Oliver, the world’s only company to exclusively design, build and run in-house agencies for brands, has won three Campaign Global Agency of the Year awards.
The Campaign magazine has recognized 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); and 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 with a verdict by judges that “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.
Similarly, the Digital Innovation award recognised the company for how it had 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 won Silver in the category, missing out only to its sister company Gravity Road, which won Gold.
Commenting on the company’s outstanding ratings in the various award categories, founder and CEO of Oliver and the Inside Ideas Group, Simon Martin, 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.”
In his remarks, the company’s Operations Director for Middle East and Africa (MEA), Colin Herholdt, noted the fact that Oliver MEA was actively contributing to the group’s success is a great testimony of its teams’ skill and passion.
He enthused: “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.
“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 South Africa and West Africa, 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”, Herholdt added.
