Ogilvy, one of the leading advertising agencies in the world, was looking for a solution to an age-old problem - how can enormous organisations react nimbly and generate ideas quickly? As Rory Sutherland, Chairman of Ogilvy Europe, pointed out there are no advantages in being a big agency unless you can truly utilise your most important resource; the brainpower of your staff.

Ogilvy was also looking to optimise the creative process. Just as the first 48 hours in a police investigation are absolutely critical, so the same can be said of the first 48 hours after receiving a client brief. This is a time for investigating different approaches and challenging the brief. Finally, email usage was at an all-time high, meaning Ogilvy’s employees were spending most of their time answering their emails, rather than doing their actual job.

We devised, designed and built Ogilvy BrainZ, an internal closed business ideation network for staff across the Ogilvy Group. It allows people to share ideas, post problems and provide solutions. Members can create groups around specific topics and post messages on group walls, create discussions and post comments.

BrainZ is still in its beta phase but already take-up and employee engagement has been impressive - employees are now freely posting solutions for all types of problem, big and small and average time on site is already nearly seven minutes.

The beauty of BrainZ in its ability to disseminate very quickly a client brief or business problem to a wide range of creative minds, harnessing the brainpower that you know is always within reach but is all too rarely tapped into. The site is a powerful example of a second generation social network; being based around not just connecting people, but also providing the environment and tools to encourage collaboration.

We’ve only just scratched the surface of what’s possible. This site is clearly going to be a great boon for Ogilvy, and we’re looking forward to seeing just how far we can go.