not.

Several senior positions across markets in Asia have new hires. Prominent among them: Jiravara Virayavardhana was promoted from within as Thailand CEO, Randall Foo joined as VP of Customer Experience Technology, Asia, Nikhil Pajwani as ECD, Asia, Dan Parmenter as creative director. The Asia business also appointed Pamela Phua as head of new business PR&I and Social, and Vanessa Andrews joined as the new CCO. Hong Kong, India, Japan, AUNZ, Singapore and China made other key hires. 

Ogilvy claims that the induction of fresh recruits is a testament to its inclusivity, culture, talent strategy, and wellness programs. We’ve referenced their DEI efforts above but further, a number of talent and leadership programs for upskilling, behavioural development, prevention of sexual harassment at the workplace, gender sensitisation, and self-defense workshops are regularly run in all markets. 

Another notable change reflecting positive company culture is the net promotor score. It’s up by 19 points versus 2021, with a high employee satisfaction score of 78%. To give a perspective, above 80 is considered the top percentile. The highest-scoring categories include inclusion (84%) and belonging (81%). 

The company follows WPP’s policies for working with fossil fuel clients, but the leaders assure us that staff would never be forced to work on accounts they weren’t comfortable with. The co-CEOs insist they repeatedly think about clients with conflicting agendas when adding them to their roster. On rare occasions, the network might reject a prospective client based on conflict: for example, a tobacco company while servicing a pharma major would represent clashed values. 

It’s fair to say that all of Ogilvy’s managerial efforts are commendable in yielding better talent retention and employee satisfaction. For that, we’re upping their management score to ‘outstanding’ this year.

Advertising, Brand and Content (55.2%) Experience (26.1%) PR & influence (13.8%) Health (2.9%) Consulting (1.6%) Advertising, Brand and Content Experience PR & influence Audi, China, Japan Bank of China, Singapore, SEA Goodman, Australia Lakme, India Mercedes-Benz, China Midea, China,, Singapore Nutrilite, China, Thailand Shisheido, China Uber Eats, Taiwan Zuellig Pharma, Singapore, Philippines A: We've self-graded ourselves A versus our A- last year. We are proud to end a third extraordinarily challenging year, having stuck to our guns, with a consistent focus on our most important priorities and programmes for staff and clients, while evolving and future-proofing our business for the 'new normal’ that we are all now living in. We continued to prioritise staff health and wellness programs and support. We launched our Sustainability Practice and strengthened our Health practice in the region. We maintained our training and continued to accelerate our skills and staffing in technology, data, experience, and content. We maintained our ongoing focus on DE&I - embedding fair practices across all our markets. On top of all that, we managed to deliver a better overall position financially than we had envisaged with some areas of the business - particularly in Technology and Experience, delivering strong growth. We achieved record new business wins and have received notable accolades in creativity and effectiveness for the borderless creative work that we do. This was a year of business very much 'unusual' that we have managed exceptionally well, and we are in good shape to emerge strongly in 2023 from the long shadow of Covid.