I never cease to be amazed at the continuing ability of the ad biz to shoot itself in the foot. The recent news that the world’s dumbest of the BDHC’s (Big Dumb Holding Companies) WPP is combining Ogilvy, VML and AKQA into one entity..“WPP Creative.” makes as much sense as combining Wire & Plastic Products with US Steel to create the Acme Global Shopping Basket Conglomerate!
Apart from pissing away the value of its name and reputation, the only thing I guarantee it will achieve is mass layoffs. As the Poisoned Dwarf (Sir Martin) recently said..“I anticipate very significant exceptional, below-the-line 2025 charges on February 26, along with significant redundancies in the future.” He also noted that Omnicom and IPG have reduced their combined headcount from 127,500 when they announced the acquisition over a year ago to 104,000 recently.
Speaking of the value of its name, never forget that in 1994, IBM “stunned the ad world” by summarily firing over 40 different agencies and consolidating its entire $500 million global account at Ogilvy. This without months of agency pitches and the liposuction of humongous fees for agency search consultants. Simply a phone call to Shelly Lazarus, CEO of Ogilvy, from IBM CEO Louis V. Gerstner Jr., who had enjoyed a good working relationship with Ogilvy when they handled his American Express account. IBM sought to replace its fragmented marketing with a single, unified brand voice across 144 countries. It was the largest account switch in history at the time. Today, 32 years further on, the relationship still exists.
On a final note, I met David Ogilvy twice in my long and somewhat checkered career. The first time in 1961. I had just stepped off the Queen Mary as a snot nosed student when he graciously granted me 30 minutes of his valuable time. Between the clouds of smoke emanating from his huge fuming pipe, he offered me this gem of advice… “Never forget that the business of advertising is selling!” The next time we met was twenty odd years later when I was freelancing at Ogilvy as they attempted to hold on to the Compaq account. One evening a group of us were in the “Compaq War Room,” eating cold pizza, drinking booze hidden in thermos flasks and doing lines of Peruvian Marching Powder, when the door burst open and in came David supported by a couple of minders. By that time he was stone deaf, so he shouted… “Never forget that the business of advertising is selling!” Then left. Full marks for consistency!
A few years after that I won the David Ogilvy Global Creative Award for one of my IBM campaigns. It came with a $10,000 prize, which I didn’t get, ‘cos I was freelance. I did however get five WPP shares from Sir Martin which will one day, doubtless be worthless. As Yogi might say… “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!”
Poor old David must be spinning under the turf of Chateau Touffou right now.
