David Ogilvy: Confessions of an Advertising Man

If you detect the stench of conceit in this book, I would have you know my conceit is selective. I cannot read a balance sheet, work a computer, ski, sail, or play golf. But when it comes to advertising they call me King. When Fortune published an article about me titled “Is David Ogilvy a Genius?,” I asked my lawyers to sue the editor for the question mark.

Some of Ogilvy's agency's obiter dicta:

We sell - or else
You cannot bore people into buying your product; you can only interest them in buying it. (Attention is key)
We prefer the discipline of knowledge to the anarchy of ignorance. We pursue knowledge the way a pig pursues truffles. A blind pig can sometimes find truffles, but it helps to know they grow in oak forests.
We hire gentlemen with brains
The consumer is not a moron. She is your wife. Do not insult her intelligence.
Only first class business, and that in a first class way
Never run an advertisement you would not want your own family to see.
Never run an ad for a client that you wouldn't have put up if it were your business.
Search all the parks in all your cities; you'll find no statues of committees

"Any damn fool can put on a price reduction, but it takes brains and perseverance to create a brand."

Price cuts are the plague. Price cuts are the death of long-term business, and are the result of employers who only are interested in next quarters profit rather than the future of their company.

"No manufacturer ever got rich by underpaying his agency. Pay peanuts and you get monkeys"

Oglivy's most valuable lessons:

Creating successful advertising is a craft, part inspiration but mostly know-how and hard work. If you have a modicum of talent, and know which techniques work at the cash register, you will go a long way.
The temptation to entertain instead of selling is contagious
The difference between one advertisement and another, when measured in terms if sales, can be as much as 19 to 1
It pays to study the product before writing your advertisements
The key to success is to promise the consumer a benefit - like better flavor, whiter wash, more miles per gallon, or a better complexion.
The function of most advertising is not to persuade people to try your product, but to persuade them to use it more often than other brands in their repertoire.
What works in one country almost always works in other countries.
Editors of magazines are better communicators than advertising people. Copy their techniques.
Many campaigns are too complicated. They reflect a long list of objectives, and try to reconcile the divergent views of too many executives. Their ads look like the minutes of a committee.
Don't let men write advertising products which are bought by women.
Good campaigns can run for many years without losing their selling power.
Once a salesman, always a salesman.

"I hope that you get as much pleasure out of buying as I get out of advertising"

How to manage an agency:

The boss (that would be you) should always emerge from his perch and write an advertisement every once in a while so as to show your employees that your hand has not lost its cunning.

Praise rarely:

Be intolerant of incompetence. It is demoralizing for professionals to work alongside incompetent amateurs.

ALWAYS keep promises. If you tell a client you will produce an ad for them on a certain day, ensure it is ready, no matter the cost in agony or overtime.

Keep the office shipshape. A messy office creates an atmosphere of sloppiness.

Interesting:

Inspect every campaign before it goes to the client. And don't be afraid to send it back if it needs more work.

Work longer than everyone else. Your staff will be less reluctant to work overtime if you work more than them.

Make yourself indispensable to a client, and you will never be fired.

The top man has one principal responsibility: provide an atmosphere in which creative mavericks can do useful work.

Tell your employees what type of behavior you admire. Here is what Oglivy admires:

People who work hard and bite the bullet.
People with first class brains. But brains are nothing unless combined with intellectual honesty.
People who work with gusto. Enjoy what you are doing.
People who hire subordinates who are good enough to succeed them. Don't be so insecure that you have to hire inferiors as subordinates.
People with gentle manner who treat others as human beings. People who are candid.
Well organized people who deliver their work on time.

Keep "a telephone line" open for spontaneous ideas from your subconscious

"Many of the greatest creations of man were created by the desire to create money"

Ch 2: How to get clients:

As a young agency, Ogilvy struggled against the mammoth ad agencies. The set-piece that worked magic in the early days for him was this:

Ask the prospective clients to ponder the life cycle of a typical agency, the inevitable pattern of rise and decline, from dynamite to dry rot. Once every few years a new agency is born. It is ambitious, hard working, full of dynamite. It gets accounts from soft old agencies. It does great work. The years pass. The founder gets rich, and tired. Their creative fires go out. They become extinct volcanoes. The agency may continue to prosper. Its original momentum is not yet spent. It has powerful contacts. But it has grown too big. It produces dull, routine campaigns, based on the echo of old victories. Dry rot sets in. The emphasis shifts to collateral services, to conceal the agency's creative bankruptcy. At this stage, it begins losing accounts to vital new agencies, ruthless upstarts who work hard and put all their dynamite into their advertisements. We can all name famous agencies which are moribund. You hear demoralizing whispers in their corridors, long before the truth dawns on their clients.

(This makes them scared. Are we talking about the agency they are working with? Should they consider you, the young upstart?)

How did Oglivy distinguish his agency from the 3,000 others he was in competition with?

First, he invited 10 reporters from the advertising trade press to lunch. He told them of his insane ambition to build an agency from scratch. They gave him tips on business, and printed the releases he sent them.

Second, he made no more than two speeches a year, and both speeches were calculated to provoke the greatest possible stir in the industry.

Third, he made friends with people with men whose jobs brought them into contact with major advertisers - the researchers, pr consultants, management engineers, and the space salesman.

A way for an agency to get the first few clients when it has no reputation and no way to keep prospects interested is to conduct a pilot survey on some aspect of your prospective client's business. For example, you could evaluate the current effectiveness of their ad campaigns (or lack thereof).

"Silence can be golden" - by having the prospect do most of the talking and revealing the problems you appear smarter, and people just like talking.

Ch 3: How to keep Clients

Make sure your agency is wired in on every level so you can hope for tenure - not just a president to president relationship that would get you fired if either president left.

Usually the head of an agency has so much on his plate that he is apt to only see his clients at times of crisis. This is a mistake. If you get into the habit of seeing your clients when the weather is calm, you will establish an easy relationship which may well save your life when a storm blows up.

When a presenting a new campaign (or anything) never depart from the printed text by a single word if you are using a poster or powerpoint. The trick lies in assaulting the audience simultaneously through their eyes and ears. If they see one set of words, and hear a different set, they become confused and inattentive.

Ogilvy starts out presentations with unquestionable axioms and eases the client into more controversial judgements.

Don't underspend on advertising. Its like buying a ticket three-quarters of the way to Europe; you have spent some money, but you do not arrive.

Chapter V: How to build great campaigns

"Here are my recipes for cooking up the kind of advertising campaigns which make the cash register ring - eleven commandments which you must obey if you work at any agency:"

What you say is more important than how you say it. The content of your advertising trumps the form. Your most important job is to decide what you are going to say about your product, what benefit you are going to promise. Always test the promise to find the most effective promise there is. Build the promise into the product name, if you can.
Unless your campaign is built around a Great Idea, it will flop.
Give the facts. Very few advertisements contain enough factual information to sell the product. There is a ludicrous tradition among copywriters that consumers aren't interested in facts. They don't even have to be unique facts, all your competitors could have the same facts, but are making the sore mistake of not mentioning them.
You cannot bore people into buying. The average family is now exposed to more than 1500 advertisements a day. No wonder they have acquired a talent for skipping the advertisements in newspapers and magazines, and going to the bathroom during tv commercials. To sell, you need attention. And to get attention, you can't be boring.
Be well mannered, but don't clown. You should try to charm the consumer into buying your product. This doesn't mean your ads should be cute or comic. People don't buy from clowns.
Make your advertising contemporary. You should have copywriters working for you from all demographics so you can understand the psychology of different consumers.
Committees can criticize ads but cannot write them.
If you are lucky enough to write a good advertisement, repeat until it stops pulling. You aren't advertising to a standing army; you are advertising to a moving parade. The ad which sold a refrigerator to those who got married last year will probably be just as successful with those who get married next year.
Never write an advertisement which you wouldn't want your own family to read. You wouldn't tell lies to your own wife. Don't tell them to mine. Do as you would be done by. If you tell lies about a product, you will be found out - either by the government, who will prosecute you, or by the consumer, who will punish you by not buying your product a second time.
The image and the brand. Every ad should be thought of as a contribution to the complex symbol which is brand image. Usually manufacturers are reluctant to accept any limitation on the image of their brand. They want it to be all things to all people. They want their brand to be a male brand AND a female brand. An upper-crust brand AND a plebeian brand. They generally end up with a brand which has no personality of any kind, a wishy-washy neuter. No capon ever rules the roost.Plan your campaigns for years ahead, on assumption that your clients will be in business forever. Build sharply defined personalities for their brands, and stick to those personalities, year after year. It is the total personality of a brand rather than any trivial product difference which decides its ultimate position in the market.
Don't be a copy-cat.

Chapter six: How To Write Potent Copy

The headline is the telegram that decides whether or not the reader will read the copy. If you haven't done some selling in your headline you've wasted as much as 80% of your money.

The headline is the "ticket on the meat" use it to flag down the ideal buyer/prospect.

Every headline should appeal to the readers self-interest

Always try to inject news into your headlines, because the consumer is always on the lookout for new products or new improvements to an old product.

The two most powerful words you can use in a headline are NEW and FREE

Other 'magic' words and phrases: "HOW TO" "SUDDENLY" "NOW" "ANNOUNCING" "INTRODUCING" "IT'S HERE" "JUST ARRIVED" "IMPORTANT DEVELOPMENT" "IMPROVEMENT" "AMAZING" "SENSATIONAL" "REMARKABLE" "REVOLUTIONARY" "STARTLING" "MIRACLE" "MAGIC" "OFFER" "QUICK" "EASY" "WANTED" "CHALLENGE" "ADVICE TO" "THE TRUTH ABOUT" "COMPARE" "BARGAIN" "HURRY" "LAST CHANCE"

Headlines can be strengthened with the inclusion of emotional words, like "darling" "love" "fear" "proud" "friend" and "baby"

Include your selling promise in your headline. Headlines with ten words or longer usually sell more.

End your headline with a lure to read on.

Be explicit with what you are saying in your headline. No puns or allusions or verbal obscurities. You have to telegraph it or they will never pay attention.

It is dangerous to use negatives in headlines. Ex. Don't write "OUR SALT CONTAINS NO ARSENIC" because it might be easily misinterpreted as contains arsenic

Body Copy

When you sit down to write your body copy, pretend you are talking to the woman on your right at a dinner party.

The more you tell, the more you sell (facts)

You should always include testimonials in your copy. The reader finds it easier to believe the endorsement of a fellow reader than the puffery of an anonymous copywriter.

Another profitable gambit is to give helpful advice in your copy, not just hard sell. Example, in a Rinso ad, Oglivy told housewives how to remove stains.

Haha:

Ch 7: How to Illustrate Ads and Posters

Your illustration should work just as hard as your copy to sell your product.

A potent illustration is one that arouses curiosity, makes the reader ask... "whats going on here?" And then read the copy.

Photographs sell more than drawings.

Photos of a baby will stop and grab the attention of most women more than any other picture.

Keep your illustration focused on one person, crowds don't pull.

Never use a photo without a caption, and each caption should be a mini ad, complete with brand name and promise.

If you start your body copy with a large initial letter, you increase readership by an average of 13%

Keep your opening first paragraph down to a max of 13 words. A long first paragraph frightens readers away.

After 2-3 inches of copy, insert your first cross-head. Thereafter pepper crossheads throughout. They keep the reader marching forward.

Set key paragraphs in bold or italic if you have especially long copy.

Help the reader into your paragraphs with arrowheads, bullets, and asterisks.

If you have a lot of facts that are more or less unrelated to each other, don't try to connect them, just list them 1-10

Never set your copy in reverse (white type on black background)

Lead between paragraphs, and transition

Set as much of your ad as possible in lowercase, it is easier to read than uppercase

Chapter 8: how to make good tv commercials

"I have found it easier to double the selling power of a commercial than to double the audience of a program."

There is no correlation between people liking commercials and being sold by them.

In tv ads, what you show is more important to the audience than what you say. The only function of the words is to explain what the picture is showing.

Try listening to your commercial with the sound turned off. If it doesn't sell, its useless.

Restrict yourself to ninety words a minute.

In magazines you must start by attracting the readers attention, but in tv ads the viewer is already attending, and your problem is not to frighten them away.

The name of your company and the product being advertised should be littered frequently throughout your ad, both in text and in spoken word.

Make your product the hero of the commercial.

Tv is most potent for products which lend themselves to selling by demonstration (like make-up and sinus remedies)

Best way to sell in a commercial? Commercials which start by setting up a problem, then wheel up your product to solve the problem, then prove the solution by demonstration, sell 4x as those that just preach the product.

Commercials that also have a strong element of news are effective as well.

Another gambit available that can move mountains: emotion + mood.

Don't sing your selling message. Selling is a serious business. (No to jingles)

Avoid hackneyed situations - delighted drinkers, ecstatic eaters, families exhibiting togetherness - all which are cliches of too many other ads that you do not want to associate yourself with.

How to make good campaigns for.....

Food products:

Build an ad around appetite appeal
The larger the illustration, the more appetite appeal.
Don't show people in food ads. They take up space that is better devoted to food itself.
Use color. Food looks more appetizing in color.
Use photographs over drawings.
One photograph is better than multiple. If you absolutely must use multiple, make one more dominant than the rest.
Give a recipe wherever you can. The housewife is always on the lookout for new ways to please her family.
Include your brand name in your headline.
Locate your headline and copy below your illustration.

On tv for food:

Show how to prepare your product
Use the problem-solving gambit if possible
Show your product early in the commercial
Use sounds relevant to your product - the perking of a coffee pot or the sizzle of a steak.

Tourist destinations:

Tourists do not travel thousands of miles to see things which they can see next door. People in Switzerland wouldn't be persuaded to come to the US because of the mountains in Colorado, they have plenty in their backyard. Advertise what is unique about your country.
Your ads should create an image in the readers mind which they will never forget. The period of gestation between exposure to an ad and purchasing a ticket is likely to be very long.
Act like you are talking to the people who can afford to travel long distances - because you are.
Your ads should help lower the barrier of cost and help then rationalize the price of his journey by selling its cultural and status overtones.
Bandwagons work like magic in tourism. Put the place on the map as a place where "everybody" is going.
People dream about far away places. Your ad should convert their dreams into action.

Proprietary Medicines (drugs and pharmaceuticals):

Use news - a new diagnosis, a new cure, or a new name to a familiar complaint.
A good patent-medicine ad has a feeling of seriousness. Physical discomfort is not joking matter to the sufferer.
Create a feeling of authority. There should be a doctor-patient vibe.
The ad should not merely extol the merits of your product, it should also explain the disease. The sufferer should feel that he has the solution, but has also learned something about his condition.
Do not strain credulity. A person in pain wants to believe you can help him. His will to believe is an active ingredient in the efficacy of your product.

Chapter X: How to rise to the top of the tree (advice to the young)

First, you must be ambitious, but must not be so nakedly aggressive that your fellow workers rise up and destroy you.

Be as knowledgeable as possible on the account to which you are assigned (if you work at an agency)... if you are assigned to a gasoline account, read trade journals, read textbooks, spend Saturday mornings at service stations. Most young men are too lazy to do this kind of homework

Managers promote the men who work the most. Work long hours.

Be a specialist, at least at the beginning, that is where it is easiest to make your mark. Specialize in media, research, or copy.

You will never become a good senior account executive unless you learn to become a good presenter. You must be able to sell plans to committees this way.

Make friends with the company whose account you serve. Buy shares in their company. Behave as if you were on their team.

Don't discuss your clients business in elevators, and keep their secret papers under lock and key. A reputation for leaking may ruin you.

If you are brave about admitting your mistakes to your clients and your colleagues, you will earn their respect. Candor, objectivity, and intellectual honesty above all for an advertising artist.

For vacations, Oglivy recommends that you get out of your house, and travel with your wife but without your kids. Take a sleeping pill every night for the first three nights. Get plenty fresh air and exercise. Read a book every day.

Travel abroad to broaden your horizons.

Rewarding subjects to learn: the psychology of retail pricing, new ways to establish the optimum advertising budget, the use of advertising by politicians, obstacles which prevent international advertisers from using the same campaigns all around the world, and the conflict between reach and frequency in media planning.

A collection of Ogilvy-isms

hard work never killed a man. Men die of boredom, psychological conflict, and disease.
It is important to admit your mistakes and to do so before you are charged with them.
Big ideas are usually simple ideas.
Get rid of sad dogs who spread doom.
In the best establishments, promises are always kept, no matter the cost in agony and overtime.
Change is our lifeblood.
Tell the truth, but make the truth fascinating
People do not buy from bad-mannered liars.
Tolerate genius.

The unpublished David Ogilvy: Pages 4-17 very insightful offense vs. defense insight into selling the Aga cooker.

How to be helpful at meetings.

If you are a junior member, do not hesitate to speak out.

If the group is discussing an old advertisement, he should leave the room and return with the advertisement.

If at some point in the meeting it becomes apparent that we would make more progress if we had the art director or one of the media directors present, the junior man should leave the meeting and return with the person concerned.

“America is alive and well and living in New Hampshire” this is one of the best headlines I have ever read.

A great ad needs positioning, promise, and brilliantly great ideas.

“Unless your advertising contains a Big Idea it will pass like a ship in the night.”

Don’t judge the value of higher education in terms of careermanship. Judge it for what it is—a priceless opportunity to furnish your mind and enrich the quality of your life.

Can you show new-business prospects at least four campaigns which electrify them?

Do all your campaigns execute an agreed positioning?

Do they promise a benefit—which has been tested?

Do you repeat the brand name several times in every commercial?

Do you always make the product the hero?

Do you use problem-solution, humor, relevant characters, slice-of-life?

Are you good at injecting news into your campaign?

Do you always show the product in use?

Do you always show the package at the end?

Do all your headlines contain the brand name—and the promise?

People who think well, write well.

You have to learn to write well. Here are 10 hints:

(1) Read the Roman-Raphaelson book on writing. Read it three times.

(2) Write the way you talk. Naturally.

(3) Use short words, short sentences, and short paragraphs

(4) Never send a letter or a memo the day you write it. Read it allow the morning then edit then send.

(5) If it is something important, get a colleague to improve it.

(6) Before you send a letter or a memo, make sure it is crystal clear what you want the recipient to do.

(7) If you want ACTION, go and tell the guy what you want instead if writing.

There isn’t really any significant difference between the brands of whiskey or beer. They are all about the same.

The manufacturer who dedicates his advertising to the most favorable image, the most sharply defined personality, is the one who will get the largest share of the market at the highest profit.

“We have exercised care in selecting our clients. That is why our roster is such a remarkable one.

We seek clients who we can be proud to advertise—a product which we can recommend without reservation to our own families.”

The more you delegate, the more responsibility will be loaded upon you.

Don’t overstaff your departments. People enjoy life most when they have the most work to do.

There is nothing so demoralizing as a boss who tolerates second-rate work.

Set high standards and admire those who perform exceptionally.

Do your best to educate your people so they can be promoted as rapidly as possible.

Seek advice from your subordinates and listen more than you talk.

You won’t get far if you don’t know how to write lucid reports. Knowledge is useless unless you know how to communicate it—in writing.

Men die of boredom, psychological conflict, and disease. Hard work never killed a man.

“I can do almost any job in a weekend. I think everyone can. The trouble is most chaps are too lazy to burn midnight oil.”

When people aren’t having any fun, they seldom produce good work. Encourage exuberance.

The researchers at Niels Bohr’s lab in Denmark, where they first split the atom, were always playing practical jokes on each other.

Any damn fool can put on a deal, but it takes genius, faith and perseverance to create a brand.

Advertising, not deals, builds brands.