Media agencies are a competitive group, overseeing client budgets that reach into the millions of dollars. Being a challenger brand in that space is tough, especially when the relationship with your biggest client hits a rocky patch.
This was the situation Julia Di Clemente found herself in when, in early 2013, she arrived at Neo@Ogilvy, which anyone on the street will tell you had been a bit of a broken operation. Neo’s managing director Raymond Reid brought Di Clemente aboard as associate media director to lead the IBM account while he renovated the agency. Neo dutifully worked its portion of the tech compnay’s media account, but account management was mostly being handled by Neo’s creative agency sibling—Ogilvy & Mather—to keep a firm hand on an otherwise splintering tiller.
IBM noticed Di Clemente immediately. “From the very beginning, I could tell she was a direct, passionate person, one of those people that always has a twinkle in their eye,” says Carrie Bendzsa, IBM’s brand and communications leader in Canada. She first met with Di Clemente when she came to IBM’s offices to lead an educational session on programmatic media buying—an expertise she’d developed over three years at Starcom Mediavest Group.
“She has a very commanding presence and deep expertise in programmatic,” Bendzsa says. “I keep forgetting that she’s as young as she is. But when you work with Julia, that doesn’t even come into your mind.”
That expertise and leadership re-forged the agency’s bond with IBM, and the brand’s media spend has moved steadily to digital—and Neo—over the last three years thanks largely to her insights. “She’s helped us move forward on some things that otherwise I’m not sure we would have, programmatic included,” says Bendzsa. “Without Julia, we wouldn’t be there. And the work she did in Canada has been recognized globally. She’s presented at several internal advertising conferences and helped shape some of our global thinking.”
When Reid left the agency in 2014, knowing its biggest client was in good hands, Di Clemente was the natural choice to take over as managing director.
“For someone who deals with a fairly august group of other senior executives, she has no problem calling us on stuff and does it in a very intelligent way,” says Laurie Young, managing director at Ogilvy, who has walked into many a pitch meeting with Di Clemente at her side. “She’s not cowed by seniority or tenure. She adds value to whatever discussion you’re having.”
Ally Bank benefited from this confidence when it first opened in Canada and saw the media strategy it adapted from the U.S. falter. Di Clemente had a leading role in creating a more localized Canadian digital strategy that sought to get the brand to 12% market awareness by the end of its first year in market. It would end up reaching 25% awareness.
While Neo remains a strong weapon in Ogilvy’s arsenal, it’s now able to walk into pitches on its own more often. Neo’s revenue has doubled since Di Clemente, 29, took over thanks to new clients such as Weight Watchers, Chubb Insurance, ADP and Centennial College. What was once a broken operation has been reborn as a young, hungry agency. That rocky patch is a lot smoother thanks to Di Clemente.
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