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Anny Mouton, Mathews Hamutenya, Rozanne van der Merwe – the faces behind Ogilvy’s renewed vigour

Anny Mouton, Mathews Hamutenya, Rozanne van der Merwe – the faces behind Ogilvy’s renewed vigour

“We live in times of great change, tough economies, digital revolutions and many other small but consistent changes in our daily environment. A company in 2018 that can not embrace change will most definitely fail,” said the doyen of Namibian advertising, Anny Mouton, when she unveiled the new fit and lean Ogilvy advertising agency at a rambunctious launch last week.

Taking her cue from her colleague, Ogilvy Managing Director, Rozanne van der Merwe, said, “We knew that in order for Ogilvy Namibia to outlast and evolve even more, we had to relook the way we’ve been operating for the last 22 years. We introduced our internal strategy for the year: “Adapt or Die”. With our new business model in place since January 2018, I am also happy to announce that we exceeded targets.”

Ogilvy Namibia followed the lead of the international Ogilvy advertising group to which they are affiliated when the latter, previously known as Ogilvy & Mather, announced that it will now trade only as Ogilvy. The advertising network is operational in 27 sub-Sahara African countries.

New shareholder and Executive Director, Mathews Hamutenya, said “While exploring the opportunity to invest in Ogilvy I was impressed by the creativity of the team, their impressive client base, the leadership shown by their senior management and the robustness of the company even during these difficult economic times.”

“Ogilvy proved itself by doing exceptionally well the past financial year building on its reputation as a force to be reckoned with in the advertising industry and pro-actively repositioning itself in a dynamic changing marketing environment,” he said.

Mouton echoed the changes their industry faces, saying “Traditional advertising agency functions could no longer sustain our business and the changes in our environment. We moved our entire creative team on a freelance retainer and started exploring the options of working with the best of breed, all over the world. In line with the Ogilvy philosophy of “Twin Peaks” we are now driving creativity with a new vigour while delivering effectively against the brand objectives.”

Hamutenya splendidly captured the Ogilvy team’s new excitement when he said “I am proud and excited to become part of Ogilvy. For my company, Millennium MultiMedia, to become a shareholder of Ogilvy Namibia is a well-suited match. I believe that the positioning of the Millennium Group and brand in the Namibian market will add substantial value to Ogilvy and will open the doors for new opportunities. I look forward to my role as a director of Ogilvy, to become familiar with the advertising and marketing industry and with our clients and to participate in and contribute to the growth of this splendid company.”


 

About The Author

Mandisa Rasmeni

Mandisa Rasmeni has worked as reporter at the Economist for the past five years, first on the entertainment beat but now focussing more on community, social and health reporting. She is a born writer and she believes education is the greatest equalizer. She received her degree in Journalism at the Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST) in June 2021. . She is the epitome of perseverance, having started as the newspaper's receptionist in 2013.