By Remy Raitt

“I grew up at Ogilvy,” she says. “I just love the ethos here and the fact there’s this nice team of senior people who have always run Ogilvy South Africa.”

Oosthuizen began her career at the well-known agency in 2004, and says she was drawn to the industry because she felt she could really make an impact. “I simply felt that PR and communications was an area that I could make a difference in and saw it as a very credible position,” she says. And 11 years later, her sentiments remain.

She began as a senior account manager and moved her way up to the national MD position, and in that time has evolved the way the agency does business. “When I began in 2004 as a senior account manager, we purely did traditional PR, there was no social media, it was not even on our radar and digital wasn’t there yet either,” she says. But, Oosthuizen insured Ogilvy PR remained ahead of the pack as, and when, these technological advancements presented themselves, thus growing Ogilvy & Mather South Africa into the second largest Ogilvy PR office in the Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) region.

And the awards she has received for her work speak volumes. Since 2012, Oosthuizen has clinched personal awards, campaign nods and silver wear for the agency at a number of local and international ceremonies.

Some of these awards have been specifically for the agency’s digital work, born through the creation of Social@Ogilvy in 2012 and the Content Factory in 2013, both under her leadership. She says both these departments have made the agency “more and more relevant, we have reinvented PR”.

Remaining relevant is Oosthuizen’s modus operandi. “You have to constantly be reinventing yourself and your work,” she says. And before ‘integration’ became the buzzword that it is at the moment, Oosthuizen was overseeing the local assimilation of disciplines at Ogilvy.

“When we started Social@Ogilvy, we launched it in the PR business, because in PR we already understood the value of earned coverage. And it’s just grown from strength to strength as we take on corporate and consumer brands,” she explains. Ensuring the brand’s messages are shared in the right mediums and forms consequently prompted the creation of the Content Factory.

“It’s a team of experts with a quick turnaround who produce high-quality content,” says Oosthuizen. “From a content perspective; there’s got to be a quick turnaround. We’ve got a creative team that produces relevant content like videos and infographics. We produce content that’s easy to consume, and often press releases and long form aren’t.”

“This cross section also allows the different disciplines to work together. This is the future, integration; clients want to save as much money as possible. Clients want budgets to be centralised at one agency. We need generalists that understand the different disciplines. Ogilvy is really trying to build on this,” she says.

And like any successful PR practitioner, Oosthuizen always places her clients at the centre of everything she does.

“Through building client reputations, you can build strong brands that resonate with people,” she says. And this, she says, is why she loves her work. “I’m very passionate and inquisitive, I want to know about the challenges they face and how we can sort them out. I’m dedicated, and I love working across different types of clients; it offers great variety.”

It’s clear that diversity and the possibilities of re-imagination are what spur Oosthuizen on. “It’s a really exciting space to play in because the business is changing so much,” she says. “It’s so important that you’re interested in brands. You need to know what to do to step-change and take that brand into the number one spot.”

Oosthuizen says she wishes more graduates knew how stimulating a career in PR can be. “I want to appeal to young people to look at it as an option. We need a bigger talent pool. There’s a shortage of young people,” she says. And for those that are pursuing a PR profession, we suggest you take Oosthuizen’s advice; “You need to build your network and treat them with absolute respect because it’s a small industry. And then, it’s about working hard and constantly reinventing yourself. And being curious. Always be curious.”

For more information, visit www.ogilvypr.co.za. Alternatively connect with her on Twitter.