Neo@Ogilvy has launched in South Africa within the Ogilvy Cape Town office, headed by Mia Scholtz. Neo@Ogilvy provides clients with a full range of digital and direct media planning and buying; search marketing; performance marketing; analytics and technology; mobile marketing; social media marketing; and digital out-of-home marketing.

The fully-serviced digital and direct media company is already servicing blue-chip clients such as IBM; Castrol; American Express; Nokia; African Bank; Triumph; Sunday Times; and Automobile Association.

As Nunu Ntshingila, Ogilvy CEO explains, “While Ogilvy South Africa has been active in this arena for some time; it is now opportune to ramp up this capability as data and measurability become more and more important to marketers.”

“Communication planning today requires a level of specialisation in areas like search planning and analytics that necessitates a new level of expertise. With Neo@Ogilvy, we’re able to bring technology platforms to South Africa that will help facilitate high quality planning and business intelligence. We’re pleased to introduce Neo as it is another key component of our growing digital offering. Together with Ogilvy Interactive and the Ogilvy Mobile partnership, we now have a complete suite of digital offerings in SA,” adds Ntshingila.

Matias Alpert - currently serving as CEO EAME for Neo@Ogilvy was in the country last week to introduce Neo in South Africa. Alpert is responsible for the development of the local operations in each market while leveraging global opportunities, both for short-term growth and mid- to long-term sustainability.

“South Africa is one of those markets with high growth potential over the next decade. If Neo@Ogilvy Worldwide want to leverage the next cycle, they need to be where most of the growth is going to take place – which is right here.”

On why Neo is such a critical offering, Alpert explains: “As the media environment becomes more complex and fragmented, it is vital for communications planners to have access to and understand the data generated when brands interact with consumers. Neo has been created to fill that knowledge gap and hence enable delivery of true integrated planning.”

“South Africa is going to have a very distinct evolution in the way that brands will articulate their conversation with consumers in the online space. Mobile represents one of the most exciting challenges in South Africa and in many other parts of the developing world. South African case studies in this space, could potentially be teaching developed markets lessons in mobile down the road - the same way that Korea or Japan are doing today,” explains Alpert.

The benefit to South Africa clients is that Neo is part of a global network and will be able to tap into the latest developments and world class expertise in areas such as social search, affiliate marketing and data modelling. The other key component will be access to technology platforms which will enable teams to handle the vast amounts of granular data needed to deliver performance marketing solutions to clients.

“Our focus on technology and data, but more importantly on having only the best people on our teams are what differentiates from other agencies. Being able to have access to and digest (technology) on one side, and understand and extract value of data (people) on the other, will be the only way of communicating with audiences in the very near future,” concludes Alpert.