• by Steve McClellan  @mp_mcclellan, September 6, 2012

WPP’s Ogilvy & Mather has forged a new partnership with longtime ad client IBM giving the agency access to a suite of analytics and cloud-based tools for its e-commerce operation eCommerce@Ogilvy.
 
The new tools are designed to provide client CMOs and CIOs with enhanced ways to engage shoppers online. The partnership follows IBM’s $3 billion investment in its Smarter Commerce initiative. The new partnership is designed to enhance the eCommerce@Ogilvy offering, while providing the tech giant with a new pathway to clients for its own e-commerce tools and systems via O&M.
 
O&M has been developing its e-commerce practice for several years and brought Carl Hartman on board in January to run it. Previously, Hartman was head of shopper marketing operations at WPP. Before that, he was the holding company's global client lead for Kimberly-Clark.
 
O&M has ambitious expectations for its eCommerce practice and hopes to make it a business generating more than $100 million in revenues by 2016. Current clients include Louis Vuitton, British Airways, Kimberly-Clark, Nike and Nestlé.
 
Commenting on the agreement, Hartman stated, “ecommerce engagements are complex and require multiple types of vertical expertise, to meet that client need. The IBM/O&M partnership will include joint training and education sessions, new collaborative service options and a one-stop solution for clients to power and simplify their ecommerce engagement.”
 
It’s not the first time the agency has utilized IBM technology for a client offering.  One example: interactive marketing software developed by IMB subsidiary Unica is used by O&M clients such as Kimberly-Clark worldwide.