With various vacant positions as account executives, project managers, data analysts and account managers, any candidate looking to join Ogilvy & Mather, one of the leading publicity, marketing and public relations agencies in the world, must have creativity, curiosity and teamwork. This was one of the insights shared on Tuesday 7th March at the Madrid Campus of EAE Business School.
Victoria Rodríguez, the Director of Human Resources of the Ogilvy Group in Spain, Rubén Contreras, a Talent Management Specialist at Ogilvy & Mather, and Javier Martín, Team Manager at Ogilvy Healthworld, were given the task of present the agency to the students during the second edition of EAE's Talent Week. As well as the conference itself, any participants interested has the opportunity to demonstrate their abilities in the performance of two case-study activities.
"We have presented our company at a national and international, placing a particular emphasis on our values and the profiles that we are looking for", explained the Director of Human Resources. In particular, their visit was aimed at students taking the Master in Corporate Communication Management and the Master in Business Intelligence, focusing as such on the business areas of corporate communication and digital strategy, respectively.
The Big IdealTM is Ogilvy's philosophy with respect to how brands can prosper nowadays. As Victoría Rodríguez explained, it originates from "analysing our successes and the brands that we admire, when we realized that they all shared a common ideal at their essence, a perspective on how the world should be, along with an idea that helped to reach it". In relation to this concept, they discussed eight characteristics that form the foundation of the company: courage, idealism, curiosity, happiness, simplicity, intuition, freedom and persistence.
Closely intertwined with these characteristics, there are the key competences required to be part of the agency. "We want our company to be the place where creativity is developed", explained the Director of Human Resources at the start, "where the improbable is achieved, where people are inspiring and where curiosity never ends". Of course, this is all underpinned by teamwork creating an excellent atmosphere as the starting point of a professional career at Ogilvy.
Victoria advised students to pay attention to the company's LinkedIn page, as well as Ogilvy's website, where most of the vacant positions are advertised, both in terms of employment positions and internships. In particular for these new recruits, Victoria highlighted the fact that Ogilvy will give them "the start to their professional career at the forefront of the communication and advertising sector, in an excellent working environment in which you are constantly learning and where hard work is rewarded".
Ogilvy & Mathers has offices in Madrid and Barcelona at a national level, but it is a multinational company in which the motivational phrases of David Ogilvy, the agency's founder, inspire each of the employees. In relation to the future of advertising, Victoria explained that "it is focused on the consumer, who is the last step on the ladder and who decides what they will take, what they will buy and what they won't". They always say that the content is king, a statement that is very current at the moment and which Victoría predicts will hold true in the future, "although the consumer is and will be the king". In addition, she highlighted the multitude of channels available to reach, segment and focus the messages. "These multiple possibilities are a tricky challenge, as we have to be able to create suitable content for each occasion. We will keep working hard to make people fall in love with our campaigns".
At the end of the presentation, Victoria Rodríguez underlined Ogilvy's clear and solid intention to be committed to young talent, with induction and training programs within the company and treating new recruits as another member of the team. Initiatives such as Talent Week promote this closer relationship between students and companies. "They are crucial for us to position ourselves as an attractive employer brand", added the Director of Human Resources of the Ogilvy Group in Spain.
