WPP sets up O&M global data agency

WPP has come good on its promise to boost its £10bn-plus data marketing revenues by launching what it describes as a “global centre of data excellence” at Ogilvy & Mather after hiring its first chief data officer last year.
OgilvyAmp will have a team of more than 300 data and analytics professionals across the network, and will work with WPP’s Data Alliance division, which includes Wunderman-owned KBM, GroupM, Kantar, and WPP Digital.
The initiative will be led by former Acxiom boss Todd Cullen, who was appointed chief data officer in August 2013. At the time he said: “The approach here is not so much can they build a data and analytics capability; the difference here is the opportunity to scale it globally.” Cullen has already appointed Mark Donatelli as global head of data strategy; Brady Gadberry as global head of product development; and Tom Hutchison as global head of data management technology.
More than 25% of WPP’s annual income already comes from what boss Sir Martin Sorrell calls “data investment management” for clients.
OgilvyAmp will evaluate clients’ current enterprise data capabilities and investments as part of their customer engagement strategy; provide advanced client-specific analytics to address customer insight, segmentation, and measurement; and offer data management technology. Clients will also be able to use the agency’s proprietary product design development methodology, tools and frameworks.
Commenting on the launch, Miles Young, worldwide chairman and chief executive of Ogilvy & Mather, said: “When I appointed Todd Cullen last year, the idea was to create an innovative data offering, which makes data really useful – and less distracting – for clients. OgilvyAmp is the means by which we will make that idea a reality.”
O&M’s love affair with direct and data-driven marketing is legendary; co-founder and industry godfather David Ogilvy once said: “The chasm between direct-response advertising and general advertising is wide. On the (DM) side of the chasm is knowledge and reality; on the other side I see ignorance. You are the professionals. You have it within your power to rescue the advertising industry from its manifold lunacies.”