Oliver is the world’s only company to exclusively design, build and run in-house agencies for brands.
Campaign magazine has recognised Oliver and its parent company, the Inside Ideas Group (IIG), as:
- Global In-House Agency of the Year alongside Unilever’s in-house agency U-Studio (Gold)
- Global Customer Engagement Agency of the Year (Gold)
- Global Digital Innovation Agency of the Year (Silver)
Unilever’s U-Studio, which has been powered by Oliver since 2016, wins the In-House Agency of the Year accolade for the second year running. Judges said: “U-Studio helped Unilever embark on a rapid transformation programme for a changed world.”
The in-house model offered “scale, resilience and flexibility underpinned by world-class technology” and has “evolved its marketing ecosystem to serve Unilever brands while its “powerful, purpose-led initiatives for Rexona and Matey tackled important societal issues”, raising the standard of in-house creativity globally.
The Customer Engagement award recognised Oliver as a world-leader at driving effectiveness for clients across brand-building, social commerce, live commerce, connected design and service design, while streamlining and connecting the customer experience.
The Digital Innovation award recognised Oliver for how it has helped businesses capitalise on the disruption of technology, accelerating their digital transformation journeys and expanding digital experiences across social platforms, the Metaverse and e-commerce. Oliver took Silver in the category, missing out only to its sister company Gravity Road who won Gold.
Simon Martin, founder and CEO of Oliver and the Inside Ideas Group, said: “This news makes me incredibly proud, because it demonstrates not only our growing influence, but – most importantly – the breadth and depth of our world-leading talent and game-changing model.”
Colin Herholdt, Oliver’s operations director for Middle East and Africa (MEA), says the fact that Oliver MEA is actively contributing to the group’s success is a great inditement of its teams skill and passion. “We are particularly proud of the part our own U-Studio SA team played in these achievements. We’ve had an incredibly successful year to date, with 11 awards recently won, largely geared around creative effectiveness in the digital arena and our U-Studio team have had a significant impact overall.
“In a marketing landscape that is ever changing, with so many clients battling to optimise budgets, these acknowledgements prove that we have a winning formula,” he explains. “Our focus on placing people, process and technology at the heart of all we do, equates to big returns, not only for our clients but also for our passionate and skilled teams.”
“We look forward to starting even more conversations with brands across the MEA region, particularly in SA and we are confident that our model and the access we offer to our Brandtech group partners, has enormous potential to drive innovation and effectiveness,” he concludes.
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