Ogilvy history

The first large client was Sunoco (then called Sun Oil), procured by Hewitt in February 1949.

The company only had a small budget, but its president promised to "never change a word of copy". In 1951, they introduced "The man in the Hathaway shirt" campaign.

The agency's backers supported Ogilvy, leading to Hewitt's resignation and the agency reopening as Ogilvy, Benson & Mather in 1954.

One customer, Shell Oil, increased the agency’s revenues by almost 50% when it started an account in 1960.

By 1962 the agency’s billings had increased dramatically, and Ogilvy had established himself as an innovator in the business.

In 1964 Ogilvy, Benson & Mather Inc. of New York merged with Mather & Crowther Ltd. of London to become Ogilvy & Mather International.

In January 1965, both changed their names to Ogilvy & Mather and the parent company became known as Ogilvy & Mather International Inc.

In 1966 Ogilvy & Mather followed this trend and went public.

As Chairman of the United Negro College Fund in 1968, he set the agenda for the agency’s pursuit of inclusion in the workplace.

Not wanting to repeat the problems that hindered its creativity in the mid-1970’s, the agency has created a network of semi-autonomous subsidiaries that, while having access to the resources only a large company can provide, still work as in a “small shop” environment.

Branch offices were set up around the world to handle the large amount of international business the firm had developed and subsidiaries such as S.H. Benson Ltd. and Carson/Roberts (both acquired in 1971) were consolidated under the umbrella of the parent company.

By 1975 Ogilvy & Mather had grown extensively.

Another acquisition, Hodes-Daniel, resulted in the establishment of the agency's direct-response service, called Ogilvy & Mather Direct, in 1976.

First, in 1979 Norman Berry was brought over from England to become creative director in New York.

The agency opened its public relations division, Ogilvy & Mather Public Relations, in 1980.

In 1982 Ogilvy & Mather won its first Kelly award for the inventive and sexually suggestive Paco Rabanne men’s cologne campaign.

According to a 1984 Advertising Age survey, Ogilvy & Mather was operating in 41 countries, was ranked third in world advertising income with $363.2 million in revenues, and had amassed over $2.4 billion in billings.

In May of 1985 Ogilvy & Mather International Inc. became The Ogilvy Group.

Kenneth Roman, president of Ogilvy & Mather United States, was named president of Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide. and was promoted to chairman in 1987.

He started as an account executive and moved to creative in 1988.

In 1989, WPP plc, a British advertising holding company, acquired the Ogilvy Group for $864 million, which, at the time, was the most ever paid for an advertising agency.

Having spent eight years with Price Waterhouse London, he joined WPP in 1991 while the Group was in the middle of a cashflow crisis, looking after the finance relationship with the banks and reporting to the market.

5 U.K. direct marketing agency, Paul joined O&M in 1992.

Patou joined Ogilvy in Belgium in 1993, and has steadily risen through the ranks of Ogilvy, taking on management roles of increasing responsibility.

In 1994, then–North America president Shelly Lazarus and Beers helped win the entire global account of information technology corporation IBM for the agency.

Paul started as Finance Director of O&M Direct in London and moved to be Group Managing Director in 1995.

After four years, Beers stepped down as CEO. Lazarus, a 23-year veteran of the agency, was appointed CEO in 1996 and became chairman the next year.

It was renamed OgilvyOne Worldwide in 1997.

The agency was hired by the ONDCP in 1998 to create anti-drug ads aimed at adolescents.

Kent’s tenure with Ogilvy began in 1999, when he joined the agency to head up Ogilvy’s interactive division in Asia.

In 2000, Yves co-created JustForYou, the largest e-mail marketing program in Belgium which was sold to Belgium’s leading telco two years later.

Playing a key role in the 2001 worldwide pitch for United Airlines, Adam secured the opportunity to move overseas and run the United Airlines EMEA business from Fallon London’s new office.

Kent’s first book, Building Brands and Believers, was published in 2002.

In 2003, she helped win the Cisco business and moved to Los Angeles to lead the global Cisco account.

In 2004 Horacio returned to Ogilvy in Mexico as VP of Client Services in charge of accounts such as American Express, Volvo, Coca-Cola and Gillette.

Ogilvy purchased the Federalist Group, a Republican lobbying firm, in 2005.

In 2006, he took on the role of Regional Commercial Director concentrating on growth initiatives in North East Asia and providing commercial support to the Bates Asia and OgilvyAction networks.

Recognizing Adam’s proficiency in developing award-winning work for International brands, Adam was promoted to Worldwide Client Service Director in 2007 to oversee the AMV BBDO’s portfolio of lead Global assignments for Johnson & Johnson, GE, PepsiCo, Dulux, and Birds Eye.

Paul was appointed Regional Chief Financial Officer of Asia Pacific with effect from April 2008.

Miles Young became Worldwide CEO in January 2009 after leading the company's Asia-Pacific division for 13 years.

In 2010, the agency established OgilvyRED, a specialty strategic consultancy.

Antonis joined Ogilvy in Chicago in 2011 as the Global Planning Director for SC Johnson.

Lazarus remained chairman until 2012, when Young succeeded her.

Ogilvy Public Relations in China faced accusations in the media of overworking a 24-year-old employee who died of a heart attack while in the office in May 2013.

He was promoted to CEO of Ogilvy China in August 2014, a role he retains.

In June 2015, Young announced he would retire as both Worldwide chairman and CEO to take the position of warden at his alma mater, New College at Oxford University.

In January 2016, John Seifert was named CEO of the agency.

Horacio is Executive Partner, Chief Executive, Latin America and has led Ogilvy’s Latin American operations since January 2017.

CEO John Seifert launched the company's "re-founding" in June 2018, during which the company changed its name from Ogilvy & Mather to Ogilvy, restructured, and rolled out a new, unified brand and logo to simplify its services.

Piyush has been with Ogilvy for over 36 years, and since January 2019 in his current role.

Prior to joining Ogilvy in July 2020, Andy led Deloitte Digital and scaled it into a multi-billion-dollar global business.

Kim joined Ogilvy Health as Global CEO in August, 2021 following 18 months at the executive level of WPP partnering with global clients to unlock growth and deliver creative transformation.