S.L.: One of the things happening within Ogilvy North America—and other offices and regions are doing it as well—is that we're trying to bring all the disciplines much closer together. There used to be separate profit-and-loss statements and separate organizations, and we're finding that each month, the clients are asking us to work more closely together. They don't care if it comes from public relations or interactive. They just want to know, What do I do to introduce the new Maxwell House?

C.N.P.: Consumers change the way they get their information so quickly now, and Ogilvy is so large that it can't possibly change as quickly. How do you keep up?

S.L.: Well, I think you have to go in saying that you don't know how consumers are going to respond. We don't know which messages they're going to respond to more strongly or where they're going to find the messages. And so knowing that, you have to be ready to be able to bring the brand to life through all media and then retain the flexibility and the nimbleness to respond fast.

C.N.P.: Can you give me an example?

S.L.: I.B.M. We did these minidocumentaries: One is about how the New York Police Department basically uses data to find a guy who holds up a pizza restaurant. We did one or two of them at the start, and they were so popular and they got so many hits that we've done five or six more. But then we made the concept into advertising too. When we saw the way people responded to the minidocumentaries, we just said, "Okay, we're now riding that horse as fast as it can go. Let's use them as advertising; let's use them for sales meetings; let's use them for seminars." They're doing them all over the world now.

C.N.P.: At the same time, I.B.M. is a core client, and I understand its spending on media is going down. The company spent $1.2 billion in 2006, down 32 percent from the high in 1999.

S.L.: I.B.M. is spending less money on mass-media advertising, but it's moving a lot of that effort into everything it does on its website. And so we do all that work too. It's not less, just different. If we had not, earlier in the history of this company, started to become expert and capable in all the new media and all the new ways people communicate, it would be a problem.

C.N.P.: Last question: I'd love to know if you have a TiVo or any other DVR, and whether you use it.

S.L.: I actually have a DVR. I use it, though I do watch the commercials. Since I rarely watch television in real time, it's the only chance I get to see them.