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← Back to IdeasOgilvy Unveils 'Brand Devotion' for a New Era of Customer Relationships
NEW YORK, NY – March 17, 2026 – Consumers don’t want to belong to a brand; they want brands to belong in their world. Recognizing this profound shift away from transactional loyalty towards self-fulfillment, Ogilvy today launched ‘Brand Devotion.’ The proprietary, next-gen strategic offering is designed to address the very core of modern consumer-brand relationships, enabling brands to forge deeper, more authentic connections that drive progress and value by meaningfully showing up in consumers' curated lives.
Between declining trust in institutions and media and the commoditization of AI-driven personalization, many brands are struggling to achieve and maintain relevance and advocacy.
Today’s consumers are “unbound”: Faced with endless choices, they’re increasingly skeptical and cynical of traditional brand loyalties. A reality that’s underpinned by global Ogilvy research revealing that only 53% of U.S. consumers believe their favorite brands consistently align with their values, and even fewer feel brands help them grow (45%), connect with others (40%), or fit into their cultural world (43%). They’re seeking brands that help them be loyal to themselves, that mirror their personal evolution, values, and communities – highlighting significant white space for brands willing to lean into Brand Devotion.
“A fundamental power shift has happened in the brand-customer relationship,” said Leanne Cordes, SVP, Strategic Services at the Lacek Group, an Ogilvy company specializing in Loyalty and leading the Brand Devotion offering in North America. “It's now up to brands to earn a place in and meaningfully belong in consumers' lives. Traditional loyalty isn't enough – brands must move beyond transactional incentives to foster true, emotional commitment. It's about brands demonstrating their value, not just asserting it.”
Ogilvy’s brand audits further reveal a widespread challenge within the loyalty landscape:
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Emotional Disconnect: 2 in 3 brands today are functionally adequate but emotionally disengaged, achieving merely a "C" grade (60-70/100). These brands offer transactions but fail to build the deeper "immunity" required to withstand competitor pressures or inspire true advocacy.
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Purpose-Washing Pitfall: While 89% of consumers want to buy from brands that share their values, only a small fraction of brands successfully move beyond "purpose-washing" to create a felt sense of shared identity.
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Outdated Loyalty Mechanics: Many brands are still building loyalty programs for the consumer they had 10 years ago. When consumer sentiment shifts – such as the pivot from Gen X's preference for status to Gen Z's demand for radical transparency – legacy approaches fail to adapt quickly enough.
Brand Devotion is defined as the strategic imperative for brands to actively enable and participate in the consumer’s self-fulfillment journey, forging a mutual relationship that drives progress and value for both. This innovative approach is built upon a robust framework encompassing “The Four Bonds,” which establish the foundation for relationships, and “The Four Dimensions,” which sustain them:
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Principle: When a brand aligns with the consumer’s values and lives its own.
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Community: When a brand makes consumers feel like they belong and connect like-minded individuals.
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Potential: When a brand genuinely improves the consumer’s life and helps them achieve their aspirations.
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Culture: When a brand fits seamlessly into the consumer’s world and reflects their lifestyle.
Ogilvy brings Brand Devotion to life through a unique integration of specialized expertise, including 30+ years loyalty leadership having designed and managing many of the world's most recognized and loved programs, behavioral science to engineer intrinsic motivation and social management to seamlessly integrate brands into consumers' authentic networks.
To help brands implement this transformative approach, Ogilvy's Brand Devotion guides marketing from diagnosis to a practical, actionable plan for transforming consumer relationships. This proprietary platform and process includes:
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A Loyalty Scorecard, powered by our proprietary AI Brand Devotion Score, for a data-driven diagnosis of current brand-consumer relationship health. This assessment is informed by a custom-built Agent Team and Agent Manager that continuously evaluates brand standing across the consumer ecosystem.
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A Prioritized Opportunity Map identifying key areas for investment.
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Creative Idea Territories to close existing loyalty gaps and deepen connections.
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A Strategic Roadmap with short-, mid-, and long-term actions to build genuine, lasting customer devotion and grow the business.
Ogilvy invites brand leaders to discover how Brand Devotion can redefine their customer relationships and drive enduring success.
To learn more about Brand Devotion, register for the next Ogilvy On Live session, where experts from Ogilvy and The Lacek Group explore what's driving the Unbound Consumer. You can also reach out to branddevotion@ogilvy.com for more information.
About Ogilvy
Ogilvy inspires brands and people to impact the world. We have been producing iconic, culture-changing, value-driving ideas for clients since David Ogilvy founded the company in 1948. We continue that legacy today through our network of 131 offices in 93 countries, where our teams of creative, strategic, and production experts work together to deliver results for clients across Brand & Advertising, Experience, Public Relations, Health, and Consulting. Ogilvy is a WPP company (NASDAQ: WPPGY). For more information, visit Ogilvy.com, and follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.
About The Lacek Group
For more than 30 years, The Lacek Group has been perfecting the art and algorithms of brand devotion. We help world-class brands identify their highest-potential customers, engage them across channels throughout their lifecycles, personalize each relationship for optimal long-term results, and measure the true effectiveness of those efforts. Learn more about The Lacek Group: www.lacek.com.