IBM – one of Ogilvy’s biggest global clients – is marking its 100th year as a company of innovation and inventions through a series of documentary films that chronicle the ways in which the company has changed the world through scientific and technology achievements and the “IBMers” who have been behind those breakthroughs.

The three films take the viewer on a series of journeys through IBM’s past, present and future. The first film “100 x 100,” (click on the window above tho view – it’s fascinating stuff) features one hundred people who describe an IBM achievement that took place the year they were born. Joe Pytka, one of the most influential and prolific commercial directors, shot the “100 x 100” film.

The second film, “They Were There,” shot by Oscar-winning documentary director Errol Morris with music by famed composer Philip Glass, examines the leaders and inventors behind some of IBM’s most noteworthy contributions such as the invention of the UPC code, helping put a man on the moon and the launch of the first mainframe computer.

The third film, “Wild Ducks” now being filmed by Oscar-winning Davis Guggenheim, director of “An Inconvenient Truth” and “Waiting for Superman,” seeks to capture the spirit of invention and risk that defines the character of IBM.

“We are a company with a rich heritage of creative and forward thinkers who have made a profound impact on the world,” says Ann Rubin, vice president, brand expression and global advertising, IBM. “While each Centennial film has a specific purpose, each one represents a way for us to celebrate the people who have made IBM great, and speaks to IBM’s legacy of innovation.”

Created by Ogilvy & Mather, the film series intends to capture the ways IBM has changed the world. The films look back at IBM’s earliest developments in computers to the ubiquitous bar codes on everyday products, to the world-changing breakthroughs in computer science.

“When these stories are told in the voices of IBM employees, the real emotional depth and significance of these achievements is evident,” explains Mike Hahn, Creative Director at Ogilvy in New York.

His partner Ryan Blank adds, “IBM’s real culture is in the values of its people. That’s what this series is all about. The technology achievements are matched by the focus the company has on employees and its business leadership in hiring disabled workers, promoting and training women, even being the first company to provide life insurance and other benefits.”

We’ll be featuring the other films here on ogilvy.co.uk soon – so please come back!

MIPTV 2011 will present the first Brand of the Year Award (April 5), as part of its two-day Branded Entertainment Summit (April 5-6), which will see Ogilvy & Mather’s Worldwide CEO, Miles Young, deliver a keynote address.

The new award will be presented to an international brand for its outstanding contribution to the development and production of brand-related content. The winner will be chosen by an international jury made up of leading figures from the production and advertising sectors, including Doug Scott of Ogilvy Entertainment, Ben Silverman of Electus, the director Brett Ratner and Robert Friedman of @radical.media. This award underlines MIPTV’s recognition of the growing impact of branded entertainment in the global television industry.

As part of The Branded Entertainment Summit, Miles Young will outline why consumer distrust of branded content is fading, thanks to the increasingly sophisticated methods of producers in involving brands in different entertainment formats and associating them with content.

The Branded Entertainment Summit will bring together leading brands, content producers, broadcasters, advertising agencies and key companies in the digital sphere, for two days of conferences, screenings and pitching sessions where producers will promote their ideas to brand managers.

The Branded Entertainment Summit is organised in association with the Branded Content Marketing Association (BCMA) and sponsored by Ogilvy.

For more information on conferences at MIPTV, click here. For more information on MIPTV, visit www.miptv.com.

The next in our series of successful and acclaimed  Digital Lab days is entitled  ”Product Marketing in the 21st Century” takes place on Thursday 27 January  at our  Canary Wharf offices.

The agenda is ” Making your products and services shine in a digital world” (or, how selling just got a lot more personal)

Some top speakers have been lined up: Sarah Speake (strategic marketing director at Google UK); Groupon’s head of social media, Jemima Garthwaite; and Velti UK managing director Rob Beechcroft. Ogilvy’s experts will also be on hand – including the inimitable Rory Sutherland; Simon Stebbing (Uk managing director of digital for OgilvyAction); Maz Nadjm, head of social for Ogilvy Group UK; neo@ogilvy head of search Sophie Collins;  and Jaimes Leggett, managing director of O&M Advertising. Topics to be covered include mobile activation, search assessment and “we commerce”.

We’ll also have over 12 partners joining us for the day. They will be up and running in the Bar area from 9.30am and include: Google, JagTag, Upset Media, AQ2 and Visual DNA.

You can find full details of the day, speakers and exhibitors here

And on the day, follow the conversations and join the debate using the Twitter hashtag: #ogilvylabs6

Following Apple’s announcement of the launch of iAd in Europe, we’re
delighted to be able to tell you that our friends over at Ogilvy Paris will
be at the forefront of developing this exciting new mobile advertising platform.

Two of Ogilvy France’s most prestigious clients, Louis Vuitton and Perrier, will be among the first brands in Europe on the network. “We were quickly convinced of the added value iAds offer, in particular their ability to combine
spectacular content, interactivity and mobility,” says Benoit de Fleurian,
General Director of Ogilvy & Mather France. “Louis Vuitton, Perrier and
Ogilvy share the same desire to innovate and surprise. It was only natural
that that we all wanted to explore the possibilities of this new
advertising platform.”

“iAds allow for great targeting, enabling brands to connect with the right
audiences at the right time and in the right place,” adds Romain Lartigue,
Managing Partner at OgilvyOne France.”

“We are very happy to have invited Apple to present iAds to many of our
clients in our key markets,” says Patou Nuytemans, Ogilvy’s EAME Chief
Digital Officer. “iAds provide brands with an opportunity to embrace the
tremendous, and still undervalued, potential of the mobile medium to engage
with consumers in new ways. They also help us see the rich possibilities
many more paid media formats in the future will offer.”

For more information on Apple’s iAd Network, go to advertising.apple.com

Congratulations to our cross-Channel colleagues.

Ogilvy’s global network of Digital Labs – each as much a way of thinking and doing as a physical space – is responsible for some of the best work to come out of Ogilvy in the past couple of years.

Watch the short film above to see some of that work. You’ll notice that London is one of the powerhouses of the Lab network, with fantastic work for IBM, Coke Zero, Wired, Fanta, Castrol and much more!

Ogilvy Group UK has appointed Maziar Nadjm as its new Head of Social Media. Nadjm, known universally as “Maz”, joins after leaving his role as Community Product Manager for BSkyB.

Within a year of his appointment at Sky, Maz (who was responsible for the broadcaster’s online social media strategy, development and marketing for each Sky site) oversaw a 200% increase in engagement on Sky Portal sites. In addition, Maz also launched the new Times Online commenting system and was social media advisor to a number of News Corp units, including News International, Star TV, Sky Italy and Fox TV Channels. He also advised Chelsea Football Club and British Forces Broadcasting on social.

He was also named PR Week magazine’s “Most Influential Professional on Twitter in the UK” in 2009.

In his new role at Ogilvy, Maz will lead and co-ordinate the Group’s existing social media experts and be responsible for developing and helping to deliver further social media growth opportunities for the agency and its clients. He will act as a social media evangelist for the UK and will also work closely with Ogilvy PR’s 360 Digital Influence team, part of an international network that has been spearheading Ogilvy’s social capability across the globe since 2007.

Ogilvy Group UK’s chairman, Paul O’Donnell, commented: “At Ogilvy we believe social media and its growing influence on consumer behaviour has an impact on all marketing communication disciplines  and the time was right to find the right person to connect our capabilities and lead our community– this is what Maz will do. He will also work with clients to create a vision for the role of social in their brand strategies, grow our partnerships with key players such as Facebook and Twitter, and of course, drive new business.

We’re looking very much forward to welcoming an individual of Maz’s ability and reputation on board.”

At some point over the weekend, Ogilvy’s Twitter feed, which has been growing steadily over the past year, passed the 30,000 followers mark. We now believe – unless someone knows different – that we have more followers than anyone else in the industry.

@ogilvy, which aggregates comments, tweets and blogs from Ogilvy employees, is, as of today, followed by 30,216 people; in addition @ogilvy follows almost 13,000 other people.

To follow or join in, visit: http://twitter.com/ogilvy – it’s an invaluable source of news and comment from around the marcomms globe!

Apple have sold over 3 million iPads since the launch in April yet this is possibly the only one being used in such a unique way as this:

David Kassan is an artist who has turned his iPad into a blank canvas. Using a $5.00 app called ‘brush’ he creates these quite stunning portraits. Click on the image above to watch a 5 minute time-lapse video of David actually ‘painting’ his masterpiece.

With the World Cup days away, it seems the Dutch Football Association has cottoned on to a great way to help their nation celebrate when the ball hits the back of the net.

And they haven’t stopped at just putting Robin van Persie on their t-shirts. Click on the image above to see Wesley Sneijder and Klass-Jan Huntelaar celebrating too!

Thanks to James Thorley for spotting this.

This coming Wednesday (19th May) sees the launch of the new Digital Lab at the Ogilvy West offices in Westbourne Terrace in Paddington, London.

The Lab, a collaboration between all the Ogilvy companies based there (OgilvyAction, Ogilvy HealthWorld, Dialogue 141 and Coley Porter Bell, will showcase the latest in digital hardware to staff and clients, allowing them to get hands-on experience, and to develop, test and deploy innovative content for state-of-the-art platforms.

The Lab was inspired by the original Ogilvy Digital Lab at Canary Wharf, and has been coordinated by Ogilvy Healthworld and Ogilvy Action staff based at Westbourne Terrace. The technology has been provided by our Digital Lab Partners and includes:

– augmented reality demos (CrossPlatform)
– a 360° TV (Yershon Media Solutions)
– a gaming pod (EA Video Games)
– a wireless mobile chargebox (Scramblr)
– a Holobox (activ-8 3D)
– interactive iPhone gaming (Velti)
– Amplifi wifi content delivery technology (The Bright Place)
– a touch table (Touch It)
– QR code clothing (QRazyStuff)
– point-and-find technology (Nokia)
– an interactive floor projection (EyeClick).

Digital Lab Partners will be on hand at the launch to explain their technology, give demos, and answer any questions. The Lab underlines Ogilvy’s commitment to developing strong relationships with suppliers in order to help deliver cutting-edge projects for clients.

The launch takes place between 5.30pm and 8.30pm on Wednesday 19 May, and all WPP employees are welcome. For more details or to arrange a client tour, email the Digital Lab, or contact Andrew Lamb, Andrea Hackett or Amy Johnson (Ogilvy Healthworld), or Adam Burrows (Ogilvy Action).

To find out more about the Digital Labs, visit the excellent blog here.