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OgilvyOne London is today delighted to announce that, following a competitive pitch, it has won its first major piece of new business of 2011 – the prestigious Drinkaware business.

Drinkaware, a UK alcohol awareness charity funded by the drinks industry, aims to change UK drinking habits for the better by highlighting the dangers of alcohol misuse – primarily through the use of behavioural change campaigning, digital communications and media relations. The pitch, which was run through Oystercatchers, ended in a two-way shootout with VCCP.

OgilvyOne has been tasked with creating integrated on-and-offline campaigns which move Drinkaware on from its successful general awareness communications towards an action-orientated and behavioural change marketing approach

The agency will be combining its skills in creativity, strategic thinking, and integrated communications to positively change behaviour among parents of young children, young adults aged 18 to 24 and adults age 30+. OgilvyOne and Drinkaware will encourage parents to speak to their children about alcohol misuse, challenge the social acceptance and desirability of drunken behaviour among young adults, and build awareness of unit equivalents and guidelines among adults.

Work on the account begins immediately and will run until 2013.

Annette King, OgilvyOne London’s chief executive, says: “We are thrilled – what a way to kick off 2011. This is a fantastic piece of business to win. Not only is Drinkaware a great cause, this account will also play to, and test, our strengths – it requires robust strategic insights and thinking, powerful creative execution, high levels of technical skill, great project management skills and the ability to integrate our strategies and creative across a number of channels. A big challenge, and one which we’re looking forward to meeting.”

Chris Sorek, Chief Executive of Drinkaware, adds: “We were very impressed with the OgilvyOne pitch and are looking forward to working with them to achieve real behaviour change among consumers.

“Our challenge is to present messages about alcohol misuse in a way that resonates with the target audience – and a creative, evidence-based approach will be key.”

Late last year, seeking to overturn the misconception that Lotus Notes is just an email program, OgilvyOne London set out to intrigue business decision makers into considering what else Lotus can do by demonstrating the software’s social business capabilities.

Need to know who in your organisation knows about metadata? Want someone with experience of working in China? Ask Lotus and you’ll find the experts you need for your project.

The busy-ness of rush hour travel and the low dwell time of the average commuter meant that the concept had to be succinct and visually arresting to gain sufficient attention and recognition.

By using a literal and visual interpretation of ‘hand-picking’ the perfect project team, OgilvyOne London sought to surprise Lotus’ business audience on their commute; given the scale of the Tranvision screens (48-sheet size LCDs), a giant hand was just the thing to ‘grab’ our audience and help them change their perception of Lotus.

Creative directors were Charlie Wilson and Emma de la Fosse; copywriter, James Hodge; Art Director, Neil Aitken; Helen Birkenshaw was producer, with Dave Packer of Sheep Films as digital animator. Phil White was business director and Kieran Bradshaw was Account Manager.

Australia may not have regained the Ashes, but there is some consolation for its cricket fans: potentially big savings on British Airways flights from Sydney to London.

Thanks to a new online banner campaign (double-click on the pictures to view in higher resolution) by the airline’s digital agency, OgilvyOne London, Australians can visit the home of cricket at prices which may go some way to compensating them for their team’s dismal Ashes performance.

OgilvyOne creative team, Neal Williamson and Rick Sear, have created a banner for Australian websites – including the Sydney Morning Herald and the Australian Daily Telegraph – that begins with the headline: “Do something you never thought you would do. Cheer on England.”

The banner then informs Australian fans that British Airways will take England’s highest innings score and take it off the price of a ticket to London, before moving on to a scoreboard with a live feed that shows the England score going up – and the flight price coming down.

Andrew Boggs, OgilvyOne business director on the British Airways account, says,” The idea was to offer Australian cricket fans some consolation in defeat – without resorting to triumphalism or condescension.

The campaign continues until 9th January.

This year has been a great one for OgilvyOne London – prestigious new business wins such as BUPA, ActionAid, and IHG; attracting some of the hottest talent in town; and, most importantly of course, some outstanding creative work. To top it all, OgilvyOne was named direct Agency of the year by Campaign magazine.

The four-minute film above outlines some of the agency’s creative aachievements of 2010 – a record we hope to replicate next year!

OgilvyOne London is delighted to announce that Charlie Wilson and Emma de la Fosse (above) are to be its new joint Executive creative Directors, effective January 2011.

Colin Nimick (below), OgilvyOne London’s current ECD, will take a European-wide role, working with Paul Smith, the EMEA creative chief of Ogilvy & Mather and Ogilvy Group UK chairman/O&M EMEA vice-chairman Paul O’Donnell, helping to improve the network’s creative output.

Wilson and De La Fosse’s prolific creative partnership began at a small agency set up by two BMP creative supremos and during their career they have worked for some of the biggest names in the business, including Dave Trott and Ogilvy’s very own Rory Sutherland. What started off as a brief dalliance with direct marketing at OgilvyOne resulted in a long-standing affair with the medium.

Together Wilson and de la Fosse – partners in life as well as in work – have won Grand Prix, Gold and Silver awards at Cannes, Campaign Press, Campaign Direct, D&AD, DMAs, Epica, One Show, and Caples among others.

Over the past year they have been joint creative directors of a 55-strong creative department that comprises both off-line and digital teams, and are also Worldwide Creative Directors on British Airways and the UK Creative Directors on IBM. Charlie and Emma also sit on the Management Partner board of OgilvyOne London.

Colin Nimick also started his career in advertising – studying advertising copywriting at Hounslow College after gaining a degree in English from London University. In 1987 he started his first job at Ogilvy & Mather where he remained for five years. In 1992 he moved to Singapore where he worked at BBDO before returning to London to work at OgilvyOne.

During his career as a creative he has worked on every media invented (and some that weren’t at the time) for clients like American Express, Royal Mail, TV Licensing and Cancer Research UK. He became ECD of OgilvyOne London (responsible for all on-and-offline creative work) in 2006.

Annette King, CEO of OgilvyOne London said: “I’m absolutely thrilled for Colin, Emma, Charlie and our agency. Colin will be going to spread a little of the OgilvyOne London creative magic around the European network, while we’ve been able to recognise the fantastic contribution that Emma and Charlie have made over the years. Their work on the IBM Seer app this year and last and British Airways in particular has really reinforced our seat at the digital top table.

“One of our hallmarks is our stability and continuity. With these appointments we’ve been able to recognise and reward the creative brilliance that is our great strength. Our clients can look forward to some even stronger work coming out of the agency next year.”

OgilvyOne London was today named “Direct Agency of the Year” by Campaign magazine, beating off competition from Rapp, AIS and CMW.

Campaign praised the agency’s unrivalled new business record; its commitment to “investing in exceptional creative talent”; its constant innovation; and OgilvyOne’s use of its strengths and expertise to prevent other agencies muscling in on its territory.

The agency also won a number of accolades from Campaign: Colin Nimick was named DM Creative Director of the Year; the BT “Infinity” mailer was one of the Top 10 DM Campaigns; and IBM Seer 2.0 was one of the Top 10 Apps.

This is the second time OgilvyOne London has won Campaign’s Direct Agency of the Year, the first time being in 2007. The agency was also runner-up in Marketing magazine’s Direct Agency of the Year award, published earlier this week.

OgilvyOne Worldwide today launched a new offering, “Social Selling,” to help companies drive top-line growth through the use of social media, following new research that reveals a “social media adoption gap” exists between salespeople and sales organizations.

“Our research has shown that the people on the front-line, the salespeople themselves, recognize the power and potential of social media. They are hungry for education and empowerment, yet few companies are providing the access and training they need,” says Brian Fetherstonhaugh, Chairman & CEO of OgilvyOne Worldwide. “Part of our new ‘Social Selling’ offering has been designed to help companies overcome this discrepancy and drive sales growth.”

OgilvyOne conducted research among 1,000 sales professionals in the US, UK, Brazil and China, which revealed that:

1. Social media has had an enormous impact on buying behavior with 49% of sellers seeing social media as important to their success. Among the most successful salespeople, over two-thirds believed social media is integral to their sales success.

2. Companies are not adapting fast enough. 68% of sales professionals said that the selling process is changing faster than their own organizations are adapting to it.

3. Companies were not providing solid training to sales professionals in social media. Many are actively discouraging the use of social media despite the fact that customers are buying that way. 48% of salespeople believed their companies are afraid of letting employees use social media.

4. Many US companies claim to have a social media strategy, but only 9% of US salespeople say their company trains or educates them on the use of social media for sales. This stands in stark contrast to Brazil where 25% of salespeople surveyed receive training on social media usage. 38% of the salespeople we surveyed in China use personal blogs in their selling process while only 3% of US salespeople do the same.

The “Social Selling” offering is part of a broader initiative called “21^st Century Selling” to help clients maximize sales. Under the leadership of Gunther Schumacher, Chief Operating Officer of OgilvyOne Worldwide (above), the offering is being led by OgilvyOne Consulting in partnership with a group of sales experts including John Callies, a former senior IBM executive with more than 30 years sales and marketing experience.

Speaking about the offering, Gunther Schumacher commented: “Selling must evolve in lockstep with the way people are buying today. The “21^st Century Selling” offering maximizes sales potential through both Social Selling and Branded Selling, and draws upon the experience of our expert partners, such as John Callies, an IBM sales veteran. The offering consolidates assignments Ogilvy has been conducting for clients like IBM and Ford in the U.S. and Unilever in Asia.”

In formulating the offering, OgilvyOne consulted 30+ experts who are seen as “winners” in the Social Selling space. These included Matt Gentile (Director of PR and Social Media for Century 21 Real Estate), Tony Hsieh (CEO, Zappos), Jim Steele (COO, Salesforce.com), John Bernier (Head of Social Media, Best Buy), and David Fischer (Global Operations, Facebook).

OgilvyOne London today (1st December) unveils a pioneering direct response TV ad campaign for ActionAid UK.

The campaign, entitled “Unforgettable Moments” is the agency’s first work for the charity since winning its business in May. The main execution is a 90-second ad which breaks this Wednesday (1st December), with supporting 10-second slots.

When it won the pitch, OgilvyOne was charged with attracting more child sponsors in the UK, as well delivering a ‘step change’ to ActionAid’s previous campaigns.

“Our challenge was to rise above the mass of ‘worthy’ charity ads that follow the same ‘needy’ formula – a Third World child surviving in ‘substandard’ conditions in an isolated village somewhere,” says Charlie Wilson, OgilvyOne joint creative director on the campaign. “Whilst these are designed to tug at the heartstrings and even make you feel a bit guilty, they don’t exactly inspire.

“We wanted to completely turn that on its head and engage people in a more meaningful way. Our idea was to show the joy that child sponsorship brings to the giver, receiver and their community.”

Wilson’s creative partner, Emma De La Fosse, adds: “This campaign draws on familiar universal experiences – often ‘little’ things that everyone can relate to: the feeling rain for the first time; kicking a proper football; getting an opportunity to go to school.

“We wanted to capture kids experiencing these unforgettable moments for the first time. The campaign focuses on the optimism of the kids rather than just the material condition of their lives – and shows the positive and very real change you can bring about through sponsorship.”

Richard Turner, director of fundraising at ActionAid UK, comments: “With this campaign we wanted to move away from traditional charity advertising, which focuses just on the need, and I think we’ve succeeded. By showing how giving can inspire and benefit a community rather than just provide relief from poverty, we are reflecting how ActionAid truly works.

“We are also demonstrating just how rewarding – in every sense – sponsoring a child is for the donor and his or her family – creating unforgettable moments like these.”

The 90-second and 10-second spots were all shot by Emmy Award-winning director Ellen Kuras through Park Pictures. Copywriter was James sexton, with Matt Williams handling art direction; planning was by Susannah Harrison with Sharazed Ayeche as account lead.

We’ll be posting some of the 10-second slots soon, so come back often! And don’t forget to get involved!

Direct marketing is sometimes dismissed as above-the-line advertising’s dowdier sister, but its influence on social movements and new ways of doing business is huge.

Our own Rory Sutherland (above), vice-chairman of Ogilvy Group UK, and chairman of the 2010 DMA Awards panel of judges explains why he thinks the DMA Awards remain so important.

“I know it’s a bold claim to say that DM “saved the whale”, but let me explain….. Unlike above-the-line advertising, DM is scalable. In conventional marketing, either you have a spare £5m to spend on a mass media campaign or you don’t. There is no in between. DM is accessible to all. Budgets of any size can afford to buy a direct marketing campaign.

“This is important because it means even challenger brands can afford to communicate one-to-one with their customers, or, in the case of charities, with their supporters. There is little chance that Greenpeace would have been able to afford a mass media campaign to raise public awareness of their cause. It was their use of direct marketing combined with PR that galvanised public support, raised funds and directed a social movement to take action in protecting whales from imminent extinction.

“Similarly, consider the likes of internet retailing giants such as Amazon and Ocado. Millions of UK consumers buy their groceries, CDs, books and suchlike online, saving them the chore of having to set foot in shops. Britons lead the world in the amount they spend online. We mostly attribute this trend to technology, but the business model of the Amazons and Ocados of the world is directly descended from the catalogue and mail order companies of the nineteenth century – the wellspring of the direct marketing industry.

“These are just two examples of how DM has contributed so much to society over the years, but for which it has received little credit. It’s an argument for making our case a little more volubly. Currently, the DMA Awards are one of the few beacons for the industry, broadcasting to all how direct marketers are contributing to the country’s wealth.

“Yet, it’s not just the need to shout about our achievements that makes the DMA Awards so necessary. Looking back over the 30 or so years that the Awards have been running produces a fascinating timeline of the development of direct marketing in Britain. We have seen seismic changes in this time, not least in the digital field. Along the way, we’ve also become a hell of a lot better at many things (and worse at some others). I think the DMAs in particular have driven many of the improvements, by raising the bar for everyone in the industry.

“Of course I jumped at the chance of serving as the chair of the 2010 DMA Awards panel of judges. And it’s not just because of the affection I hold for them as an erstwhile winner of the Grand Prix. No, it goes deeper; we really do have much to be proud of.”

Polly Jones (above) is the last of OgilvyOne London’s recent recruits. She left her role as client service director at Archibald Ingall Stretton to join OgilvyOne as a managing partner, heading up some of the agency’s key accounts, including the agency’s largest, BT. Before AIS, Polly was a business partner at Rapier on virgin Media, and before that she made a name for herself at HTW, working on prestigious accounts such as San Miguel and Vodafone.

Polly is actually coming home – she actually began her distinguished career at OgilvyOne;  it is said that she’s come back “at the creative department’s popular request”!