Good news for Ogilvy staffers: your long-awaited raises have arrived! Or so we hear.
According to a party with knowledge of the matter, pay bumps for some of the many, many employees in the agency’s offices across the U.S. took effect September 1. So you can stop posting about it on Fishbowl.
That point aside, the WPP shop has been through its share of changes in recent weeks, most prominently losing two executives: worldwide managing partner Alvaro Cabrera Egana and senior partner, head of U.S. new business Simone Oppenheimer.
Oppenheimer left to become the first-ever CMO of Magnetic; the conditions of Egana’s departure are unclear at this time.
You may have noticed several executives leaving the organization this summer as the agency unveiled its Ogilvy 2.0 rebranding. Michael Dobak, CEO of the South and West regions, left for a blockchain company in June and former Chicago chairman and CEO Jack Rooney departed in July for a fintech company.
These sorts of developments are standard practice for an agency the size of Ogilvy’s, though we hear there was truth to the rumor that its North American team went through a long dry spell with no significant new business wins. Speaking for the trade press, we haven’t heard about an incoming account since last year, when the agency picked up Cisco and made that Peter Dinklage spot.
That said, sources tell us that Ogilvy has expanded its remit with existing clients, won some new assignments from others who don’t usually PR the work, and hired a couple of dozen mid-level staff members over the summer. And then of course there are the raises.
Ogilvy declined to comment beyond confirming the departures of Egana and Oppenheimer, which a spokesperson described as part of an ongoing adaptation to serve its evolving portfolio.