New York: Ogilvy & Mather has announced the new position of Worldwide Head of Strategy Integration with the hire of Ben Richards, formerly Director of Strategic Services at Naked Communications. In this new role, Mr. Richards will report to Global CEO Miles Young and Joint Worldwide Planning Directors Colin Mitchell and John Shaw.
This new role further expands the agency’s growing strategic and consulting capabilities and follows a series of high level executive moves Mr. Young has made in this area.
“Too often much of what is described as ‘integration’ in the communications business is a very superficial and flimsy thing. We have evolved a business model which provides ‘deep integration’ between the worlds of advertising, DM, PR and activation. Ben’s appointment will help take us to the next level of this, rooting our solutions in the business needs which sometimes get lost in traditional briefs,” explained Mr. Young.
In his new role, Mr. Richards will catalyze the growing shift in the agency’s output towards cross-discipline strategies, and will focus primarily on the agency’s multinational client base.
“Our clients tell us that their most pressing problem is how to piece together all the shiny options they are faced with into a coherent plan that actually solves the business problem,” explained Colin Mitchell, of the need for this new practice area. “They are surrounded by specialist advisors who all claim that the answer is more of what they happen to sell. The result often disappoints.”
Mr. Richards started his career as a management consultant. He has worked at Naked since 2003 and was a principal architect of the tools and processes that grew Naked into the world’s largest pure communications strategy agency. He has led Naked assignments in London, Tokyo and New York including winning and running, Naked’s largest integrated strategy account — Kimberly-Clark. He’s also worked on such brands as Sony, Virgin, Unilever, Boots and Coca-Cola.
In commenting on his move to Ogilvy & Mather, Mr. Richards said, “I’m proud of what we achieved at Naked, but, as the industry matures, this is a very logical next step for me. I chose Ogilvy because it seemed to me by far the most integrated of the agencies, and also the one that most embraces the need to change.”