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SA ad agencies must adapt or die
Ogilvy CEO John Seifert shares his views on the need for agencies to adapt to make brands matter in a complex, noisy and hyper-connected world
Enormous growth challenges face advertising agencies and the bottom line is adapt or die in this rapidly changing environment. So says John Seifert, global CEO of Ogilvy, based in New York. Seifert spoke to the FM while on a visit to SA, saying agencies need to change because the nature of the work has changed, offering new and exciting ways of operating. While advertising agencies are facing growth challenges, so too are clients, who have less to spend and want every dollar to count, he says. "Consumers are also now in the driving seat with all their devices, and agencies have to be up to this challenge. It didn’t happen overnight, but the emphasis now is keeping up with the changes with cutting-edge tools." Speaking of then and now, Seifert says he has spent 40 years at Ogilvy and learnt from David Ogilvy, who founded the company in 1948. "In the beginning there was just David, while there is now a global Ogilvy presence in 83 countries with 132 offices. "David Ogilvy said change ...
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