Interview: Ogilvy chief executive Gary Leih

The chairman and chief executive of the Ogilvy Group oversees one of Canary Wharf's enduring success stories at its Cabot Square headquarters.

The recession has hit the advertising industry hard but Mr Leih, 50, believes the recession will see big changes in how business is done, both within and outside he industry.

He said: "It's going to be interesting with the financial meltdown because the fundamental relationship between financial institutions and consumers is changing.

"We do a lot of consumer research and the level of frustration and anger among the general public is coming through very strongly now.

"You are going to see some very interesting things in the next couple of years.

"We tell our clients it's not good enough to have a big idea anymore, you need a big ideal.

"More and more people want to see you doing good in the world, as opposed to simply transacting.

"Consumers really want to feel that you are a good company. 10 years ago, if it made five per cent of the purchase decision that was a lot. It's a hell of a lot more now."

And Ogilvy was in on the start of the change with its memorable campaign for Dove beauty products.

"We got quite famous internationally for doing work for Dove," said Mr Leih.

"The idea came out of London, where one of our senior planning people stumbled on a fact that only two per cent of women believe they are truly beautiful.

"And over 90 per cent of women feel worse about themselves when they have read a woman's magazine than before, yet they keep buying them

"The beauty industry stereotype of what is beauty is almost impossible because of all the retouching.

"So we came up with this campaign. The idea was to make this about real women. The effect was incredible. The take-up was phenomenal. I think it did something good.

"At the same time the client, Unilever, agreed to sponsor a thing called the Dove Self-Esteem Fund and a website was set up. People with self-esteem issues could go to the website.

"We have enormous power in our hands in terms of the size and the volume of the media that we buy out there, that gets bought on behalf of our clients and there is good that can be done.

"We're moving into an age now where you need to be seen to be putting something back. It's no good just taking.

Despite its strength and history Ogilvy has not been immune from the effects of the financial storm.

"The last 12 months have been very challenging," said Mr Leih.

"We're the biggest employer in the industry in the UK with 1,300 people, 800 of them in Canary Wharf.

"We had to let about 60 people go in January. It was awful. Letting people go is terrible because there are no jobs to go to.

"You are really putting them on the street because the industry is having a tough time. The only good thing is so far we've been able to protect the majority of our people.

"We've been very lucky. We've got more Fortune 500 clients than any other ad agency.

"Across the group we've got over 200 clients, and we're fortunate having clients like Ford, BT, Unilever and British Airways - established brands who behave quite responsibly, even in tough times, because they understand they need to protect their brands."

The structure of Ogilvy, which has 12 companies offering the complete range of services from advertising to marketing to production, is key to its strength.

Mr Leih said: "What we do as a 360 degree, integrated marketing model is coming back into fashion. It's like a one-stop shop.

"We're getting a lot of tenders now, where clients of other agencies are talking to us about consolidating their business with us.

"Typically they might have three or four agencies for different fields like PR and sales promotion, so they pay for a lot of duplication.

As times get tougher we're seen as quite a blue-chip business because of the client base and because we've been around as long as we have."

Ogilvy also has the advantage of being able to produce adverts in-house with its state-of-the-art digital facilities, and Mr Leih believes this helps them stay ahead of the game.

He said: "Digital is the platform for the entire industry now. So much of it is two-way. We used to broadcast but now it's broadcast and take-in, broadcast and take-in, and modify. It's a constant.

"The days of being able to go to clients and saying 'here's you television commercial and your three print ads, see you next year' are so long gone.

"Yet there are still agencies that try to work that way and they are the ones that are starting to suffer."

Mr Leih began his advertising career with Ogilvy in his native South Africa almost 30 years ago and he believes it is still the most exciting business to work in.

He said: "I absolutely love what I do. I still can't believe we get paid for it. It's a wonderful business to be in.

"The great thing about it is when you're young you are surrounded by young people and as you age through the businesses it's wonderful because you are still surrounded by young people.

"And you don't just work with people here, you mix with them socially. You spend so much time together, it's a lifestyle rather than a job. There's a very strong sense of family at Ogilvy."

Those employees will see some big changes in the industry, and Mr Leih still believes there is a place for advertising despite the advent of multi-media and easier access to global communication for all.

He said: "The industry is changing and at a rate faster now than I've seen it change in 30 years.

"But I think that's good. It's exciting, it's challenging.

"For the last 30 years people have been saying the ad industry is prehistoric, but it just changes.

"We are quite a leading indicator of things. What I'm finding a little bit, starting to feed the optimism in our industry, is things are not that bad.

"It's tough, but it's a hell of a lot tougher in a whole bunch of other industries. I don't think there's anyone who's not having a tough time but we're holding up quite well, touch wood."

Does Mr Leih have a dream client he'd like to get?

"I'm a great lover of wine and I'd like to get a couple of wine brands into the agency," he said.

"Countries as brands is a really interesting thing to do. We do South African tourism, which I'm very pleased about, but I'd like more.

"And I hope we will be involved in the Olympic Games in some shape or form. I worked on that in Sydney and it was an amazing thing to work on."