design indaba speaker: chris gotz, chief creative officer of ogilvy & mather south africa

design indaba speakers: chris gotz, CCO of ogilvy & mather south africa
image courtesy design indaba

chris gotz, the chief creative officer of ogilvy & mather south africa began his career at JWT adverising agency in cape town, before moving swiftly on to TBWA, and Lascaris FMC in johannesburg. he won his first loerie grand prix for launching YFM, south africa’s first black youth radio station, at the same time upsetting an awful lot of people by sending them a petrol bomb in the mail (the now infamous YFM trade mailer). his work on MTN, for which he won his first gold loerie for television, caught the eye of ogilvy & mather johannesburg, where he worked from 1999 until 2000. in 2000 chris transitioned to ogilvy & mather cape town, working on campaigns for volkswagen, SAB, kraft, AUDI and many others, and in 2008, gotz was appointed executive creative director of the agency.

under gotz’s creative leadership, ogilvy & mather cape town was ranked the number 1 creative agency at cannes and loeries in 2012, the first time this has occurred in the history of the agency. ogilvy & mather cape town is currently the number 3 ranked creative agency on ogilvy & mather’s worldwide cadre, a list of the top 15 best creative offices in the network, the number 1 agency in the EAME region and is in the top 30 agencies worldwide.

 ‘goodbye citi golf’ for volkswagen

as a farewell to one of its iconic brands, volkswagen south africa launched a countrywide campaign to celebrate 25 years of citi golf production. in the campaign, the last citi drove a victory lap around the country to offer everyone the opportunity to come and bid farewell to citi by signing the vehicle. ‘from an advertising perspective, the tour is being filmed to create a farewell tv commercial for citi,’ explains gotz. ‘the commercial will be a true-to-life documentation of the tour. it’ll showcase south africa saying goodbye to citi. over the years, the car has entrenched itself in south african culture and history. in fact, it’s more than just a car, it’s an icon and it’s become a friend to the south african people.

‘the citi brand means so many things to so many different people. thousands drove it as their first car. to them, the brand is all about freedom. others personalised their citi’s. so for these people, it’s about individuality. some owned and drove a citi for decades, and then passed it on to their kids. some were even born in a citi. in fact, almost everyone has a citi story and citi means something different to each of them,’ he adds.

‘my capetown holiday’ for facebook

in 2012 cape town tourism briefed ogilvy & mather to come up with an online campaign that promoted the unexpected side of cape town. the creative agency came up with an idea to allow the entire world to visit the mother city through facebook. the campaign ‘my cape town holiday’ saw people from around the globe getting a viral, tailor-made cape town holiday that exposed them to all of the unexpected places through seeing their profile picture moving around the city.

‘our client, cape town tourism, briefed us to come up with an on-line campaign that also promotes the unexpected side of cape town,’ says gotz. ‘all the small communities, never-heard of places and unearthed gems that can’t be found on trip advisor, lonely planet, expedia, or even google. so we thought, we can’t send everyone to cape town, so let’s send their facebook profiles instead. they got a virtual, tailor-made cape town holiday that exposed them to all the unexpected places, and finally, a few lucky winners got to experience their facebook profile’s holiday for themselves.’

‘the answer’ for volkswagen

in the answer, the latest television commercial for volkswagen’s polo vivo, ogilvy cape town explores the idea: if volkswagen can make polo vivo’s available for such a crazy price, then who knows what other crazy things might happen?

 ‘the answer’ by ogilvy & mather south africa

design indaba conference 2014

dubbed ‘the conference on creativity’, the design indaba conference is all about how design, creativity and innovation can positively impact the world. so much more than a ‘how-to’ conference, this is a forum fueled by inspiration that breeds ideas, ingenuity and innovation. the conference is an opportunity to listen to the world’s foremost creatives, entrepreneurs and trendsetters. it’s the not-to-be-missed creative event in africa.