Ogilvy New York Co-President Andy Berndt Goes to Google
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — Andy Berndt, co-president of Ogilvy & Mather's New York office, has left his post at the agency to go to Google, where he will helm a new global unit dedicated to collaborating with marketers, agencies and entertainment companies.
Context & Ripple Effects
The move lands mid-2007, when Google is visibly building out a marketing apparatus beyond its AdWords core: it has just launched Google Gadget Ads, an interactive display format running on its content network, and has even taken to outdoor billboards in upstate New York to promote its free Goog411 directory service. Hiring Andy Berndt away from the co-presidency of Ogilvy's flagship New York office is a different order of commitment — buying senior Madison Avenue leadership rather than just ad products.
The brief matters more than the résumé: Berndt will helm a new global unit dedicated to collaborating with marketers, agencies and entertainment companies, meaning Google is formalizing brand-side relationships that until now have run through self-serve auction mechanics and sales teams.
First-order effects
- Ogilvy & Mather loses one of two co-presidents of its largest US office, forcing an internal succession decision at the network's most visible shop.
- Google gains a senior creative-agency operator to staff the new marketer-collaboration unit, giving its Gadget Ads-era push into brand advertising a credible face on both sides of the table.
Second-order effects
- Agency holding companies now have to treat Google as both channel and rival for talent — a top-tier executive choosing the platform side signals where brand-marketing budgets and careers are perceived to be heading.
- Berndt's unit becomes the negotiation point for how agencies price and package work against Google's formats, since a dedicated collaboration team implies Google intends to shape campaigns rather than merely host them.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, the line between platform and agency keeps eroding: media owners staffing up with agency leadership compresses the middle layer of the industry that historically controlled brand relationships.
- Entertainment companies named in the unit's mandate suggest Google sees content partnerships, not just ad inventory, as part of the brand offer — a structural broadening from search ads toward a full marketing-services posture whose limits are still untested.
The trend: Platforms are recruiting agency leadership in-house to own brand relationships directly, pulling talent and influence out of traditional agency networks.