Ogilvy's David Dahan takes on expanded role as part of client growth strategy

Ogilvy’s global client lead on Unilever and managing director of WPP@Unilever David Dahan (pictured) has taken on an expanded role as managing director of Nestlé, Ogilvy APAC.  

In his new role, Dahan reports to Kent Wertime, Ogilvy’s APAC CEO and global COO; Sophie Hoffstetter, Ogilvy’s global chief client officer and global client lead, Nestlé; as well as Toby Hoare, WPP global client lead on Unilever.  

In an exclusive interview with MARKETING-INTERACTIVE, Dahan said the idea of his expanded remit was to reinvent the way the agency is dealing with its top clients, by putting collaboration, growth and innovation at the heart. 

He first joined Ogilvy back in 2010 as global business director on Dove, based in London. After five years, he left to join M&C Saatchi Australia as managing director. He also helmed the role of APAC president of T&Pm, based in Singapore.

“I’ve been back at Ogilvy for eight years, leading the Unilever business for WPP and Ogilvy. I’m also the Ogilvy global client lead for Unilever. The new role started two months ago, and the idea was to replicate the growth we’ve had on Unilever, on Nestlé. On many levels the two brands are complementary, they are both FMCG companies with similar challenges and objectives, it’s interesting to have one executive leader looking at both accounts.”  

“We were struggling on Unilever, but eventually we achieved double digital growth YOY, reflecting the value of collaboration and integration, especially between creative and media. Meanwhile, even though Nestlé is a more decentralised business, I believe that by bringing it all together under one leadership, we can reapply a lot of our winning strategies learnt on Unilever onto Nestlé, and vis versa,” he added. 

Dahan said this is an opportunity to evolve and transform the way Ogilvy is managing its top clients. “So I can now start thinking what’s right for two of our top clients more holistically, beyond one remit. It's something new, I can see already a lot of synergies in the way we manage our clients, our talents and deliver better work, faster, at scale.” 

On the other hand, a part of his Nestlé remit for APAC was managed by Ogilvy’s APAC chief growth officer Sheilen Rathod, who decided to leave the agency after six years to pursue new opportunities.  

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