[Secrets of Success] Gloo@Ogilvy - A merger for future growth

It's an amazing achievement given that the agency is only a year old. Gloo@Ogilvy was born out of a merger between Gloo and OgilvyOne, and is the success story of a "merger of minds" and what the legendary David Ogilvy termed "divine discontent".

This partnership of the very successful, award-winning local agency Gloo, and the equally successful global OgilvyOne was based on a shared vision for the future. "It was the combined strengths of OgilvyOne as a leading customer engagement agency with Gloo digital design - a leading digital agency. We recognised that both skill sets are required to service progressive and class-leading digital customer engagement requirements," explains Ben Evans, managing director: digital portfolio.

According to Pete Case, chief creative officer: Ogilvy South Africa group and chairman - Gloo Digital Design: "This was never an acquisition by OgilvyOne, with the intent of Gloo selling out, but rather a merger to produce great integrated work."

Holy grail

This they have achieved in a very short space of time. Their relentless focus since the merger has been on clients, staff and truly integrated work that is being described as the "holy grail" by clients.

The combined agency won a host of new client business including PEP, Capfin, Barloworld, Skip (Unilever), Gumtree, Nestle, Coca-Cola, Virgin Active and Canderel, whilst also expending its remit on key clients such as KFC, BP and Viacom.

Gloo@Ogilvy had an unprecedented year of success at the award shows, winning more than any other South African digital agency at the Assegais, Bookmarks, Loeries (securing the only South African Grand Prix) and Apex awards. They were also the only South African digital agency to win at Cannes, picking up the Effective Digital Marketing Award.

Beyond creative and effectiveness awards, Gloo@Ogilvy won recognition as the Best Performing Agency at the Bookmarks and was announced as Agency of the Year at the Assegais, in addition to winning Digital Agency of the Year at the AdFocus awards.

Knowledge and technology

They have achieved all this by consistently leveraging creative ideas, knowledge, data, content and technology to help their clients win more customers and unlock total customer value.

The agency's leadership team has also been busy building new capabilities that aim to set them up for the future.

Gloo@Ogilvy continues to develop their people and culture through the Ogilvy Digital Marketing Academy, which has been a major force in growing knowledge within their own teams and with clients

As technology continues to evolve, the agency recognises that increasingly the ability to leverage data is becoming a key enabler for their business as well as their clients' business, and to that end have launched their data planning and analytics practice.

In addition, their Customer Innovation Lab, a working space where emerging technologies are used to inspire and create new work, is being launched to the external market in this year. This facility contains customer insight and UX testing facilities and will expose young South African startups to established client brands.

In terms of supporting the wider community, Gloo@Ogilvy has invested in Codex, an organisation that's helping grow the next generation of technical developers in Africa.

It is this ongoing drive for "divine discontent", collaboration and striving for excellence that resulted in them being awarded Digital Agency of the year and promises to drive even further growth.

For more on Gloo@Ogilvy, follow them on Twitter or visit the Ogloovy website.