Advertising giant Ogilvy undergoes global rebrand and “re-founding” by design agency Collins

International advertising agency Ogilvy has rebranded, working with design agency Collins to redesign its logo, fonts, website and entire visual system, as well as “re-founding” in a synchronised global campaign. This event launches the advertising giant’s internal restructure, as the company has unified its collection of sub-brands to bring all its agencies under the Ogilvy Group umbrella.

Unveiled in The Wall Street Journal, the rebrand is the result of two years work under the company’s chief executive John Siefert, appointed to the role in 2016 having joined in 1979 as a summer intern. “We needed to greatly simplify the organisation around what I call an integrated enterprise agenda, not a holding company of all these different piece-parts,” Seifert tells WSJ, saying its mission statement is “making brands matter”.

Designed in a collaboration between the ad agency and Collins, a self-penned “independent brand experience design company”, the new logo ditches the “& Mather” part of its name, simplifying the logo to a single word, with subtle tweaks to its wordmark including a bolder, re-cut typeface and joined-up details between the “i” and “l”, and “v” and y”. The visual identity and design system maintains Ogilvy Red as its core colour and features the re-cut and customised fonts Ogilvy Serif and Ogilvy Sans. Lauren Crampsie, chief marketing officer for the agency, commented on Twitter that the branding represents “the agility, collaboration and creative connectedness” it wants to be known for.

As part of its repositioning, Ogilvy also released a short video comparing its adjustment of language and attitude since its founding 70 years prior, showing “before and after” mantras for the agency. For example, it shows one phrase “We sell. Or Else.” alongside its contemporary approach, “We change. Or else.”. It also replaces “Creative department” with “Creative network”; and “The consumer isn’t a moron. She is your wife.” with “She is your boss”. The latter alludes to its intentions to increase the gender pay gap at the agency and promote more women to partner. Seifert says 36% of its executive partners are women, currently, but in the next two years that will be 50%.

The @Ogilvy fonts have also been recut and customized as Ogilvy Serif and Ogilvy Sans. #NextChapter #MakeBrandsMatter pic.twitter.com/mj7eOUXIgt

— Ogilvy (@Ogilvy) 5 June 2018