5 March 2010
Increasingly, there seems to be an Orwellian slant to the machinations of the Internet. Last summer, early adopters of the Kindle and fans of George Orwell would probably have been rather frustratingly struck by the irony of waking up to find their library somewhat diminished. As one blog writes,
“In George Orwell’s “1984,” government censors erase all traces of news articles embarrassing to Big Brother by sending them down an incineration chute called the “memory hole.” On Friday, it was “1984″ and another Orwell book, “Animal Farm”, that were dropped down the memory hole – by Amazon.com.”
Another blog notes that the Kindle is “basically a device that Amazon controls that you just happen to have in your hands.” The novels were removed after being added by a company that did not have the sufficient rights to them. This may be sufficient reason to remove the product from the store; it does not, however, excuse the way in which Amazon went about systematically removing copies that were on owner’s devices, who had already paid them. The incident was noted in a more recent editorial in the FT, evincing a mounting ownership creep on behalf of major corporations. Now, more than ever, when products are not only files on your desktop but stored remotely in a cloud, a consumer’s rights to ownership have never felt less tangible.
Read the full article here.
5 March 2010
The latest Many Ogilvy Hands expedition landed in Uganda yesterday! You can keep up with what they’re up to through the blogs, updates and latest tweets on the brand new website at http://www.manyogilvyhands.com.
And as they begin a week of digging, carrying and generally getting their hands mucky helping build a new secondary school for 450 kids - remember, it’s never too late to make a donation…
Here are the Ogilvy folk who are currently Uganda-bound:
Amanda Cragg, Jenny McGregor, Anna O’Leary, Julie Borland, Julie Flemming, Justin Cairns, Bradly Rogers, Alex Pryce, Alex Meunier and Nick Bennett.
We wish them all the very best of luck!
Thanks everybody, and don’t forget to check out their shiny new website.
25 February 2010
3 times a year we send 10 employees from across the group out to Uganda for a week to help with building a secondary school in the village of Buikwe in Uganda.
So far, OgilvyAction has sent Adrien Raphoz, Ruth Tierney and Alice Gilsenan. The next OgilvyAction employee to go will be Alex Meunier who files out next week!
Each employee has to raise enough funds to get their airfare and other expenses covered before they can go. The latest fund raising venture was the Many Ogilvy Hands Masquerade Ball on February 17th.
19 February 2010
Courtesy of Jordi Connor - http://zeitgeistandstuff.wordpress.com/
An interesting new study published in the Journal of Consumer Research in the US claims that shoppers have a prepared mental budget to allow for impulse purchases.
The study, conducted in Texas involved asking shoppers what items they planned to purchase, how much they expected to spend on the planned items, and how much they expected to spend on the total trip.
Upon leaving the store the shoppers presented their receipts and answered some questions about themselves and the experience.
Over three quarters allowed themselves some ‘In-store slack‘ for unplanned purchases and the authors propose that this happens because we anticipate having ‘Unplanned wants’ and ‘Forgotten needs’ as we shop. However, such behaviour can affect household budgets for shoppers with a low temptation threshold.
The authors, Karen M. Stilley, Jeffrey Inman and Kirk L. Wakefield note that, “Less-impulsive individuals who shop most aisles tend to spend the money available from in-store slack, but don’t exceed their overall budgets. In contrast, in-store slack leads to overspending for highly impulsive individuals who shop most aisles.
“For the majority of consumers, having in-store slack appears to be a rational way to use the store to cue needs and preserve self-control. Highly impulsive individuals may want to consider planning as many purchases in advance as possible.”
Such findings demonstrate the importance of in-store communications because the study implies that shoppers actively expect brands to prompt them to make a purchase. To read a bit about our own study on shopper behaviour, click here.
25 November 2009
Did you know only 4 out of every 10 of children in Africa get to go to secondary school?
Imagine yourself as a 12 year old again, but living in a very small rural village. You want an education…but quite simply there aren’t enough schools.
If there is a place for you, your nearest school will be around 15 miles away. There’s no transport and you can’t afford a bike, so you’ll have to walk. Even then, you’re desperately needed at home to collect firewood, to cook, to work in the fields to grow food for your family.
Plus you will have to walk more than a mile a day just to collect water…that may or may not be drinkable. Unfair isn’t it…
We believe that education is essential to overcoming poverty. And that’s why we’ve decided that Ogilvy Group UK should do something to really help.
In 2009, Ogilvy Group UK started working in partnership with International Needs (Registered Charity No 1010597 - www.ineeds.org.uk) in a project called Many Ogilvy Hands. This project has a mission to build a secondary school in the village of Buikwe in Uganda to provide education for around 450 young people. There is a lot to be done but we believe that many hands make light work.
3 times a year we send 10 employees out to Uganda for a week to help with building. Our 5 year plan is to build:
- * 12 classrooms
- * A kitchen
- * A dining hall
- * A library
- * A laboratory
- * 8 staff houses and dorms for the boys and girls
And to provide the site with electricity, desks, textbooks, laboratory equipment and a very large water tank.
Follow our progress here: www.manyogilvyhands.com
2 September 2009
The MAA GLOBES winners truly are ‘the best of the best’ as they’ve won at least once some place else before getting through. The result is the world’s only significant international marketing recognition awards programme that recognises campaigns on creativity, originality, execution and results.
OgilvyAction won Silver for Domestos - Grim Tales in the Best Brand Awareness & Trial Campaign category
An Order of Merit for Domestos - Grim Tales in the Best Innovative Idea or Concept category
And an Order of Merit for PG Tips - Rainforest Alliance Certification in the Best Brand-Building Campaign category.
Good going OgilvyAction!
27 August 2009
OgilvyAction has tied the Ford Ka model with clothing chain Joy in an experiential campaign involving events across the UK. This retail partnership is a first for Ford and will see the campaign travel through shopping centres in Bristol, London, Leeds and Edinburgh throughout September.
Events will include dance performances and promotions involving the chain’s clothes whilst high-def screens will display the Ka TV advert to shoppers.
All 20 Joy stores will also celebrate the partnership, inviting shoppers to find hidden miniature Ka models in-store in exchange for money-off vouchers, with one branch opening its doors to an actual Ford Ka.
As always, to find out the very latest about the new Ka, including the blog - which, amongst other things, shares the coolest ways to personalise your new model - visit gofindit.net.
To read the full story, click here.
14 August 2009
Following their five (yes count ‘em, five!) wins at the ISP Awards, the ISP asked OgilvyAction London to participate in the IMC European Awards.
We are pleased to announce that OgilvyAction London scooped a Silver for Domestos - Grim Tales in the innovation category
Bronze for PG Tips - Tale Of Two Continents in the Brand Building category
And Bronze for Ford FIesta ‘This Is Now’ Tour in the Automotive category!
Well done OgilvyAction London!
5 June 2009
OgilvyAction London was one of the big winners in last night’s ISP Awards, with an impressive tally of one Gold and four Silvers.
The Gold came in the Non-Alcoholic Drinks category, won by our Rainforest Alliance Certification work for Unilever’s PG Tips brand (above).
The This Is Now Tour for the launch of Ford’s acclaimed new Fiesta (below) scooped Silver in the Automotive category.
Finally, the Grim Tales campaign for Domestos - which cleaned up at the MCCA Awards recently - also did exceptionally well, winning three Silvers; these were for Direct Marketing, Copywriting & Art Direction, and Healthcare & Household. Examples from the campaign are pictured below:
1 June 2009
The New Business team at OgilvyAction London changed!
Lena Robinson has departed OgilvyAction and stepping into the breach comes Phil Nash to support Charlie in all things new business!
If you want to get in touch with either Charlie or Phil here are their contact details:
Charlie Mitchell-Heggs
Business Development Director
charlie.mitchell-heggs@ogilvy.com
+44 20 7479 0758
Phil Nash
New Business Assistant
philip.nash@ogilvy.com
+44 20 7479 0319
