2025 AGENCY SCORECARDS
Ogilvy
Team PROFILE
Agency type
creative
Ownership
WPP
tagline
WE INSPIRE BRANDS AND PEOPLE TO IMPACT THE WORLD
LEADERSHIP TEAM
Sally Kissane
TEAM CAPTAIN (departed '25)
Toby Talbot
Chief creative Officer
Fran Clayton
chief strategy officer (joined July '24)
Michelle Holland
MD Sydney/Brisbane
Gavin MacMillan
MD Melbourne
Richard Brett
CEO Ogilvy PR & Ogilvy Health
Hilary Badger
ECD (departed '25)
KEY STATS
offices
Sydney, melbourne
HEADCOUNT
347, including 14 freelance
gender balance
Male 35%, female 65% Leadership: Male 47%, Female 53%.
CLIENT WINS
18
CLIENT RETENTIONS
0
LARGEST CLIENTS
KFC
Suncorp
Mondelēz
TROPHY CABINET
APAC Effies
10
Australian Effies
3
Award Awards
4
B&T Awards
2
Cannes Lions
2
B&T's season report
Ogilvy’s 2024 season was strong, with impressive on the field creative work and a suite of client wins. There was one big pockmark, however, after its 20-year relationship with Suncorp came to an end.
All told, Ogilvy won 18 clients across varying scopes and types of work, including relaunching the Target brand, launching the Mitsubishi Triton, a digital transformation project for Dexus, Chinese automaker Chery’s digital experience and a global brand launch for piano-maker Kawai. It also won 75 further projects and one-off pieces of work.
The agency leaned hard into its “Return on Creativity” philosophy, proving it is an effective game plan that can shift the scoreboard in culture, policy and client outcomes.
On the field, Ogilvy’s attack knocked it out of the park with some strong creative work.
‘The Spot’ skin cancer sculpture and Dove’s ’10 vs 10′ were real higlights. It showed there’s still plenty of power in the longstanding creative partnership between Dove and Ogilvy and that its purpose-driven work can still return.
‘Til It’s Done’ for The Matildas and Football Australia, though launched in 2023, continued to kick goals at awards shows around the world after delivering a $200 million government funding boost and an APAC Grand Effie haul to boot.
In fact, Ogilvy would have a cracking year on the awards front. It won two Cannes Lions, for ‘Til it’s Done’ and ’10 vs 10′ and its staff won a silver Digital Young Lion trophy. Its work for KFC resulted a silver and bronze APAC Effie and three bronze Australian Effies.
Ogilvy also extracted some benefits working as part of WPP. The agency said WPP’s Open AI platform supercharged its innovation with “unprecedented efficiency”. The holdco had also reduced its carbon emissions by 18 per cent in 2023.
The bench was deep too: Ogilvy had three female ECDs running major offices across ANZ and women made up 65 per cent of the permanent team and held a slim majority on the executive leadership roster at 53 per cent. The agency also maintained a staff churn rate well below industry average and it has launched gender-neutral parental leave and its SheCD program preps women for creative leadership. There was some change in the agency’s senior playing staff, with Fran Clayton coming over from DDB to replace Toby Harrison as chief strategy officer. Harrison became Ogilvy Network ANZ’s consulting, growth and innovation lead.
It wasn’t all perfect, however. In November, it lost Suncorp’s creative after 20 years to Publicis-owned Leo Burnett.
But when the final whistle blew, Ogilvy had a significant silverware cabinet and a culture that is setting it up for a promising 2025.
HIGHLIGHTS REEL
La Roche-Posay, Bristol Myers Squibb, ‘The Spot’
‘THE SPOT’ was an idea that was accepted into Sculpture by the Sea last October. Viewed from the iconic coastal walk that sits above the beach, more than 450,000 viewers in the 2-week exhibition saw our sculpture evolve and grow mimicking the signs of a deadly melanoma. The five signs to help self-identify a melanoma are known as ABCDE. A for Asymmetry, B for Border, C for Colour, D for Diameter and E for Evolving. The Spot grew from a modest 4 metres in diameter to 25 metres. Each time it grew, it highlighted one of these key five changes. To create the sculpture, we worked with dermatologist Dr Cara McDonald who advised on the shapes, sizes and colours to help inform the design.
This ambitious idea also united two of our clients. Bristol Myers Squibb, a leading pharmaceutical company specialising in oncology, including melanoma treatment. This aligns with their mission to advance cancer research and improve patient outcomes. And La Roche-Posay – a dermatologically recommended skincare brand with a focus on sun-safe skincare and their existing commitment to skin cancer prevention programs.
A QR code at the sculpture offering free skins checks to over 2000 people who had visited The Spot. Twenty-two of those checked, were found to have melanomas.
But we didn’t stop there. During National Skin Cancer Action Week a few weeks after Sculpture by the Sea ended, we took “The Spot” to Canberra to help strengthen advocacy for a National Skin Cancer Screening Program.
Dove, ’10 vs ’10’
Dove has always championed the idea that beauty should be a source of confidence and not anxiety, and has helped pave the way to make social media a more positive place. Being 10 is no longer the goofy, uninhibited age of fun we all remember. Shockingly for today’s 10-year-old girls, life is about retinol and anti-ageing skin care regimes. Despite platform age-gating, harmful social media content is pressuring them to adopt unnecessary adult skincare regimes. This doesn’t only damage their skin, which isn’t fully developed, but it also undermines their self-esteem. Known as ‘The Sephora Generation’ this fascination of young girls for giving their own make-up tutorials on TikTok was gaining unhealthy traction in social media. When this new trend emerged, which was causing an increase in anxiety and interventions around appearance, the brand was compelled to step in and address it. Ogilvy Sydney developed a creative platform designed to not just highlight the problem but actually help mothers with young girls with self-esteem issues.
With a sobering press, OOH, video and social campaign featuring real 10-year-old girls from today, and 10-year-olds from 10 years ago, Dove sparked a global conversation with one simple question: When did 10 stop looking like 10? The campaign generated over 1.5 million organic views online purely from real peoples’ posts in its first week alone. It saw a 209% increase in online conversation amongst parents about the issue. In addition to a brand film, national press and outdoor campaign that ran in two key Dove markets – the UK and Australia – Dove partnered with its internal experts in body care and dermatology to develop a TikTok resource for parents and caregivers about how to have the Anti-Aging Skincare Talk with their youth girls, reinforcing our commitment to fostering positive self-esteem in our youth. This has played on TikTok 48,200 times with 99% positive feedback.
Football Australia, ‘Til it’s Done’ (2023)
Australians have always loved football. Men’s football, that is. The national women’s team had been long overlooked by sponsors, the media and to a large part, fans too. But the Matildas have never quit. With the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup approaching, the team needed to rally the support of the nation. Our opportunity was to harness the Matildas’ story of grit, courage, strength and pride.
With a phrase drawn from the middle of the Matilda’s name, we created a rallying cry that was also central to the Matilda’s philosophy: to inspire Australia with their relentless ambition. ‘Til it’s Done’ captured the team’s never-say-die attitude and captured the mood of the nation. The Matilda’s went on to achieve their biggest run in World Cup history. And through our platform, they continue to share their vision for football, sport and the values of the players. A story that’s never done ‘until it’s done’.
We created an enduring platform on a $500,000 budget (including media). The results have been nothing short of incredible. Matildas shirts now outsell Socceroos shirts 3 to 1. The Matilda’s are now officially Australia’s favourite sporting team. The Government directly attributed the success of the campaign with their $200 million injection into womens’ sports in Australia post the World Cup. And ‘Til it’s Done’ cleaned up at the APAC Effie’s, winning Brand of the Year for Matilda’s, Marketer of the Year for Football Australia and Agency of the Year for Ogilvy Melbourne.
Ogilvy's ANALYSIS
2024 was a landmark year for Ogilvy Australia, where our philosophy of Return on Creativity (ROC) delivered exceptional results. We were crowned Most Effective Australian Agency at the APAC Effies, where our ‘Til It’s Done’ campaign for the Matildas won the Grand Effie and sparked a $200M government investment in women’s sport.
Our creative firepower was recognised with two Cannes Lions, while our business thrived, achieving 100% retention of our top 20 clients and 3% growth against a flat market. This success is driven by our commitment to diversity, as the only network with three female ECDs leading our major offices, and our investment in AI-powered platforms like WPP Open.
From life-saving work like ‘The Spot’ to culture-shifting campaigns for Dove, we have demonstrated our ability to deliver work that is not only creatively awarded but drives tangible business and social impact.
mvp award
Fran Clayton, Chief Strategy Officer.
As Chief Strategy Officer, she was the strategic architect behind our most awarded work, championing our Return on Creativity philosophy.
B&T's agency score
Ogilvy: 8
Previous season’s score: N/A
COACH's COMMENT:
Ogilvy produced strong work and a steady stream of client important, if not ground-breaking client wins. Losing Suncorp will sting, however.
