Ogilvy merges SG and MY offices under 'one agency, two locations' strategy

share on

twitter /
facebook /
linkedin /
- email
- telegram
- whatsapp
- wechat
- pinterest
- line
- snapchat
- reddit

Ogilvy is integrating its Singapore and Malaysia offices to present one agency in two locations, along with a new organisational structure that sees a newly integrated leadership team offering cross functional operational management.

The new appointments are:

Growth and innovation, health - Pierre Robinet, MD, Southeast Asia of Ogilvy Consulting
Advertising, brand and content - Nizwani Shahar, chief executive of Malaysia
PR and influence - Emily Poon, president of PR and influence, Asia; Q Akashah, executive director, PR and influence, Singapore; and Sunita Kanapathy, head, PR and influence, Malaysia
Experience - Jeremy Webb, VP, customer engagement and commerce, Southeast Asia

According to Ogilvy, the new structure is aligned with a global direction to provide integrated solutions in the five core businesses of growth and innovation; advertising, brand and content; PR and influence; experience; and health.

Chris Riley, group chairman, Singapore and Malaysia told MARKETING-INTERACTIVE that this was a natural union given the long history of collaboration between Singapore and Malaysia. "There is geographical proximity, a strong need fit for mutual sharing of skills and capabilities, and most importantly a number of large clients which look for Ogilvy to manage their brands seamlessly across border," he said

The closer collaboration between the agencies and its global reorganisation work started last year and the combined office headcount is approximately 300. The current titles for the leadership team will remain unchanged as they each take on the larger responsibility of leading the core business but will evolve as needed in certain circumstances, Riley added

The agency also claimed that this new leadership structure positions Ogilvy as the preferred partner for growth and builds further and deeper skills and domain expertise within Ogilvy that it predicts are in demand among clients. "We have a rigorous conflict management and confidentiality process in place and this will continue. We do not foresee any issues as a result of these changes," Riley said.

The growth and innovation function offers advisory services in business strategy, product and service innovation, marketing transformation, and brand growth. Meanwhile, the advertising, brand and content function offers strategic insights and creative innovation to generate brand value and leverage real-time content services.

Meanwhile for its PR and influence function, Ogilvy will integrate strategic insights, social content and data with plans for Singapore and Malaysia to service clients with global communication needs. Under the health function, Ogilvy will support companies to increase access to health in Asia, focusing on pharmaceutical, medtech, hospital and clinics, public health, and medical nutrition. At the same time, the experience function plans to use design, data and technology as well as the understanding of brand and human behaviour to drive customer value for clients.

Riley said its "one agency, two locations" approach provides the agency with the unique ability to offer clients access to broader capabilities and skillsets, as well as increased opportunities for employees.

According to Riley, he looks out for talented individuals across all areas of its business - marketing consultants, healthcare, PR, creative, content, strategy, data, commerce, technology, project management, and client service, for example. "This is an exciting time of change. I'm looking forward to unleashing these changes to level up our ability to develop giant ideas that in turn create giant value for our clients," he added.

share on