Timeless Ogilvy
Shelly Lazarus
Chairman, Ogilvy & Mather
Ogilvy & Mather Global Workshop, Istanbul, March 3, 2010
I can’t tell you how happy I’ve been to be together with you in Istanbul. We are a family. And it’s been more obvious to me over the past few days than ever before. On Monday, we sobbed together over the death of a man we knew and loved, a man who was so dear and important to us.
But we’ve also had some happy events.
We have celebrated one of our leaders who is retiring – Marcia Silverman – over the course of a series of events.
And this morning we have an anniversary to celebrate. I want to recognize Nasreen Madhany who has been with us for 35 years. She led Media in Canada for us; then came down to New York when we won IBM to lead IBM media for us; and then started our digital media company, Neo, and built it from scratch into our fastest growing unit. Lou Gerstner said of Naz one day, “I love her. She talks faster than anyone I know.” Naz, you are a force of nature. It is an honor to work with you. Can you just stand so we can recognize you and thank you for 35 years?
Now we’ve spent the last few days talking about the future of our company, a rather important subject.
I believe Miles has given you a clear and compelling sense of direction, and you all have been adding to the discussion. Before I go on, I would like to recognize Miles, not just for organizing this meeting – which took great vision and commitment to get to happen, to will to happen – but for taking on the leadership of this company with the energy and the passion that he has. Miles is driving us to the next chapter in our history, and he has my full, unstinting support.
It is vital that we plan our own destiny, that we put our future in our own hands. I have always believed in the value of long-term planning for any enterprise. It was Miles who demonstrated the value of the five-year time horizon in the planning he did for Asia. It was TB Song who first showed us its power in the first Five Year Plan he did for China. (Will any of us ever forget China’s Five Year Plan presentation in Shanghai. It was so exciting, the entire Board rose to our feet with applause. It was thrilling.)
The truth is, when you change the perspective from one year to five years, what you plan is different. What you think about changes. When you’re thinking five years out, you must, in fact, dream your future and figure out how you’re going to get there, year on year.
We need a roadmap that guides us day-to-day on the way to the future. We need a roadmap to ensure that we are each pulling in the same direction, and we need a plan that places individual accountability in each of our laps. We might not have it as we leave Istanbul, but we need to have it.
But I am not here today to repeat what we’ve all been talking about for days. Rather, I would like to add some perspectives of my own about what makes our company worth the effort–what it is that keeps us here, some of us for 20, 30, in my own case, almost 40 years. (I’m the person with the lowest boredom threshold in the world. How did this happen?!? I will tell you.)
Because what I would like to talk about this morning is the values that have held us all here over the years; values that are timeless; values that are our bedrock. Values that define us, and will keep us focused and true to who we are even as our business continues to evolve. (And it will continue to evolve continuously and relentlessly, as so many people over the last few days have observed.)
David Ogilvy gave us many things. One of the most important was our enduring mission. Back in the 1950s, before brands were fashionable, David said (and you all know this): “Every advertisement is part of the long-term investment in the personality of the brand.”
The remarkable thing is that he said it when no one was really talking about brands; when “products” and “brands” were interchangeable terms; when what agencies did was pretty straightforward–Advertising agencies produced ads for newspapers, magazines and television.
When Charlotte Beers became the first CEO who hadn’t grown up at Ogilvy, and was looking for an organizing principle that would refocus the agency, she found it in a flash in David and his belief in brands. (Sometimes it takes an outsider to point to the treasure contained right within the enterprise. “Look no further. It’s right here. It’s what you’ve always been about,” said Charlotte.)
But David also said something else that has made all the difference to who we are and that has defined our value through time. He said: “Unless your campaign is built on a big idea it will pass like a ship in the night.”
So here was the aspiration…here is the timeless ideal: Create big ideas that make a difference and that last. Find great creative ideas that transform enterprises, that are game changers for our clients, that take them from being small and narrow manufacturers of products to being significant in the world; ideas that drive their businesses, that make the world pay attention to them and their missions, that differentiate their offerings in the marketplace.
“Put creativity at the heart of the new Ogilvy” has been said several times over the past few days. Yes, indeed … just as it’s always been at the heart of Ogilvy from the beginning. A creative company above all. Then. Now. And forever. Timeless Ogilvy. Eternal Ogilvy.
All the great Ogilvy campaigns have been great brand campaigns. Transformative campaigns. Campaigns that have built and grown and defined global companies. Not just big ideas – huge ideas. From Schweppes to Pepperidge Farm to Dove to American Express…these were all Ogilvy ideas that built companies. We shouldn’t aspire to just win advertising awards; we should aspire to help our clients build enterprise. That’s our legacy. And what could be more exciting! That’s why I’ve stayed here for more than 30 years. I’ve done that. Over and over. And I’ve loved it.
I also love what Jon Iwata proposed yesterday as our positioning, a reflection of how he and our clients see us: to be, in Jon’s words, “the one-of-a-kind partner to the very best and most ambitious brands in the world.” Isn’t that really what we’ve always been about? Isn’t that really Ogilvy’s best self?
What we’ve been able to do for IBM has been thrilling. I would argue that our current work for “Smarter Planet” is the demonstration of what Ogilvy can do for a brand. IBM, as it defines its mission, is setting out to do no less than change the way we live and work and interact. And we are telling the world. You heard it from Jon yesterday. What value does Ogilvy bring to our clients? You need look no further than IBM and Smarter Planet. (And I don’t care if it never wins at Cannes, because it won’t.) Jon Iwata’s assessment yesterday is the real measure of value.
So let’s now talk a bit about Ogilvy the brand, about what is timeless and boundaryless. And make no mistake…Ogilvy is a great brand.
We tell our clients that the brand is the sum total of the history of the enterprise, the values of the company, the quality of the products, the people and the depth of the culture. We tell them, your brand is who you are at the core. And just as that is the philosophy we bring to our clients, it is vital we never lose sight of this for ourselves.
I believe firmly the best guide for Ogilvy as we evolve (and evolve we must; “change or die”), the best guide is not to forget, overlook or undervalue our brand.
Now, there is indeed a paradox in that thought.
On the one hand I believe you must stay true to our heritage. On the other, we are all being called upon to change and adapt with the times. That is what we all have been talking about over the past few days. Who didn’t hear, loud and clear, Antoine de Saint-Affrique’s challenge: “Unilever is changing fast. Will you be able to change fast enough to keep up with us?” That is a central question.
But here is the thing we all know to be true of great brands: they don’t diminish as they evolve; with thoughtful stewardship they draw strength from their essence.
And I believe we have arguably the strongest brand in our industry.
Today, Ogilvy is a strong and distinguished global company – respected for our integrity, our creativity and our culture.
It is our great unfair competitive advantage.
It is not that we have not had our rocky times. (We all have been through plenty of that lately.) We’ve not had our strongest years in 2008 and 2009. And, as you’ve heard, it hasn’t just been the global economy. Our revenues will go up and down over the years, I assure you, but we will persevere because we know who we are. We know where we’re going. We know our place in the world and we know our value. We believe in our brand. And because we understand who we are at our core, we can change the way we operate, the way we go to market, the way we organize the company, the businesses and geographies on which we focus.
We can do all that and never lose our center as we go forward. That’s a strong brand.
You know, I was a very lucky CEO. So is Miles. That’s because our company was founded with a point of view, a set of principles crafted by a brilliant man who (twice lucky!) was also a brilliant copywriter. (And if you want to be reminded of the value of that, just contrast Unilever’s term “healthy dissatisfaction” with David Ogilvy’s “divine discontent” and you understand the power of great copy.)
David Ogilvy spent the lion’s share of his intellect and energy on not just operating a company, not just writing great ads, but on building a philosophy and a culture that would endure long after its founder. So today we find ourselves with a treasure…with a set of principles that help build and sustain an ideas-driven, a brand-driven culture.
I can tell you from my nearly 40 years here that every time we have started to lose our way a bit, or needed inspiration, or needed to connect more deeply with our clients, we simply returned to our values and to our culture.
When we needed to expand our business in new markets without diluting our core offer, we had this vision and a set of values to count on. Through time, we have had something unifying and personal to draw on, to engage new people coming into the company, to connect with new partners, new clients. To sustain a credible sense of mission. Believe me, this timeless resource, our culture, is the envy of the business.
We would not be the company we are today without this common sense of “what we believe and how we behave.” (Often referred to as “culture.”) We know who we are at our core.
“What we believe” starts with our basic belief in the value of ideas.
We know (not just believe) that ideas are everything in our business. Ideas that spark, that engage, that add context, that tingle, that stay in the brain days and weeks and even years later.
Ideas inspire, they plant a flag, they give meaning. Ideas are what clients can’t do for themselves. Ideas are what give us our value.
And let us never forget that we do have products...commercials, print ads, websites, posters, pop-up stores...and they have to be excellent. And as excellent as they are, they will never be good enough, as David and now Eugene remind us. And that is also part of the culture of Ogilvy–Divine Discontent. We’re always striving. It goes to the core of who we are as people. And when Khai and Eugene exhort us to get the work better and better–that is at the heart of the Ogilvy culture. Divine Discontent. Timeless Ogilvy. Eternal Ogilvy.
One of the other things that is core to Ogilvy and which we’ve talked a bit about over the past few days is the belief that no one has a lock on ideas. It’s not a department. They can, and do, come from anywhere, and everywhere within our company. We celebrate that. Pervasive Creativity? Always. Timeless Ogilvy.
But it’s not just the creativity bit that defines us. There is an underlying open-mindedness in our culture that is defining.
And it is this open-mindedness that, I would argue, sets up a meritocracy. We are, we always have been, a meritocracy – a culture in which your advancement and your rewards are based solely on your contribution. And it has been a critical aspect of our success. Its allowed our people to grow, to feel it’s possible to contribute regardless of office location or department or background or philosophy. It’s why we have 12 young Associates with us at this meeting today (and if we don’t listen carefully to what they had to say, we’re mad). It is part of the stuff that brings us together.
People often ask me why women do so well at Ogilvy It’s not that David “liked women” (he did, but that’s beside the point). It’s that he was gender blind. He was actually blind to everything, save contribution and achievement. That is why, I believe, you can have not one, but two women in a row as chairman. I have always said that women don’t need “help”. We don’t need remedial programs. What we need is an even playing field. And at Ogilvy we have always had one; everyone has had one. Meritocracy born of open-mindedness. That is timeless Ogilvy.
An open culture that objectively measures individual contribution also creates an environment where it’s okay to try new things. Experiment. Launch new initiatives even when you’re not 100% sure they will work. This, too, is part of who we are. We are a culture of innovation. Martin Sorrell, on Monday, called it farsightedness. Whatever you call it, it has been crucial in allowing us to evolve over 60 years.
Do you know how OgilvyInteractive came to be…15 years before there was an Internet?
Some of us believed that there would be “interactivity” in the future. Martin Nisenholtz (who is now the president of NY Times Digital) was our “Head of Interactive” starting in the early 1980s. We didn’t know what interactivity would look like in the future (this was the era of boxes hooked up to televisions sets and local kiosks where you could “interact”) but we (and he) saw it coming. We knew someone would discover how to allow us to be interactive, to talk and transact directly with consumers. We just didn’t know the form. (Believe me, back then no one foresaw the Internet!) I spent years of my life trying to explain Martin Nisenholtz’s salary line to Martin Sorrell. It wasn’t an easy argument to make, but I prevailed. And because of Martin Nisenholtz, and because we had Ogilvy Interactive, we were more ready to use the Internet as a marketing tool than any other organization. We had been experimenting for years.
So Ogilvy, constantly trying new things: Think RedWorks. Constantly innovating. Ogilvy Digital Labs. Always dreaming the future. OgilvyEarth. Farsighted. Ogilvy Noor. And bold. Ogilvy at its best. Timeless Ogilvy.
I want to talk about respect. We are a respectful culture.
Starting with clients, David exhorted us to never forget who signs the check; to buy our clients’ products (it’s only good manners.) to never come between our clients and the footlights.
But I believe respect for clients goes even further. It means living up to the promise to deliver what you commit to, be it a global campaign, or a local promotion. It means respecting our clients’ needs, understanding their organizations, and looking for the growth possibilities in their business even when we’re not asked–especially when we’re not asked. That is what makes for a 30 or 40-year relationship. This larger sense of shared mission is what we promise. This is not always what we do. Just last week I saw an email from an important client that said (and I am reading his actual words here): “My issue is simple. Sales are not good for some time now. I seek help from the agency to act as true strategic partners, not just as producers of the next TV ad.” We’ve talked about business acceleration over the last days. We’ve talked about effectiveness. (“Ogilvy is the most effective agency in the world,” said Tim Broadbent yesterday.) But now we have to actually do it, client by client, country by country. That must be part of the new Ogilvy. Execution and accountability everywhere. “We sell or else” is timeless Ogilvy.
To be truly accountable, we must always ask ourselves the questions: “Did our work grow our client’s business?” “Was it good enough?” “Did we spend the clients’ money in ways that made a difference?” One thing that I’m convinced of, having sat here for the last few days: we know how to do this more than we’ve ever been able to do it before. This is what Dimitri Maex, Tim Broadbent and John Bell have talked about. We have the means; we now have to have the will.
David Ogilvy also had great respect for consumers. He said famously, “The consumer is not a moron, she is your wife.”
I believe respect for consumers, understanding them, trusting their intelligence, has been critical for us in developing great advertising over the years.
I think our focus on planning going forward will help ensure this continued respect for consumers, for understanding their wants and needs. But we don’t need planners to tell us that people are not stupid; that they don’t want to be talked down to, and no brand that does will survive.
I think of the work we have done for BP, where we insist the consumer join the dialogue, take some responsibility for the often careless way we consume energy. The public responded strongly and emotionally. It was advertising that made them think, that made them participate in the debate. I was struck yesterday when Jon Iwata said that IBM’s advertising purposely invites people to think. I could name a dozen more campaigns and so could you, that really do express insightful thinking, and that talk meaningfully and intelligently to their audiences. That is timeless Ogilvy. There is an intelligence to our advertising that makes it ours.
In the end, though, if you ask me what is at the heart of our company, what makes Ogilvy Ogilvy, it is the value we place on our people.
David believed that the people in his company mattered most. He believed that the company should employ not only the best and the brightest, but those with character, respect and civility. He wanted us to be a company of “Gentlemen with Brains.”
He despised and had no tolerance for “toadies, bullies, paper warriors, pompous asses and prima donnas.” That’s the kind of corporate culture that kills collaboration, kills mutual respect and ultimately kills creativity and innovation.
David railed against it, and gave us a foundation of civility and respect. I like to say we’re the nice people. (And I must at this point remind you all that to be successful in our next chapter, there is no need to diminish what came before. There has been great work done by great people, many sitting in this room, over many years. Please do not damn it, demean it or dismiss it. That is not graceful. That is not Ogilvy.)
Back to people, nice people. I want to tell you about a moment 15 years ago, when I was just about to become CEO, I went to Touffou to spend time with David. Quite frankly, I wanted and needed all the advice he could give me. Herta was there, which always makes it more wonderful. It was March, kind of cold and damp. So we sat by the fire and talked. We walked outside and we talked. Of all the things we talked about, I remember most what David said about people.
He said that, as much time as he had spent in his career being concerned about people, recruiting them, making sure they were happy, in retrospect, it wasn’t enough. He said to me: “You can never spend too much time thinking about, worrying about, caring about your people because, at the end of the day, it’s only the people who matter. Nothing else.”
In our industry, I truly believe that the people with the best people win. And our strategy has always been, and must continue to be, to attract and keep the best people.
As the agency has become so much bigger, so global, we have to be a clan united not by a cult of personality, or by some irrelevant loyalty to a man, but by another kind of bond…and that is mutual respect, civility, belief in a set of principles. A sharing of a common legacy and an adherence to a set of values. You’re an Ogilvy person or you’re not. (And you each know what I mean.)
So, now, as the world changes, as economies fluctuate, as new technology delivers a hundred new devices from which one can consume all the media in the world, we at Ogilvy know what to do.
It all comes back to our principles, back to a focus on brands and ideas, and a belief in and commitment to the people who bring both to the table.
Here is my personal favorite quote from David Ogilvy, because I believe it is a universal call to action: “Raise your sights! Blaze new trails! Compete with the immortals!”
Glorious words. Timeless words. He asked individuals – and leaders – to look high and far. To not be content with good enough; to dare to be great. And isn’t that what we’ve all been talking about over these last few days?
Change is here. It will affect us all. The survivors–the great companies of the 21st century will be those that find within themselves the best way to manage that change. The great companies of the 21st century will be those that find, nurture and glorify their own timeless values going forward.
As I said, we have an unfair competitive advantage in our brand and our culture. It is our brand and our culture that will allow us to change. We can become the new Ogilvy because of the strength of Ogilvy, all that it has been and all that it means. I like to think of it more as Ogilvy evolved for the 21st century. Timeless Ogilvy…but made fit and ready, appropriate and relevant, for this next decade. But it is up to you to keep our brand and our culture alive and well. It is up to you to take full advantage of its power to attract the best people, to provide the greatest value for clients and to produce work that is outstanding. World class and memorable. The stuff of legends. We have done it before and we will do it again.
This history, this culture, this legacy, this ideal – this is your birthright. It’s yours. It’s a gift. Use it well.
I have every confidence in the future of this company because I have every confidence in you.
