- Andrew McMains

Ogilvy & Mather, seeking to better coordinate brand messages across multiple communications channels, has added Naked's Ben Richards in the new position of worldwide head of strategic integration.

Richards, 30, previously was director of strategic services at Naked in New York, where he spent the past 3 1/2 years. Before that, he worked in Naked's London office. Richards joined Naked in 2003.

At Ogilvy, Richards will work closely with multinational clients whose business spans multiple agency units. Such clients include IBM, Cisco, Unilever and Louis Vuitton. 

"Ben's appointment will help take us to the next level of [integration], rooting our solutions in the business needs [of clients], which sometimes get lost in traditional briefs," said worldwide CEO Miles Young, in a statement.

Without having a stake in any particular discipline, Richards in theory can offer clients advice based primarily on their business needs. As he put it, "Not every problem can be solved by what an agency specifically can produce."

Before Naked, Richards was a consultant at Meridian Productivity in Edinburgh, Scotland. His client experience includes Kimberly-Clark, Sony, Virgin, Unilever, Boots and Coca-Cola.

"What appealed to us," said Ogilvy joint worldwide planning director Colin Mitchell, "is he's used to coming into clients and helping them organize disparate agencies and groups . . . around a communications plan."

Separately, direct and digital marketing unit OgilvyOne has hired Euro RSCG's Phil Buehler in the new post of director of experience planning. At Havas' Euro, Buehler, 53, was chief market scientist. He started his new job Monday and reports to Mitchell.

Richards, who also started Monday, reports to Young, Mitchell and John Shaw, Ogilvy's other worldwide planning director.