Ogilvy has appointed Kent Wertime as the global CEO of Ogilvy One – the new name for Ogilvy’s customer experience offering.
Wertime has clocked nearly 25 years at Ogilvy, and will take on the new role alongside his responsibilities as co-CEO for Ogilvy APAC.
Across Australia and New Zealand, approximately 200 people will work within Ogilvy One, working closely with the specialist teams at Bower House Digital and Verticurl, the marketing technology services agency Ogilvy acquired in 2013.
Jason Davey, chief experience officer of Ogilvy Network ANZ, will lead Ogilvy One in the region, alongside a number of other senior Ogilvy leaders, ensuring all existing clients can access the agency’s capabilities.
Davey said the team has already made impressive efforts over the last 12 months in bringing together Ogilvy’s capabilities for some clients.
“Now is the time to accelerate taking the powerful combination of capabilities we’ve assembled as Ogilvy One to our clients in Australia and New Zealand.”
Davey noted that in a challenging economic market, brands and businesses increasingly need to engage meaningfully with their customers.
“Ogilvy One helps brands design distinctive relationships with their customers, led by creativity, powered by data, supercharged by AI and built to cut through the clutter of cookie-cutter approaches we see out there. Our expertise in building distinctive brands sets us apart from the consultancies and other agencies,” he added.
Wertime, the new global CEO, said consumers dictate their relationship with brands, from discovery to purchase, by choosing their points of interaction.
“With a deep understanding of brands and full-dimensional view of consumers coupled with award-winning creativity and a strong data and technology backbone, Ogilvy One is uniquely positioned to design valuable relationships for brands that are impactful, relevant, and enduring.”
Ogilvy One’s focuses include customer acquisition, service design, continuous commerce, and CRM and loyalty.
The wider Ogilvy One leadership team includes Roberto Fara, who will take on an expanded role as the global creative experience lead and will retain his role as chief creative officer of Ogilvy Spain, along with Rajesh Midha (NoAm), Clare Lawson (EMEA and chief client officer), Ab Gaur (APAC and CEO of Verticurl; global chief data and tech officer, Ogilvy), Mauro Caggiano (LATAM), Jason Davey (AUNZ), Ravi Pal (CTO), and Nate McNabb (Global Partnerships).
Devika Bulchandani, global CEO of Ogilvy, said the new leadership team elevates founder David Ogilvy’s direct marketing approach and reaffirms the commitment to designing relationships based on ideas that create enduring value exchanges between consumers and its clients’ brands.
“Over the last decade, companies invested heavily in technology, but that alone is not the solution. In today’s hyper-commoditized world, brands need to design relationships that create differentiation and rel
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Top image: Kent Wertime