Confessions of an Advertising Man

Last updated
Confessions of an Advertising Man
Confessions of an Advertising Man.jpg
Author David Ogilvy
Subject Advertising
Publisher Atheneum
Publication date
August 1963
ISBN 1-904915-01-9

In Confessions of an Advertising Man, David Ogilvy shares his lessons from advertising consumer brands worldwide in the fifties and sixties in an eleven-chapter playbook of more than two hundred rules that cover corporate and subject matter aspects, the latter focused on the copywriting and illustrations of advertising campaigns for printed media. Two editions were released, in 1963 and 1988.

Contents

Confessions was originaly printed in 5000 copies with any profit to be sent to his young son David F Ogilvy. Surprisingly the book sold more than one million copies and Ogilvy is later said to have regretted giving away this splendid gift. Young David F Ogilvy travelled the World while spending this unexpected source of income.

Summary of the 1963 edition

I - Managing an advertising agency is like managing any other creative business. Ogilvy articulates the ten anchors that underpinned the corporate culture of his agency's 497 employees in 1963: they work hard, combine intelligence with intellectual honesty, put passion in what they do, do not suck up to their bosses, are self-confident, do not hire their spouses but future successors who they build up, have gentle manners, are well-organised and deliver work on time.

II - Ogilvy founded his agency in 1948 with $6,000 and the financial backing of his brother, Francis, then MD at Mather & Crowther, an advertising agency in London. In 1963, Ogilvy, Benson & Mather billed for $55m and had 19 clients, including Chase, Standard Oil (NJ), Shell, KLM, Rolls-Royce and Guinness. All had good products, which Ogilvy was proud to advertise and all gave the agency an opportunity to make a profit or create great campaigns.

III - Agencies have better chances of keeping their clients, if they put their best people on serving them, instead of chasing prospects. They are vigilant about the quality of client relationships at all hierarchical levels, if they invest in testing new campaigns and using clients' products. Agencies should refuse to take companies that fire their agencies frequently and actively resign accounts who dictate their campaigns, are unprofitable or whose products get worse.

IV - Ogilvy also offers 15 rules for businesses who want to be good clients of agencies. His main advice is to emancipate agencies from fear, tolerate genius, not bog them down with committees but brief their agency very thoroughly.

V - Great campaigns, those that drive product sales without drawing attention to themselves, build on the specific knowledge acquired by mail-order advertisers, department stores, research departments and direct market experience. Ogilvy encapsulates them into eleven great campaign commandments. There is no great campaign without a Big Idea. Ogilvy strongly advises to demonstrate the benefit to the customer specifically and factually.

VI - Potent copy results from being very disciplined in the writing of headlines and body copies. Doing so Ogilvy delivered his "best headline ever", [1] for Rolls-Royce: "At Sixty Miles an Hour, the Loudest Noise in the New Rolls-Royce Comes from the electric clock"; it was followed by a 719-word body copy, which he later increased to 1,400 following positive readers’ reactions to the first.

VII - The same artistic discipline applied to illustrations can arouse readers' curiosity, such as the eye patch of the Hathaway man. Ogilvy distils his extensive know-now through 41 specific commandments such as those three: i) photographs sell more than illustrations (because they are closer to reality and therefore more believable), ii) people are more attracted to faces of the same sex than the opposite, iii) never set the copy in reverse (white type on a black background).

VIII - As television was still a rather new medium in 1963, this chapter is short: four pages vs 23 devoted to advertising in printed media.

IX - These rules are further refined to the advertisement of food, travel and drug products. For instance, good food advertising is centered around the appetite appeal, makes food the hero, and shows it in color with a readable recipe.

X - Ogilvy lists 20 behaviors that will get young people to climb the hierarchical ladder faster than their colleagues. Among them are being ambitious without being aggressive, working hard to become an expert of their clients' industry, preferring a specialty to account management, and rising to the occasion.

XI - The book ends by discussing whether advertising should be abolished. Ogilvy's own experience is that informative advertising is more profitable than "combative" advertising and, although his views are pro-business, he closes by noting that "advertising [...] should not be abolished [...] but reformed". [2]

Additions of the 1988 edition

In his foreword, Sir Alan Parker recalls he worked at Ogilvy in the mid sixties. Back then the Confessions were required reading and the equivalent of Mao Zedong's Little Red Book. In "The Story Behind this Book", Ogilvy summarises a quarter century of growth since the first edition with two numbers: his agency has grown sixtyfold and the Confessions have sold a million copies in 14 languages. He calls out three specific rules of the 1963 edition which have been invalidated by research and market experiments and points out that the chapter on TV commercials is inadequate. However, the nine founding principles of Ogilvy & Matther's corporate culture that were described in the 1963 edition remain valid. The most important of them is probably the first one: "We sell - or else." [3]

Related Research Articles

Positioning refers to the place that a brand occupies in the minds of the customers and how it is distinguished from the products of the competitors. It is different from the concept of brand awareness. In order to position products or brands, companies may emphasize the distinguishing features of their brand or they may try to create a suitable image through the marketing mix. Once a brand has achieved a strong position, it can become difficult to reposition it. To effectively position a brand and create a lasting brand memory, brands need to be able to connect to consumers in an authentic way, creating a brand persona usually helps build this sort of connection.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leo Burnett</span> American advertising executive

Leo Burnett was an American advertising executive and the founder of Leo Burnett Company, Inc. He was responsible for creating some of advertising's most well-known characters and campaigns of the 20th century, including Tony the Tiger, the Marlboro Man, the Maytag Repairman, United's "Fly the Friendly Skies", and Allstate's "Good Hands", and for garnering relationships with multinational clients such as McDonald's, Hallmark and Coca-Cola. In 1999, Burnett was named by Time as one of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Ogilvy (businessman)</span> British advertising executive (1911–1999)

David Mackenzie Ogilvy was a British advertising tycoon, founder of Ogilvy & Mather, and known as the "Father of Advertising." Trained at the Gallup research organisation, he attributed the success of his campaigns to meticulous research into consumer habits. His most famous campaigns include Rolls-Royce, Dove soap, and Hathaway shirts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ogilvy (agency)</span> Advertising agency

Ogilvy is a New York City-based British advertising, marketing, and public relations agency. It was founded in 1850 by Edmund Mather as a London-based agency. In 1964, the firm became known as Ogilvy & Mather after merging with a New York City agency that was founded in 1948 by David Ogilvy.

Copywriting is the act or occupation of writing text for the purpose of advertising or other forms of marketing. Copywriting is aimed at selling products or services. The product, called copy or sales copy, is written content that aims to increase brand awareness and ultimately persuade a person or group to take a particular action.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Mayle</span> British businessman and writer (1939–2018)

Peter Mayle was a British businessman turned author who moved to France in the 1980s. He wrote a series of bestselling memoirs of his life there, beginning with A Year in Provence (1989).

Raymond Rubicam was an American advertising pioneer who co-established the Young & Rubicam (Y&R) advertising agency with John Orr Young. He retired from Y&R in 1944 at age 52.

Ameritest is an international advertising research firm, headquartered in Albuquerque, New Mexico, which provides its clients with worldwide market research on their advertising concepts, and executions.

Comfort is a British fabric softener brand marketed by Unilever. The range includes Comfort Pure and Comfort Crème. Scents include Passion Flower and Ylang Ylang, Lily and Riceflower, Wild Pear and Ginkgo and the Original Comfort Blue.

Throughout its history, the German automotive company Volkswagen has applied myriad advertising methods.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">R. A. Bevan</span> British businessman

Robert Alexander Polhill Bevan CBE was a significant figure in British communications and advertising during the mid-20th century. He was the second child of the artists Robert Polhill Bevan and Stanisława de Karłowska and was born at the Bevan house, Horsgate, in Cuckfield, Sussex.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Piyush Pandey</span> Indian businessman (born 1955)

Piyush Pandey is a living legend of the advertising industry and the Chief Creative Officer Worldwide (2019) and Executive Chairman India of Ogilvy (agency). He is the recipient of the LIA Legend Award (2024), and the Padma Shri award (2016). Pandey is also credited with shaping a distinct indigenous influence on Indian advertising that was earlier under the influence of western advertising and ideas.

S. H. Benson Ltd was a British advertising company founded in 1893 by Samuel Herbert Benson. Clients of the company included Bovril, Guinness and Colmans. S. H. Benson was born on 14 August 1854 in Marylebone.

Go Greyhound and Leave the Driving to Us is the advertising slogan used by Greyhound Lines, Inc. starting in 1956. The tag line appears on the bus line's advertising- television commercials, billboards, magazine ads, and radio spots periodically for the next four decades. The slogan implies that by riding a Greyhound bus, one avoids the hassles of driving a car. It makes car travel seem less convenient than bus travel. The message confronts Greyhound travelers who own cars and have a choice, and those who do not. Because of the success of this advertising slogan, Greyhound continually returned to it many times in the years after it was introduced.

David Deutsch was an American advertising executive and artist. He founded David Deutsch Associates, now known as Deutsch Inc., in 1969. He served as the agency's CEO from 1969 until 1989, when he handed control of the company to his son, Donny Deutsch.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of advertising</span> Major force in capitalist economies

The history of advertising can be traced to ancient civilizations. It became a major force in capitalist economies in the mid-19th century, based primarily on newspapers and magazines. In the 20th century, advertising grew rapidly with new technologies such as direct mail, radio, television, the internet, and mobile devices.

Peter Miles Young is a British former businessman and the incumbent Warden of New College, Oxford. Until September 2016, he was worldwide chairman and CEO of the international advertising, marketing, communications, consulting and public relations agency Ogilvy & Mather.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The customer is not a moron</span> Quotation attributed to advertising executive David Ogilvy

"The customer is not a moron. She's your wife" is a famous quotation attributed to advertising executive David Ogilvy in 1955. It subsequently appeared in his 1963 book, Confessions of an Advertising Man.

Steve Harrison is a British copywriter, creative director, and author.

Rajiv Rao is National Creative Director of Ogilvy & Mather, responsible for the ZooZoo and Pug Advertising Campaigns of Vodafone. He also did many other creative campaigns. He had won several medals at Cannes, One Show, Clio, Ad fest, CA, Media Spikes and London International Awards for his Creative work. He worked on Vodafone/Orange in India has won ‘Campaign of the year’, 4 times in a row. The World Brand Congress also conferred Mr. Rajiv Rao with the Creative Person of the year award in 2009. He had also been invited to be a part of the jury at the London International Awards and Ad fest Asia Pacific. According to Economic Times India, he has been in the list of top Creative Directors of the country for the last 5 years.

References

  1. ↑ Ogilvy, David (2013). Confessions of an Advertising Man (1988 ed.). London: Southbank Publishing. p. 123. ISBN   978-1-904915-37-9.
  2. ↑ Ogilvy, David (2013). Confessions of an Advertising Man (1988 ed.). London, England: Southbank Publishing. p. 180. ISBN   978-1-904915-37-9.
  3. ↑ Ogilvy, David (2013). Confessions of an Advertising Man (1988 ed.). London, England: Southbank Publishing. p. 17. ISBN   978-1-904915-37-9.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.