Ogilvy On Advertising

David Ogilvy, the father of advertising, has written two widely-praised books: Ogilvy On Advertising and Confessions of an Advertising Man. In "Ogilvy on Advertising", in 20 chapters, he gives his thoughts on major trends in advertising, figures that shaped the industry, the do's and don'ts of advertising and the changes he predicted for the future of advertising. He is direct, meticulous, honest, precise and sincere. This is by far, the most inspirational book I've ever read, so I decided to dedicate a post to it. In this book, he generously shares 217 pages of useful information that he accumulated throughout his long career, in a particularly amusing and thought-provoking way. If you're a beginner, like myself, this is a must-read book. Put it on top of your list, it will give you great insight into the industry. And if you've already been in the business for couple of years and haven't read this book yet, well, shame on you (kidding). 

I'm going to randomly share with you some interesting points that David Ogilvy made in this book. The book was published in 1983 (before most of us were even born). We need to take this into account. Although a lot of things have changed in the industry ever-since (internet, social media, Photoshop and endless design possibilities), the essence remained the same to my opinion. 

First of all, what's interesting is that when reading this book, you'll realize where Matthew Weiner got his ideas from for Mad Men. Mad Men is full of references to this book, things such as the industry volatility, all the smoking and the alcohol (Ogilvy actually mentioned in this book that a lot of talented people in the industry lose their jobs because of alcohol addiction, though some agencies try to retain their talents by offering rehab opportunities.), resigning Lucky Strike, working with difficult but talented people (remember Peggy & Stan on their first project?), hated account executives, ignored housewives/gender inequality (well, the perception that women belonged in the home), etc.

Ogilvy sure had his own ways of getting the attention of potential consumers. He tells us stories about how he once sent carrier pigeons to prospects with a promotional offer and their address tied to the pigeons' legs. Some "ate" the pigeons (°_o), some replied. Once, his brother wrote a letter in Greek to headmasters of private schools, selling cooking stoves. They replied that they couldn't read Greek, they sent another letter in Latin and it worked. They got their attention and sold the product. In the following ad, Ogilvy put an eye-patch on the model to create "story appeal". Genius!

This man went to great extents to make advertising that sells. Somewhere in his book he confesses that he once hired a professional hypnotist to make a commercial, "suspecting that hypnotism might be an element in successful advertising". It turned out he wasn't so wrong. He watched the commercial and could envision millions of consumers rushing to the stores "like zombies" to buy the product. Coming to the realization that he gave a new meaning to "manipulative advertising" and risked bad publicity both for himself and his client, he "burnt" the ad with shame and never told his client about it. Am I the only one getting excited here? Haha.

He is honest in admitting his biggest mistakes, like how he refused to take a small account of a newly established company with potential that sold office machinery. It was Xerox. And he takes pride in his past struggles. He, after all, built one of the most successful ad agencies, form scratch, in 1948. He started out as a door to door salesman.When he founded Ogilvy & Mather, at the beginning, he was so desperate for a client that he offered someone 10% of their stock, if he brought in a particular account. Luckily for him, the guy refused. 

He was a big fan of research. He liked his creative ideas to be backed by research findings. He didn't believe there is any correlation between recall rates and brand preference (purchase) as it wasn't supported by research. He believed one can make a very artistic and memorable ad that wins awards and is liked by people but that's not nearly enough to persuade potential consumers to make a purchase. To do so, the ads must contain specific, factual and relevant information. For the same reason he didn't like celebrity endorsement. People remember the celebrity but not the product, he believed. 

A testimonial from an ex-safecracker. By Ogilvy 

In terms of improving readership, he gave some very useful advice. He said if you don't want anyone to read your ad, set it in Italic, with capital letters and in reverse (white text on black background which he "hated"). He could not emphasize the importance of having a proper headline any more. The number of people who read the headlines are five times more than those who read the body copy and headlines are where you spend 90% of your client's money. "If you can't come up with a good headline, copy other people's work, the work that have proven to create results."  

In the last page of the book, there is a list of the predictions that Ogilvy made about the future of advertising. Some are very true. He predicted that the quality of research will improve and this will generate more knowledge. This is valid. We now have big data and rich data that help us have a more accurate picture of what's going on. He, very interestingly, predicted a renaissance in print advertising. Could this be referred to Digital advertising and design programs that made it all possible?! The industry standards have definitely changed ever-since. In his book, Ogilvy admired long copy, he said it has more readership, it's more persuasive and generates better sales (especially for direct response where readers need a lot of information before making an order).

We are now, only a click a way from all the information we possibly need and honestly, I think our attention span is the lowest it's ever been. I blame it on the nation's obsessive TV watching, Netflix and social media, and generally internet and technology that make instant connectivity and access to specific information possible at any time. Also, we're the most visual we've ever been. High quality pictures, cool graphic design, colours and shapes make up a larger portion of the print ads today. So I don't think long copy would get any readership, as we see below, today's print ads, have a significantly shorter body copy. He also predicted that billboards will be abolished which hasn't happened yet. As a matter of fact, DOOH (digital out of home) advertising has emerged and giant companies spend a ridiculous amount of money for their ads to be displayed in Times Square's billboards.

A particularly long copy which was successful back in the day

While modern ads look like this:

My Favourite Quotes From the Book:

- "The consumer is not a moron, she is your wife." 

Haha, this is so confusing, I'm challenging my inner feminist.

- Roy Whittier: "In advertising, the beginning of greatness is to be different, and the beginning of failure is to be the same."

- On cross cultural advertising: "What is the significance of a Western jingle to a person who dances beautifully to a sound of a bamboo flute?" Said Barry Owen.

- Ogilvy on Claude Hopkins: "He always wore a fuchsia in his buttonhole, chewed licorice root, and spat profusely on the person he was talking to." He also said a lot of nice things about him. :) 

- "It is often charged that advertising can persuade people to buy inferior products. So it can - once."

- "The world would be a safer, prettier place without billboards." 

Ogilvy on the fact that highways with billboards had 5 times more accidents. 

-"Creativity is not a function of size. Small can be beautiful."

- "Like most boys of my generation, I started life believing that women belonged in the home, until I noticed how happy my mother was when she went out to work."

-"I do not believe that fear is a tool used by good leaders. People do their best work in a happy atmosphere. Ferment and innovation depend on Joie de vivre."

-"I am always surprised by the illiteracy of men and women who look for jobs in advertising." 

-"If it doesn't sell, it isn't creative."