Ben Lock to head Ogilvy PR's new crisis practice

The issues and crisis team will sit within the corporate and public affairs division at Ogilvy, to provide crisis counsel to Ogilvy’s existing issues management clients. Ben Lock will lead the crisis practice, reporting to the division’s head, Iain Bundred.

Lock, an associate director within the agency’s corporate practice, will be supported by a team of three: Michael Darragh, head of digital and content; Blair Metcalfe, account director; and Tom Bell, associate director.

Lock has been with the agency for eight years and has experience in managing crisis situations from product recalls to legal disputes, industrial accidents, fatalities and shareholder activism.

Managing director Michael Frohlich said: ‘This team has expertise in social media, content development, stakeholder relations, public affairs, internal communications and media training. Importantly, with our global network we are also able to offer a truly international round-the-clock response to crisis control.’

Lock claims that today’s ‘deluge’ of corporate disasters ‘played out in the context of a fast evolving media landscape’ has changed the rules of crisis management.

It has created the need for ‘ever more sophisticated and digitally aware’ strategies in the way crises are planned for and managed, he added.

Ogilvy is in the process of building its capabilities across a broad range of sectors and in the past week has revealed a global strategic partnership with the National Social Marketing Centre (NSMC).

The announcement comes weeks after the agency hired Freud Communications’ Mat Rawlins and Alex Wood as creative directors, to dive a focus on creativity across Ogilvy’s corporate, consumer, technology and digital practices. 

This article was first published on prweek.com