Ogilvy & Mather Creates Extranet For Clients

Many agencies are now creating extranets -- private networks that let account teams communicate with their clients. The latest is Ogilvy & Mather, which yesterday announced BrandPlace, a collaborative intranet/extranet.

To roll out to selected client account teams later this year, BrandPlace will ultimately allow up to 4,000 advertising executives to communicate with their clients. It is based on software supplied by Brisbane, Calif.-based Intraspect Software.

"BrandPlace is another step in Ogilvy's 360-degree approach to marketing communications, says Atefeh Riazi, CIO at Ogilvy & Mather. "Continuous collaboration that spans the globe is the name of the game to avoid nasty surprises, maximize client input and achieve the best results."

The intranet component of BrandPlace will allow Ogilvy employees to collaborate with their peers better. New team members will have immediate access to all project information, proposals and presentations. The extranet component will allow clients to log in and then view a centralized database of past advertising campaigns, team correspondence and industry knowledge.

"Building a brand is an iterative process, with basic, consistent steps that are repeated from one client to the next," says Bob Schoettle, vp of marketing at Intraspect. "Intraspect speeds up that process by providing a framework for each new project that enables teams to leverage past work."