Have things changed dramatically since you started in marketing 17 years ago?

Hugely. There was little exploration of other media. The next 17
years will see the pace of change move even faster. Things will be
unrecognisable from where we are today.

Is advertising more competitive than ever?

The real competition is happening in the minds of the consumer.
That's the issue. Keeping up with the pace of change is a challenge.
They're choosing what they listen to, watch and read and when they go
into dialogue with you.

It's no longer possible to stand in the treetops and loudly shout
your message. Mass media targeting as we've known is no longer. We see
where word of mouth has taken over and the way people consume digital
and text messaging.

Social responsibility has become more mainstream and we must adapt
to the new model. The pace of communication has become faster and you
must build relationships on a more intimate basis. Content has
re-emerged as a powerful tool.

Traditional media must evolve as changes come faster. There's a
prediction in Ogilvy that by 2020 over half of our revenue will come
from non-traditional media.

Is there more pressure on agency margins?

Yes, there's certainly more pressure on agency margins. Gone are the
days when you had lots of people working on any number of things.
There's a clear responsibility and people work harder, well certainly
more efficiently – and that's helped by technology.

We have the internet and telephone conference. Working
internationally a great deal, I dip into the Ogilvy network and you get
shared learning or even borrow a team. You can ring people at short
notice to get their help and support on issues or a client problem.

Commission or fees?

Both. Some 70 per cent of our business is local, the rest is from
our multinational clients. We adapt the work, which may originate in
London, New York or Germany. But we also do a lot of local campaigns
for Ford and Lucozade ('Teddy Bears' and 'Zombies').

For Unilever, we're running the Dove 'Real Beauty' campaign, which
has been incredibly successful internationally and which we adapted for
the Irish makret.

Are clients pulling back on budgets?

Not so much pulling back, more on the way on they spread their
budgets over different more areas. You're probably doing a lot more
with less.

Do you always push a client towards advertising?

Not at all. Ogilvy has lots of capabilities, be it promotions, PR
and so on. You go into meetings in a media neutral way. You look at the
marketing challenge before you. The answer is not always advertising,
it might be POS or any number of other things.

What defines a good campaign?

It's one where we achieve the challenge the client lays down for us.
Often it's measured by how you've transformed consumer behaviour and
how they interact with the brand.

Should IAPI make more effort to limit pitch lists?

Yes, it should a top priority for IAPI. Since starting this job in
Ireland, I've been stunned at the number of pitches that have six,
seven and eight agencies going to full pitch and then you might have
say four agencies on the shortlist. It's unbelievable.

The cost of that… you could spend upwards of €100,000 on a pitch.
Some pitches have to go for to grow their business. But to have four or
five going to such a deep level of creative development, without any
promise of success out of that is very tough.

I'd love to see us being more disciplined in how we approach a
pitch. We should devise an approach through IAPI where you have a final
two agencies.

Should there be a pitch fee charged, apart from the agency that wins?

There's no problem for the first credentials, it's like a business
card; it's who we are and what we do. But once a client asks you to
solve their business problems, yes we should be asking for a fee. But
one agency can't do it alone, it must be an industry effort.

Are there clients out there trawling for ideas, with no intention of changing agency?

I've heard that that's the case, but I haven't experienced it myself.

Have you ever resigned an account?

I have but I'd be reluctant to talk about that.

What do you think of awards?

Well, the AdFx are fantastic. Bulmers/Magners (Young Euro RSCG)
deserved the top award. We won awards for Deep RiverRock and Kerry
Foods. It's a great aspiration.

You see a lot of people going for the creative awards, particularly
internationally. In the end, they don't mean much if they don't help
the brand perform better in the market.

How does Ireland compare with creative standards overseas?

My benchmark would be O&M overseas. They have superb work and if
you want to rate things, that's where you go. But there's some very
good work here. Aside from the campaigns we've done for Lucozade, I
rate the Guinness work, Bulmers, McDonald's recruitment and the first
wave of the RaboDirect work.

Internationally, the Sony Bravia work by Fallon is world-class, I
absolutely love it. BBDO have done great work for Whiskas. They've
really got under the skin of cat owners and they've hot on something
strong there. The M&S food campaigns are outstanding.

Would O&M work for a political party?

Yes. We've worked with political parties before, in situations where
we can add value and where our values are aligned. Political
advertising works to different rules than traditional brand
communication. There are opportunities for political parties to embrace
advertising beyond the telegraph pole poster and the election slogan.

Does O&M outsource much work?

I'd say 95 per cent of the work is done in here. There have been
times when we've been really, really busy on projects and rather than
miss deadlines we'll give work out to freelance creatives or whoever.

Is there an over-emphasis on lifestyle campaigns?

Emotional bonding is important. Sometimes a bonding campaign may not
be rooted in a product message. When you can combine the two, it's
magic.

Why are there so few women at the top in Irish advertising?

I don't honestly know. It's not unique to Ireland. Our worldwide
chief executive is Shelly Lazarus – my ultimate role model – but there
are few women at the helm of large agencies. Perhaps at some point in
their career women think 'that's enough' and they don't go any further.

How big is Ogilvy in Ireland today?

We've group sales of €30 million, as well as being a 50 per cent
shareholder in Mindshare, which has a turnover of over €100m. In
future, our business won't be about turnover, it's become a misleading
success indicator. Like other professional service firms, revenue and
size (the group employs 130 staff) are the real indicators and taking
these, we believe we're in the top three communications groups. We're
restricted by PLC guidelines in being more specific than that.

Are there too many agencies in Dublin?

No.

Is there a possibility that WPP might acquire more local agencies?

That could happen but I don't know as I'm not party to that.

Do you have a strong interest in research?

Yes, most certainly. That's where it all starts, doesn't it?

As a brand, how would you describe O&M?

It was David Ogilvy who said O&M makes ads that sell.
Advertising has evolved and it's now about communication. We offer
clients business solutions and it's not just about creative for
creative's sake. We partner clients to achieve business solutions.

Do you work closely with O&M London?

Yes, I head up a global team on Toblerone (Kraft Foods) in the UK.
There's a team working there but I'd still be responsible ultimately
for what they do.

Are there gaps in your client portfolio you'd like to fill?

Last year O&M grew 10 per cent and this year we must accelerate
this rate. Much of the growth will come from existing clients, as we
want to grow the business organically. If we pitch for new business,
we've got to be very selective.

Pitching is unbelievable it that it's resource consuming,
financially and people-wise. It uses up a lot of energy in the agency.
You have to add it on to your normal day-to-day work, so it's done at
weekends and nights and it's just daunting.

It's the nature of the business that you have to pitch – but you
don't have to go for everything. Play to win. We've been turning down
more pitches than ever lately. We didn't re-pitch for Meas because we
didn't have the time to do the brief justice.

Where's there scope in the market generally?

There's a lot of opportunity in retail. You know that last mile
with consumers and how you convert that to a sale or a behaviour.
There's ground for development there.

How do you manage stress?

I try not to take myself too seriously, eat properly, exercise and
get a good night's sleep. Lots of laughter too. I'm not a workaholic. I
have a balanced life, with two young children there's little choice!

Would you ever consider starting up your own agency?

That's not on the cards now (smiling).