At this year’s IAB Bookmark Awards, Pete Case was recognised for ‘Best Individual Contribution to Digital’. While still chairman of Gloo@Ogilvy, he also wears the hat of chief creative officer at Ogilvy & Mather is ultimately the lead voice for the creative community across the group.
His affinity for all things digital is definitely shining through, with the agency walking away with a sparkly new ‘case’ of pencils, if you will, at the recent One Show Awards in New York, coming in as second best local group agency according to Creative Circle’s ranking based on their two silvers, one bronze and two merit awards received.
Here, Case lets us in on the importance of global inspiration and pervasive creativity….
He feels we have a few stand-out pieces on a global scale. “As a country our integrated work is progressive and we’re already playing regularly on the global field,” he says.
His accolade for 'Best Individual Contribution to Digital' from the IAB Bookmarks definitely stands him in good stead to comment. While Case points out that it’s fantastic to receive any recognition from your peers for your work, in this instance it’s even greater as it comes for his personal dedication to the industry. “History proves, however, that it’s rarely an individual that creates exponential feats of achievement or growth. Everything that I’ve achieved has been through surrounding myself with talented people, so it’s these people who are also recognised with this award,” includes Case.
They certainly do deserve recognition. At the end of 2015, Ogilvy released a highlights package of their highlights since joining forces with Gloo Digital Design, and the difference they've made by coming together:
2015 Year In Review from Ogilvy & Mather South Africa on Vimeo.
It’s fun, but more than that, effective. In addition, Case recently attended his first Ogilvy Cadre – the annual meeting of the best Ogilvy & Mather offices in the world. His main take-out was inspiration as there’s a lot of great work out there and it’s encouraging to see so much lateral thinking across the group. The fact that leaders can mix and openly share work in progress helps you see the shape of work across the globe and left him inspired to keep pushing harder, so you can be sure of future digital innovation from Case.
Case points out his role as chief creative officer at Ogilvy is often misunderstood as he also remains the chairman of Gloo@Ogilvy. So he plays an active role in culture as that’s what the business was built on, so was careful to nurture and retain that in the process of the merger. While that can lead to a state of disruption for some, Case confirms that the guidance of their strong leadership team means the process has been enjoyable and the work hasn’t suffered at all.
“If anything, last year was probably our best creative year thus far [at Gloo], with the business collecting the prestigious ‘Agency of the Year’ awards at Assegais and Financial Mail Annual AdFocus Awards, plus the only South African Grand Prix Award at Loeries,” says Case. Switching focus to Ogilvy & Mather SA, he explains it’s a large group of over 12 companies with a long history of creativity at its core that range from above-the-line agencies to shopper marketers, PR, retail, design and many other specialists. With their joint ambition to maintain the position as the most integrated agency group in South Africa at heart, Case’s role is to stimulate and grow creative culture, connecting and leading different specialists across the group to solve business problems for clients while ensuring they continuously move their creative agenda forward.
As proof of this, Ogilvy incorporates various digital businesses, including a ‘born in mobile’ offering, a digital media business and a customer engagement agency as well as the utterly impressive Ogilvy Customer Innovation Lab (click here if you think I’m exaggerating), which Case sums up as, “digital at heart, but also a lighthouse for the rest of the businesses”, as it infuses knowledge about the digitally enabled customer and the way they use technology directly into the thinking and briefs of teams across the group.
This links to Ogilvy’s ambition not to simply be content with what’s been achieved to date, but rather to question and to keep evolving their offering to help brands grow in today’s shifting media and technology landscape. Obviously technology tends to be central to that conversation, so while it hasn’t always been the norm, it makes sense to have a digitally-minded person like Case in the role.
With his 25-year career in design and advertising, spanning everything interactive films and TVCs, it’s little wonder he has received personal awards credits for creativity and effectiveness at everything from Cannes and the Emmys to Design Indaba Awards and Webbys.
Tying in with this award focus, Case feels the digital industry is on a very exciting journey and this is only the beginning. The work is starting to improve, but there’s a long way to go yet and plenty more space for growth.
Case calls this a real challenge, but an exciting space to be in with a large groundswell of positive change at Ogilvy and generally long overdue in the advertising industry – something clients are keen to benefit from.
“Ogilvy values all types of creativity, but we specially shine when a medium is absent from the brief,” says Case. This means the work created pushes the boundaries of traditional media silos, often blending media in very unusual ways.
Key among these unusual ways is that of pervasive creativity. A term coined by Ogilvy’s founder David Ogilvy, it’s referred to across everything they do. To Case personally, it means:
“Never giving up or resting on your laurels. Tenacity. Striving hard to push the many obstacles we encounter out of the way. When you invent and try to be the first at something, there are always plenty of naysayers. It’s key not to be limited by this attitude. Secondly, it’s about being creative beyond the creative department and as a full business. Looking at every situation from a new angle and trying to seek an opportunity through this approach. The idea that creativity remains only in the realm of the creative department is very limiting, and not accurate.”
Take note as creativity is indeed an opportunity for all aspects of business to flourish. Click here for more on Gloo@Ogilvy’s secrets of success, catch up on their latest company news in Ogilvy’s press office and keep an eye on their Twitter feed.
