Ogilvy Public Relations Global CEO, Christopher Graves, Wins a Third Atticus Award

NEW YORK, July 22, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Ogilvy PR Global CEO, Christopher Graves, has won the WPP Atticus Award in the category of Public Relations and Public Affairs. This is Graves' third Atticus Award, including the Atticus Grand Prix in 2012. 

WPP's prestigious Atticus Awards honor original thinking, research and writing related to communications services. They are open to all 175,000 WPP employees across more than 350 companies. 

For this year's honor, Graves crafted a piece called "Brain Behavior Story," based on years of research related to behavioral economics, neuroscience and narrative theory.  The outcome weaves together discoveries in different fields that reveal why most communications fail to persuade or change minds, but how more effective narrative techniques that leverage these scientific findings can transport audiences.

Among the principles investigated in the prize winning paper: revealing why effective narratives must engage the limbic system in the brain, and how most corporate communications ignore this; how most efforts to change minds backfire and what science reveals as the best approach; how to create mental imagery in narrative to trigger the evolutionary roots of human empathy.

"These findings give us an approach to overcome the myriad of human cognitive biases that prevent most communications from working," said Graves.  "Understanding the science beneath the art of narrative does not replace the need for creativity, but it does help us become far more effective in our Ogilvy PR approach."

Previously Graves won the Atticus Grand Prix in 2012 for his contribution to the book "Reimagining Japan," edited by McKinsey, and in 2009 as part of an Ogilvy & Mather team for a project called "Ogilvy on Recession: The New PR: Leveraging Digital Influence to Drive Sales and Reputation."

"All agencies lay claim to being great storytellers," said Graves, "but Ogilvy Public Relations actually done the hard work of crafting a science-based methodology to go about purposeful narratives that effect real change."

About Ogilvy Public Relations

Ogilvy Public Relations (Ogilvy PR) is a global, multi-disciplinary communications leader operating in more than 85 offices across six continents. In 2014, for the third consecutive year, Ogilvy was named Cannes Lion Network of the Year. In 2013 and 2012, Ogilvy was awarded Most Effective Agency Network by the Effie Global Effectiveness Index.  Ogilvy was also named Best Digital Consultancy in the World, Most Creative Agency and Best South-East Agency by the Holmes Report. Ogilvy PR integrates deeply with all Ogilvy & Mather disciplines (advertising, direct marketing, activation, promotional, digital and entertainment) through the proprietary Ogilvy Fusion™ approach to delivering comprehensive, business solutions through content creation, community building, and communications with measurable results. Ogilvy PR is a unit of Ogilvy & Mather, a WPP company WPPGY, and one of the largest marketing communications companies in the world.  For more information, visit our website at www.ogilvypr.com or follow us on Twitter at @ogilvypr.

SOURCE Ogilvy Public Relations