Founded in 1835 in Paris, Havas is one of the world’s largest global communications groups, with nearly 23,000 people in over 100 countries. With the ambition to help brands unlock Growth, Powered by Desire, Havas brings together creativity, media, technology and production capabilities to build strong, desirable brands that people genuinely want to engage with. Its integrated model is supported by Converged.AI, the Group’s operating system that unifies data, technology and AI to deliver optimized, scalable marketing solutions across the full customer journey. AI-driven, fueled by human ingenuity, and grounded in the belief that desire drives both brand performance and business outcomes, Havas teams collaborate within Havas Villages worldwide to cultivate reputation, relevance and long‑term preference for clients. Havas is equally committed to its people, fostering inclusive, responsible and inspiring workplaces where talent can thrive, because desire also starts from within.
In 1948, David Ogilvy founded the agency that would become Ogilvy & Mather. Starting with no clients and a staff of two, he built his company into one of the eight largest advertising networks in the world with more than 500 offices and 20,000 staff across 169 cities.
Ogilvy South Africa’s origins lie with a small hot shop in Cape Town, founded by Bob Rightford, Brian Searle-Tripp and Roger Makin in 1976. After merging with Ogilvy in 1984, Ogilvy & Mather RS-TM dominated the local creative scene during the first decade and over the next twenty years was recognized as a brand-focused agency that acted with integrity.
During the 1990’s, Ogilvy South Africa soared creatively under the leadership of Robyn Putter (1950-2010), who eventually went on to become the global creative head of WPP.
Today, Ogilvy South Africa is the leader in the industry, focused on building and transforming brands. Employing more than 900 staff across three offices, Ogilvy remains true to David’s vision; we still see ourselves as a company that does more than ads and have proven that by maintaining our humility and an almost divine discontent at our past successes, we can do more than stay relevant. For more than 50 years, Ogilvy South Africa has created iconic advertising for clients such as KFC, VW, SAB, BP, DStv and Mondelez amongst others, and we continue to live by our founders credo of existing to “Make brands matter”.
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