Ogilvy & Mather Cape Town racks up R750 000 in Times Creative Ad Challenge

Ogilvy & Mather Cape Town MD Luca Gallarelli believes it is “essential to deliver for clients in a really agile way on two tracks – quick turnaround and slower-burn crafted creative”.

“The agency needs to stay fully at speed on anything current which might provide an opportunity or a threat for a brand, we should have the ability to take gaps within an hour and be aware of any news, trends, social memes or even bad jokes which are, however fleetingly, playing out in a big way in the minds of consumers”, he adds.

Ogilvy’s innovation has been to establish the Newsroom which is housed within Ogilvy Public Relations but is designed to drive benefits right across the agency. According to Gallarelli, “OPR is the best place for it to live given the existing media skills and the fast turnaround environment."

The Newsroom, led by OPR’s creative director Dan Nash, combines journalists, researchers and copywriters into a connected group which constantly monitors news and trends and exchanges ideas.

The concept got huge validation from the agency’s performance in The Times Challenge during May 2015 in which the newspaper offered one free page for the best news-related tactical ad of each weekday for a month (along with a free Loeries entry for the execution).

O&M CT won this daily challenge eight times for eight different brands, and took out the award for best overall ad, to a total bonus media value for its clients of R750 000.

Nash said The Times Challenge was “the perfect focus to prove the Newsroom’s dexterity”, adding that the outcome wasn’t just the winning print ads but also “a range of tactical news-related posts and other ideas which had legs for later campaigns, and the process also enabled us to get some clients into a rhythm of fast-tracking approval for tactical copy”.

The overall winner of The Times Challenge was an O&M CT ad for Chappies which responded to the news of the British royal birth in the format of the brand’s famed ‘Did You Know’ wrapper.

For more information, visit the Ogilvy website or connect with the agency via Twitter.