Ogilvy UK has unveiled most what is to be its new leadership under CEO Michael Frohlich, led by new chief customer officer Clare Lawson (MD in old language one supposes). Lawson is hailed as the agency’s first such CCO although former Ogilvy & Mather CEO Charlie Rudd was briefly that before he decided he didn’t want to be. Lawson is the former long-serving MD of OgilvyOne, which has also disappeared.
Lawson (right below) is joined by Nina Jasinski (CMO), Frohlich, John Cornwell (COO) and Ann Higgins (chief consulting officer, left to right).
The agency, now just the one brand Ogilvy UK, has also promoted Herdeep Natt to head of data strategy, Dan Hocking to head of programme management, Louise Whitcombe to head of customer engagement, Dickon Laws to head of experience design, Gen Kobayashi to head of strategy, communications and Jai Kotecha to head of social and content.
It is still planning to appoint a chief strategy officer and what it calls a “new creative leader” who will both be part of the top team.
CEO Frohlich says: “I am thrilled to partner with this extraordinary team of experts as we define the next chapter of Ogilvy UK. We have brought together a unique team with diverse experiences, background and areas of expertise that will focus on delivering the best results for our clients. When bringing this new leadership team together, we wanted to shed the hierarchy of traditional agency models, instead empowering and equipping these exciting new leaders with the opportunity to shape not only the future of Ogilvy but the future of the industry as well.
“Having this breadth of talent at the top will no doubt lead Ogilvy UK into the future and reaffirm our position as an integrated creative network that Makes Brands Matter. Our success depends on our ability to react to change as it happens and anticipate changes ahead, and I have every confidence that our new people, their new roles and our new structure will deliver an advantage for our clients and our teams.”
Lawson says: “I am incredibly proud to be Ogilvy UK’s first chief customer officer. Today’s customer demands best in class service, and a fully integrated set of pioneering capabilities, yet just 39 per cent of companies have any senior executive ensuring customers’ changing demands drive their business strategy. Within my new remit, I’m excited to work with our fantastic clients and the Ogilvy teams at Sea Containers (Ogilvy’s swish new London HQ) to ensure our continued evolution has the needs of our customers at its heart.”
The proof of all such changes is in the pudding, for Ogilvy UK maybe the reaction of its big clients – especially relatively new arrivals British Airways, Boots and Vodafone – in receipt of all this customer-focussed TLC.
Frohlich should be given some credit for sticking to his guns even as a stream of top execs followed Rudd out of the door. Interestingly Sea Containers is going to be owner WPP’s new HQ too with CEO Mark Read and COO Andrew Scott moving in. No pressure there then.
