Sally Kissane is the first female CEO of Ogilvy Australia, having stepped into the role in March last year. While the journey so far has been an exciting experience, she noted that there are challenges the industry faces in its future.
Kissane spoke to Mediaweek about leading the company with empathy, her thoughts on gender representation in the industry and cultivating the next generation of talent.
Kissane on leading the Ogilvy Australia team with empathy and transparency
The CEO began her career with Ogilvy as an account executive and worked her way up the ranks, even spending a decade working in the New York office. While she has boomeranged from Ogilvy a couple of times, she said that it was the best place for her career to grow and develop.
“There’s not a department I haven’t worked with, or there’s not a level with which I haven’t had some experience. I think my leadership style is very empathetic. I do get it. I’ve been there,” Kissane said.
As a CEO, she noted that she always ensures clear and transparent communication with her team. She said: “I fundamentally believe that transparency breeds trust. The more open communication you have, the more trust and confidence there is within the organisation.
“When you’ve got a leadership team that has a rhythm, they have trust within themselves and confidence in me. That breeds trust and confidence, not only with staff but also with our clients and the people we work with,” she added.
The CEO shared that transparency in her leadership also flows down to the junior cohort with monthly Ask Me Anything sessions run by herself and her leadership team. These sessions allow younger members of the company to ask questions about the realities of the business.
The state of the industry
Kissane said that the impact of the pandemic put pressure on the industry at large, causing uncertainty and change. She said the by-product has been short-termism and noted: “Some agencies are dealing with the now versus the long game.
“For us, I think the pandemic has been a period of self-reflection,” the CEO said of Ogilvy. “It’s like in your home life, you’re not socialising as much, you focus more on your family, your environment, and the things you can control.
“That’s something that we’ve spent the last couple of years focusing on and ensuring that we’re doubling down on what we do best and not getting distracted by the headwinds that are happening across the industry.
“The important things, quite frankly, are talent and ensuring that we’re attracting the next generation of talent into the advertising industry,” the CEO said.
Kissane said it was important for the company to create an environment where great talent can be fostered. She said: “I go back to my own experience working at Ogilvy. It’s always been a learning environment, and somewhere we invest in people, talent and skills for the long term,” she shared of her experience.
“We need to cultivate the next generation of talent. We need to do more in terms of what we’re giving to people in terms of their career development,” she said, noting that Ogilvy has done so through their University of Creativity initiative.
“The idea is that we’re leveraging our brains trust to create a universal development curriculum for our people. We might have a strategy module, but we open it up to everyone in the entire agency network, both here and in New Zealand, to participate in. That’s based on that belief that the more we up skill our people in different ways, the longer and better their careers and future will be in this industry and within Ogilvy itself,” she said.
Kissane on gender representation in the industry
Her appointment as the CEO of Ogilvy was a milestone for the company. Kissane said that improvements are always being made to better gender representation and diversity in the industry in general.
Kissane noted that self-reflection is part of the key to tackling the issue. She said: “It’s on an individual level, not on a policy level or something that we drive down from on high, but we’re empowering our teams to activate our diversity strategy.”
The CEO noted that Ogilvy has increased the representation of females on the leadership council in the executive committee. She said: “In the last year, we’re hiring 60% more women than we are men. For me creating change is a daily thing, every single day, every choice we make affects the outcome. I’m proud of the progress we’re making. But again, I think it’s about continuous improvement.
“And it’s not just gender diversity, but it’s about diversity at large. We’re empowering and training our people to make good choices along the way,” she added.
How Ogilvy Australia fared through the pandemic
According to Kissane, Ogilvy was fortunate to do well during the pandemic as a business. She said: “We made decisions very early on how we were going to navigate it. The North Star for us was our people and our clients. How do we ensure that our people are safe and that we are focused on their well-being, and for our clients, helping them navigate through one of the most difficult times in their business.”
The CEO said: “We were fortunate that our clients weathered it well, but we partnered with them to weather it. It was quite a Herculean effort across all of our staff. It blows me away that we got through one of the darkest times in our industry without having to make anyone redundant.”
Kissane also shared that Ogilvy was recently awarded as the second most effective agency globally for 2021, which she was down to their sense of purpose and focus.
“The work we did during that period has been some of the most effective work certainly out of this country and recognised globally. So I think we fared well through the lens of people and clients. I’m pretty proud of how we did that,” she added.
Kissane on the challenges facing the industry and how Ogilvy will overcome them
Kissane said the industry is facing a few challenges ahead, particularly with the rapidly changing complex technology environment, the ever-evolving consumer mindset and behaviour, and the pace of the market.
“I think our industry needs to be ahead of the head of consumer mindsets and that changing complexity. But equally, I think we need to do that in a way that is consistent with our people and our focus, and not changing at a rate that becomes unsustainable for the people working within your organisation,” she said.
Kissane said that in response to the changing environment, the agency merged its different entities last year – agency, PR, and Ogilvy health – leading to the creation of five different specialisms within the network, including advertising, PR, health, consulting, and experience.
“The idea is we bought together all of the key elements of the Ogilvy network into one organisation with deep specialisms across five business units,” she said.
“The purpose of doing that is to essentially create a broad network proposition around each of those five business units. This frees up the talent that work within each of those five so that we can morph, wave and create bespoke solutions to bespoke challenges from a client perspective,” she added.
She said they believe creative magic happens when there are different perspectives around a client challenge, which allows the talent involved to be more effective and impactful. “That means, for example, in advertising brief, we can call on our PR, digital and technology teams to create unique solutions that create impact and breakthroughs,” she explained.
Kissane on cultivating the next generation of talent
Kissane also spoke about cultivating the next generation of professionals coming out through university. She said that while the advertising industry is fun and has its perks, the pandemic reminded Ogilvy that an attractive learning environment is essential.
The CEO noted that in addition to the company’s University of Creativity, which helps emerging talent and their careers, they also have an annual graduate program called Goliath.
The program, which involves an application process, allows new graduates to explore multiple pathways by rotating through different parts of the agency to find what is right for them – from creative and digital production to PR, strategy or technology.
“Advertising is a wonderful industry to be in, but I think we need to create more opportunities within the jobs for people to explore that long term career paths. We need to train people to have long and fruitful careers in the industry that may take different twists and turns along the way,” she added.
The year ahead for Ogilvy Australia
Looking to the year ahead, Kissane said Ogilvy will continue evolving as a regional network – including Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, New Zealand, and an offshore digital production hub in Bali.
“Bringing these entities together as a single network has been the first stage of our transition over the past year. Our intention, as a full-service agency, is to develop all the capabilities that our clients need and deliver them in a connected way that drives creativity and impact,” she added.
Kissane also noted that a soon-to-be-announced development in the MarTech space was on the cards that will expand their capabilities.
The Ogilvy CEO also kept tight-lipped on the new client to their roster but noted that they have a few interesting wins, particularly in the economy and cryptocurrency space.
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Top image: Sally Kissane