Gentle manners and hard work. And ladies and gentlemen with brains. Just a few words of wisdom passed down by Ogilvy’s founding father, David Ogilvy, to describe the agency’s corporate culture.

Those sentiments extend throughout the organization, according to Guy Stevenson, managing director of OgilvyOne Toronto. ‘It really is about marrying together a civil approach to our people and business and clients, along with a commitment to the best brains and the best solutions.’

For OgilvyOne and OgilvyInteractive, 2002 was characterized by global initiatives and several industry ‘firsts,’ not to mention award-wins, including a Cannes Cyber Lion (for the second year in a row), a Caples and several RSVPs.

Its strong and consistent work for the likes of AIG, American Express AIR MILES Credit Card, and FedEx SuperBox 2002 has also garnered it runner-up position in Strategy Direct+Interactive’s Direct Agency of the Year 2002.

While the OgilvyOne and OgilvyInteractive maintain separate names and operational distinctions (including, two creative and production departments), Don Barnes, managing director of OgilvyInteractive, says it’s difficult to find a ‘line’ between the two – ‘we work as a team.’

‘We’ve structured ourselves so that we have client team leaders that are totally integrated and that will lead an account regardless of whether it’s online or offline marketing we are doing for them,’ says Stevenson. ‘That’s a competitive advantage in that we can come to the table with a seamless integrated solution, because we’ve got people who are experts at both disciplines. It means we come to the table with media-neutral solutions.’

For its part, OgilvyInteractive beat out U.S. competitors to develop the new Web site for Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City. And it boasts being the first Canadian agency to launch a convergence-marketing program for high-tech client IloveTV. The duo rolled out a Web/TV synchrocast for BangTV that brought together advertising and direct sales opportunities with TV and Web programming.

‘There’s no question most of the Canadian stations are waiting to see what the big U.S. stations do. But there are a number of projects that are about to launch in Canada. If we start using these technologies now, we are going to understand how to build the marketing communication model for a truly digital world. That’s what I’m excited about in TV opportunity,’ says Barnes.

On the interactive side, he says the majority of the work (80%) right now is site development, including CRM integration work, with the remaining 20% comprised of media-related activities like banner ads and e-mails.

CRM, in fact, is core to the organization as a whole and speaks to its principle to provide end-to-end solutions. Nestle is a prime example, says Stevenson.

Another first for the agency was the global launch of the Nestlé Food Services Web site. Designed to build brand loyalty, equity and awareness around the globe, the agency built a framework for CRM, marketing communications and e-commerce. So far the U.S., German and Malaysian Nestlé Food Services sites – all managed out of Toronto – have been launched. The Toronto team is currently working on 14 more sites that will launch imminently. (The work also led to an offline assignment for OgilvyOne and a database integration project for OgilvyInteractive, both for Nestlé Food Services U.S. In Canada, OgilvyOne has also been signed on to develop a CRM assignment for consumer marketing for Nestlé Canada.)

‘It [CRM] is now something [Nestlé] lives and breathes,’ says Barnes. ‘What we are finding is that client’s expectations have changed – in terms of what CRM really is and how you make programs work. People are starting to understand how you truly measure CRM.’

In its efforts to further measure performance, OgilvyOne purchased a company called QCI and its tool CMAT – Customer management assessment toolkit – which allows the agency to benchmark a client’s performance in relation to other players in the same category. Ogilvy’s proprietary Loyalty Index also measures the financial impact of building emotional equity or bonding with a brand.

OgilvyOne has seen tremendous growth in DRTV, DR print, and online. While 10 years ago the majority of work was probably in direct mail, at least 50% of OgilvyOne’s work is now outside of direct mail, says Stevenson.

OgilvyOne Toronto was the first market globally to launch the new American Express Tiger Woods card, which included a fully integrated campaign featuring a one-month media domination of Union Station. And it also re-branded Norwich Union after their global takeover by AIG – the integrated, multimedia rebranding effort resulted in increased performance.

While it lost the Ontario Hydro Energy Corporation this spring, due to the deregulation of the electricity market, the agency won other new business, including the assignment to promote Royal Bank of Canada’s online banking site. One of the greatest milestones, according to Stevenson, was being chosen as AOR for Cogeco – a $10-million account.

‘CRM and acquisition were core to this strategy. OgilvyOne became the lead, with planning and brand stewardship led by the main advertising agency. We brought the right solutions that went across disciplines,’ adds Barnes.