Ogilvy South Africa

For our first industry profile in South Africa, I chose to look at Ogilvy, whose website can be visited here: http://www.ogilvy.co.za/.


Ogilvy South Africa's main theme is that of "liberation". With South Africa being a country that gained their independence not too long ago, Ogilvy thought that this would be a unifying theme for their work. I really like this approach. Ogilvy writes "Liberation is a philosophy that embraces how we lead, who we employ and the culture we aim to create. Liberation underlines our belief in the power of creative ideas to unshackle the potential of brands."
I think that this is a cool theme and I like the dual meaning of "liberation" for the South African people. 


A little background: Ogilvy was founded in 1949 by David Ogilvy and is now one of the biggest "mar-com" firms in the world, with 450 offices in over 120 countries. Personally, I was completely blind to the world of advertising agencies until recently, and I had no idea that one advertising agency had so much reach. 120 countries? That's impressive considering how many cultures and psychological perspectives that vary across the world that would affect how an ad was composed. Anyway, Ogilvy South Africa is the leading marketing communications firm in South Africa, and specializes in a variety of different areas including promotions, digital advertising, and CRM. They've got it covered.


Looking at the portfolio that is available online, it's clear that some of the biggest customers for Ogilvy South Africa are Volkswagen, KFC, and Cadbury. The company has multiple campaigns up for all three. I'll start with KFC's "Snax" campaign. Ogilvy outlined the following:

• Snacking on the go has become increasingly popular in today's busy world, particularly for the younger generation
• KFC needed to show that they understood the busy lifestyle of teens with their Snax product
• Snax: quick, portable meals that could be eaten on the go, making sure teens never missed anything important due to a meal

The main vehicle here was the "Live on the Run" commercial that Ogilvy made. Here's the link http://www.ogilvy.co.za/our-work/kfc-snax/. The commercial basically focuses on two young adults: a male and a female, who are shown running around town to convey their fast-pace lifestyle. Our characters are then shown running into a KFC and emerging with the Snax, and then meeting up and making out. I think the commercial was effective in the sense that it spoke to young adults in terms of an active lifestyle. The two meeting at the end as a couple elicited feelings of how people still try to make time for their significant other in their daily lives, and I enjoyed the constant jogging of the characters that conveyed how they were literally running through their lives.
-Dave Larmann