Overview of the Company: Ogilvy & Mather

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INTRODUCTION

Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide is among the largest advertising agencies in the US, specialized in so-called brand stewardship.
Company History
Ogilvy was founded in 1948 by British ad pioneer David Ogilvy who now stands as a legend within the advertising world. After being out of advertising for ten years, Ogilvy started his own agency which was financially assisted by his brother Francis. S. H. Benson Ltd., another London shop, also invested $45,000, but insisted that Ogilvy hire someone who knew how to run an agency. Ogilvy appointed himself vice president in charge of the business opened as Hewitt, Ogilvy, Benson & Mather (HOB&M) and hired Anderson Hewitt from J. Walter Thompson to be the president,
• The beginnings of Ogilvy & Mather
Opening a new advertising agency in 1948 appeared decent timing. The Depression and World War II threw all the well-established, advertising firms out of business and dejected attempts by newcomers to break into the marketplace. However, with the war done and the American economy growing with unprecedented strength, and a better public awareness of the media and its influence, advertising became an essential element in any business practice. The potential for growth was almost boundless. Still, the agency of HOB&M did not become popular overnight. Competing with such established industry front-runners as J. Walter Thompson, Young & Rubicam, Leo Burnett, and BBDO was hard.
HOB&M moved forward gradually. In 1951, a small shirt maker, C. F. Hathaway, came requesting for help. This headed to the "man with the black eye patch" campaign, debatably one of Ogilvy's greatest famous that ran for 25 years. By 1952, David Ogilvy was becoming extremely well known. However, trouble was brewing at the...

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... offices and a further 359 worldwide in over 90 countries. Excluding specialized marketing subsidiaries, Advertising Age rank O&M as the number 8 agency network worldwide in 2001 with gross income of $1.1m and billings of $10.7bn.[1] Another source recently labelled O&M Worldwide as the world's ninth largest agency network, with billings count almost $13bn.

Clients
Ogilvy's clients include: BBC, BP, Coca-Cola Co., Glaxo SmithKline, IBM, MasterCard International, Merck & Co. Merrill Lynch, Novartis, Pfizer, Unilever, Xerox, Argos, Ariba (UK) Ltd., Deloitte & Touche, Dubai World Cup, Intelsat, Kimberly-Clark Corp., Shell, Nestle, Pfizer, and Sun. Ogilvy PR Worldwide’s division B/W/R is dealing with media relations for celebrities such as Ben Affleck, Brat Pitt, Michael J. Fox, and Reese Witherspoon. Finally, several governmental bodies stand amongst Ogilvy's clients.

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