Published by isobel.regan@dontpanicprojects.com
Published Date 15.11.2023 
About OMD UK
OMD UK is one of the UK’s largest media agencies, proudly sitting in the OMD Global network, the world’s largest media agency group.
With over 35 years of history, we have built a reputation of outstanding partnerships and represent some of the world’s biggest brands, including British Gas, PepsiCo, McDonald’s, Channel 4, Lidl and Compare the Market.
Over 70% of our clients have been with us for 5+ years, and we take great pride in the relationships we build as a result of our commitment to client growth, encapsulated by our mission statement: to help our clients ‘make better decisions, faster to unlock extraordinary growth’.
This helps us to deliver some of the industry’s most award-winning work, including Hollyoaks ‘The Long Walk Home’ with Channel 4, Lidl Bear with Lidl and Walker’s Lunch with PepsiCo (to name a few!).
About Search team
The Paid Search team at OMD compromises 45 of our people, handling over £60m of billings in 2023, making us a crucial part of the Connect Performance department and pivotal partners to 16 of our clients. Our ethos is to never act as an island, but to integrate seamlessly across the agency, which our work in these awards exemplifies.
About the work
In 2023, OMD UK onboarded British Gas with a bold ambition: to transform their media planning and buying for all channels, none more so than Paid Search. For years, British Gas (BG) has fixated on bottom-of-the-funnel, last-click conversions, naturally leading them to invest heavily in Brand PPC. However, we proposed a more enlightened pathway to activate Search.
The tumultuous effects of the surge in energy prices, governmental Energy Price Cap & Guarantees, cost-of-living crisis, and dramatic collapse of energy competitors have all conspired to upend the market. Enter SearchProtect. Equipped with their data, we pioneered a completely new, automated analysis to not only measure SearchProtect’s impact, but to tackle the age-old question; Should a Brand should bid on itself?
This has been a huge commercial win for both British Gas & OMD UK. Not only are we solidifying a young relationship with a household British business, but our measurement and predictive analysis is being built into a new premium version of the tool, called SearchProtect+, demonstrating just how pioneering our technique was in proving the value of OMG technology.
Being part of the UK Search Awards is not just a recognition of us as a team in the wider industry that delivers award-worthy work, but it’s a testament to our team’s collective prowess. A team that thrives on innovation and use of technology while recognizing the long journey we have been on since the creation of Connected Performance in January 2022.
Entering and being nominated for two awards feels like an acknowledgment and celebration of the meticulous strategies, hard work, and relentless pursuit of excellence that define our team and Connected Performance as a whole. The UK Search Awards validate our commitment to pushing boundaries and achieving remarkable results in the dynamic landscape of Paid Search.
Alex Hyndman – Head of Paid Search
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