Ogilvy & Mather China announces the restructuring of its Beijing office

Reporter | Ma Yue

Edit | Ya Han Xiang

Many international 4A companies have continued to be in the process of self-transformation in recent years. Ogilvy China announced on January 6 that Ogilvy China has adjusted its operations in Beijing, following Ogilvy Global's announcement of its organizational structure around five core businesses: growth and innovation, advertising, consumer experience, public relations and health.

Under the optimized structure, the office will be combined around these five core businesses to further enhance the skills of the team and provide professional services to customers. The heads of the Chinese market have been appointed in each of the five core businesses, and there will be teams of individual professionals in each office to support the growth of each core business as well as client-facing services.

In addition, depending on the customer project with integrated marketing needs, experts from different business units will support the integrated service team.

In fact, the restructuring of Ogilvy China's Beijing office is related to the adjustment of the "one Ogilvy" strategy in the early years.

In early 2017, former Ogilvy global chairman and CEO John Seifert proposed a "One Ogilvy" reform plan, in which all subsidiaries of the Ogilvy Group – Ogilvy Advertising, Ogilvy PR, Ogilvy Interactive, etc. – would be merged into a single "Ogilvy" to operate.

We have reported that this is like an elephant turning around, for a behemoth of Ogilvy, the adjustment of organizational structure, the opening of internal resources, the collision and run-in of different ways of working of advertisers and public relations people, and the most critical redistribution of interests, Ogilvy's industry and employees have experienced more turmoil and uncertainty than imagined.

But right now, Ogilvy & Mather China is also rethinking how its organizational structure and development direction should be more adapted to the times and changes in the Chinese market.

In June 2020, Andy Main succeeded SuTenfeng as the company's new global CEO. The new head of the consultancy has put a new focus on Ogilvy, with a greater emphasis on brand consultancy and digital transformation.

Song Chiming, Chairman of Ogilvy Greater China, also reflected on the previous "One Ogilvy" strategy. In his view, the landing of "one Ogilvy" in China will make the autonomy and subjectivity of different professions disappear. As a result of the implementation of this strategy, Ogilvy has lost its focus on depth and professionalism, on growth, on certain areas of business that require investment.

"The biggest harm is the gradual weakening of different professions, both internally and externally, especially for public relations. I think internally it can be integrated into 'one Ogilvy', but externally it can still retain Ogilvy advertising, Ogilvy PR, Ogilvy interaction and experience. Because Ogilvy advertising is still the largest source of business, everyone is inclined to brand advertising, and their original professions are abandoned. Song Zhiming told Interface News in an interview.

From this point of view, Ogilvy China's adjustment of the beijing office structure is to re-elevate "professionalism" to a more important position.

"We will provide our customers with the best of both worlds solutions with a highly integrated service formed by a deeply professional and agile team organization, while tailoring the corresponding services for each project." Chris Reitermann, CEO of Ogilvy Asia and Greater China, said, "The restructuring of our Beijing office is another important milestone in our transformation. ”

Along with the new structural changes, Ogilvy China has also announced executive changes and appointments.

Teng Lihua, president of Ogilvy Beijing, is leaving office. Yanyan Yang, a former chief creative expert at Tencent Advertising, has returned to Ogilvy and was appointed Executive Creative Director of Ogilvy & Mather Beijing, where she has expertise in digital platforms and data. Sun Chang, who was previously in charge of agency relations at ByteDance, was appointed vice president of Ogilvy's Beijing platform.