Our Vision 

Our vision is to inspire brands and people to impact the world. To create big ideas that make a significant contribution to the planet, society, and the bottom line. We believe in today’s world this is the best way for our clients to achieve sustainable growth.     

We achieve this by breaking down the barriers that restrict talent and ideas, we call this Borderless Creativity.          

Which is why our teams work fluidly across 5 capabilities: Advertising, Growth and Innovation, Experience, PR and I, and Health.   This allows us to not only operate but innovate at the intersection of capabilities and talent.  We believe impact and magic lies at this intersection.   Ogilvy scales this by seamlessly connecting and accessing the deep cultural expertise of 132 offices in 83 countries.     

Our mission: We inspire brands and people to impact the world 

How we do it: We innovate and operate at the intersection of people and capabilities  

What we do: Borderless creativity  

Introduction to the Dove Brand

Dove is one of Unilever’s flagship brands and one of Ogilvy’s flagship accounts. 

Dove started its life in 1957 in the US, with the revolutionary new ‘beauty bar’. It’s always been a brand built on superior care and difference (the beauty bar technically isn’t a soap; it uses a different formula to standard soaps with built-in moisturisers). Since its launch it has grown to become one of the world’s leading beauty and personal care brands, encompassing body care, haircare, and deodorants, plus the dedicated Dove Men+ Care and Baby Dove ranges, with Dove now sold in more than 150 countries around the world. 

Dove is a brand with an unparallel communications history. The Ogilvy-Dove partnership dates to the late 1950s, with David Ogilvy coining the famous ‘1/4 moisturising cream’ line that is still used today. Dove has always communicated differently, with its ads throughout the 1960s and 1970s departing from the standard beauty ads of the day to speak through the powerful testimonials and recommendations of ‘real women’. 

Ogilvy developed the iconic ‘Campaign for Real Beauty’ for Dove in 2004, with the mission to make beauty a source of confidence, not anxiety for all women. The ‘Campaign for Real Beauty’ includes many iconic adverts such as ‘Tick Box’, ‘Evolution’ and ‘Sketches’ (which has now been viewed more than 10m times on YouTube alone). As a recognition of Dove’s rich communications history, in 2019 Dove was named as one of Effie’s top 5 brands of the last 50 years, alongside Apple IBM, Mastercard and Nike. 

But the Dove story doesn’t end here. As more and more brands seek to put purpose at their heart, the challenge is for Dove to maintain its lead as the world’s most meaningful beauty brand. We’re rising to that opportunity at Ogilvy by developing a new brand platform and by creating ever more exciting, challenging, and provocative creative campaigns, finding new ways to interact with women all over the world about the issues that really matter to them, and driving real and lasting social change.

About this role: 

As an Account Director at Ogilvy, you are leading large projects with ease, and forging strong relationships with the Unilever Brand Managers and Brand Directors. You can create momentum within the team to deliver high quality work and identify opportunities to drive growth. 

You are always thinking one step ahead beyond the short term, identifying potential opportunities and next steps needed, flagging risks, and coming up with solutions for how the team can fulfil or overcome them. 

You are focused on driving world class creativity within the team, to create great work that’s effective for your clients’ business. 

You are supporting the junior account team to help them learn and grow and giving them an opportunity to step up and lead elements of the projects with you. 

Building client relationships 

Has a relationship with mid-level clients that is one of trusted partner, based on proven track record of delivery. Has a thorough understanding of the client’s business objectives and aspirations and is able help manage and support client conversations around the work and the process with confidence, navigating issue resolution with clients as needed. 

Making work we’re proud of 

Collaborates confidently with other capabilities and crafts in service of finding the best creative solution to the clients business problem. Inputs meaningfully into the creative development process. 

Will support in proactively identifying potential creative opportunities and areas of growth for the business. 

Responsibility & accountability 

Takes responsibility for larger projects and feels accountable for both the work and the process. Leads a team of people on these, working in partnership with the PM team to ensure that the team delivers as required. 

Is comfortable leading on behalf of the agency and team and is equally comfortable managing up and understands when this is needed. 

Actively demonstrates to the client that they are accountable for the agency’s performance, and the relationship. 

Commercial Acumen 

Able to recognise the commercial implications of agency decisions and external influences and manage the internal and client conversations arising from these. 

Can maturely engage with clients and internal stakeholders on commercial topics, and problem solve where needed to protect the interests of the agency and the relationship. 

Collaboration 

Able to maintain strong partnership with internal stakeholders across all crafts and support cross functional agendas for the benefit of the company and the client. Knowledgeable about how to manage key mid-level stakeholders in the client organisation to protect and promote the agencies ambitions. 

Problem solving & decision making 

Approaches each task with a clear understanding of the business issue the client is trying to solve, and able to measure the brief against this and the strategy to ensure the right work is developed. 

Equally able to think on their feet and act decisively as required to problem solve fast. Understands where leadership support is needed.

A bit about you: 

For this role you will need: 

• Have 4 plus years agency experience and at least 2 years at Account Director level
• Global experience in South East Asia, North America, or South America but other markets would be considered
• Experience of working in a global matrix environment with the ability to take the lead, with good eye for creativity and attention to detail
• Experience of developing and line management of Account Managers
• Excellent communication skills to be able to express your views and clarity of thinking when liaising with clients
• Experience of working across multiple disciplines - TTL, digital/social, PR, influencer
• Experience of working with senior clients across different time zones
• A growth mindset with the ability to spot new and organic opportunities
• Spanish speaking or an additional language would be an advantage but not essential
• Ability to manage several projects at once.
• Ability to work effectively and collaboratively across the team and wider agency
• Passion, energy, commitment, and excitement in working on the Dove brand with our team!

At Ogilvy UK, we want to make sure that you’re set up to grow and develop in your role and enjoy some of the best times of your working career. Our learning and development team are on hand to provide training for you, to help you excel in every aspect of your role. So, if you think you may not have experience in some aspects of this position, don’t worry, and apply away. We’re here to help you grow and nurture your skills.  

How we help you Thrive:  

• 25 days annual leave + 1 Volunteer Day
• Bupa Healthcare (now includes Bupa health assessment and menopause support)
• Enhanced Maternity, Adoption and Shared Parental leave
• We have a flexible working policy with core working hours (10am – 4pm) and have launched our  3.2 Hybrid Working model
• A 1.5:1 matching pension structure
• Wellbeing and Health: Up to £25.00 per month towards physical or online exercise class membership plus Dental cover, Unmind membership, LifeWorks tool and annual eye tests. 
• Learning and development budgets plus Enhanced and ongoing wellbeing incentives and activities throughout the year
• Season ticket loan and cycle to work scheme 
• Life Assurance x4 salary 
• [email protected]: To foster an inclusive environment we have our internal groups: Ogilvy Rewired, Roots, Equals, Proud plus Parents and Carers. See here for more information 

Dedicated to our people, we provide additional perks to help support your work life balance 

If this sounds like the right role for you, we’d love to hear from you. 

Our ambition is to attract the very best diverse talent to Ogilvy, and to be the employer of choice in the UK. We want everyone to feel welcome when they join us, and once they’re here, for them to want to stay with us, grow their career, and to feel they belong with us. 

We are an equal opportunity employer and we’re committed to creating an inclusive, welcoming environment for anyone who wants to work at Ogilvy. We believe that for creativity to flourish, everything about how we work must have diversity at its core. Your race, colour, ancestry, religion, gender, gender identity, national origin, sexual orientation, age, marital status, disability, have no bearing on our hiring decisions. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please let us know.