confessions of an advertising man by david ogilvy

As well as drunkenness which on (at least one occasion) wins him a client as he has consumed so much that he is rendered incapable of saying anything and can only nod sagely, the potential customer reads into this a deep insight into his own business and wisdom rather than incipient liver damage and so hires Ogilvy. What this allows him to do is to set out his wares and talk about the integrity, talent and business understanding that he could bring to the table. Ogilvy tells you how he runs his agency, how he gets his clients, how he creates his adverts and how, in his opinion, you can be a good client. Of course the business of keeping paragraphs short is one of the many pieces of advice that he gives in the book. The first time reading it, I didn't really realise quite how relentless this effect was, until I found myself turning the last page. This is one long, but entertaining, advert for Ogilvy's ad agency that's driven forward by a fantastic mixture of short paragraphs (many with just two sentences) and anecdotes.

Ogilvy cites Gallup as one of the major influences on his thinking, emphasizing meticulous research methods and adherence to reality.

In 1938, Ogilvy emigrated to the United States, where he went to work for George Gallup's Audience Research Institute in New Jersey. But never mistake quantity of calls for quality of salesmanship.' Among its suggestions, 'The more prospects you talk to, the more sales you expose yourself to, the more orders you will get. In 1935 he wrote a guide for Aga salesmen (Fortune magazine called it 'probably the best sales manual ever written'). He sold stoves to nuns, drunkards, and everyone in between. Ogilvy's career with Aga Cookers was astonishing.

He learned discipline, management - and when to move on: 'If I stayed at the Majestic I would have faced years of slave wages, fiendish pressure, and perpetual exhaustion.' He returned to England to sell cooking stoves, door-to-door. He was educated at Fettes College in Edinburgh and at Christ Church, Oxford (although he didn't graduate).ĭavid ogilvy After Oxford, Ogilvy went to Paris, where he worked in the kitchen of the Hotel Majestic. David Mackenzie Ogilvy was born in West Horsley, England, on June 23, 1911.

Confessions of an advertising man by david ogilvy