PDF Summary:Ogilvy On Advertising, by David Ogilvy

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Consideration #3: Product names. Products that have good names sell better, and there are three kinds of names, each with its own advantages and disadvantages:

1. People’s names. These are hard to copy, are easy to remember, and imply that a person designed the product. For example, Ford and Veuve Clicquot are named after people.
2. Invented names. Since these made-up words are unfamiliar, it takes a long time to build up sales appeal. For example, Kodak and Kotex are invented names.
3. Explanatory names. These names describe what products are or do. They initially have sales appeal, but the disadvantage is that they’re too specific to be used for line extensions (creating new products under the same brand name). For example, Band-Aid is a descriptive name that only works for bandages. Dove, on the other hand, can be used for body soap, shampoos, dish soap, moisturizer, and so on.

Once you’ve chosen a name, do some further research on the following to determine the name’s effectiveness:

• Context. Names may not mean the same thing to consumers that you think they do, may be hard to pronounce, may be hard to remember, or may be similar to another name...

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• For example, after Dove became a successful body soap, Lever Brothers considered what else they might associate the brand name with. Their research accurately discovered that dish soap was most likely to be successful.

Factor #9: Fall from grace. Research can alert you when customers lose interest in your product.

• For example, if you change an ingredient and public opinion of your product drops, research will alert you.

Company Factors

Factor #1: Reputation. Research will tell you what consumers, politicians, media, and groups think of your company.

Economic Factors

Factor #1: Projected sales and advertising expenses. Mathematical models can tell you how much you’ll need to spend on advertising to make the most profit.

Factor #2: Premiums. Research will tell you which premiums (promotional items) people prefer.

• For example, Shell considered 35 different premiums, and their research revealed that steak knives would be most popular.

Advertising Factors

Some adpeople dislike research because they think it stifles creativity. Ogilvy, on the other hand, found that it inspired good ideas and legitimized the most...

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2. Study your competitor’s ads. When you come across effective ads, study and copy the techniques used. Particularly study direct-response ads (ads that encourage consumers to contact a company directly to make a purchase) because these tend to be tested extensively.

3. Engage in consumer research. In particular, try to find out what product promise will most appeal to consumers.

4. Position your product. To “position,” determine what the product does and who the target audience is.

• (Shortform example: A pair of running shoes could be positioned as essential equipment for athletes, or a fashion accessory for teens.)

5. Choose a brand image. “Image” is the personality of a product, which stems from its inherent qualities as well as marketing variables such as price, packaging, and advertising style. Typically, cultivating a high-quality image works well, especially for products that are used in public. If your advertising is tacky or cheap, it will make your product look tacky and cheap, and people don’t want to be associated with these qualities.

• For example, Jack Daniel’s, Grand Dad, and Taylor whiskey all taste very similar. However, people...

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• For example, baking soda, an old product for baking, was advertised with news about it also working as a fridge deodorizer.

Tip #4: Include your brand name. Otherwise, the 80% of people who don’t read the copy won’t know what the ad is for.

Tip #5: Use buzzwords. There are certain words, such as “amazing” or “suddenly,” that will always grab the reader’s attention.

Tip #6: Target your audience. If your product is niche, name your audience to attract their attention.

• For example, if you sell asthma inhalers, put the word “asthma” in the headline.

Tip #7: Mention the name of the city if you’re advertising in a local paper. People are interested in things that are happening in their region.

Tip #8: Make the headline only as long as it needs to be. The research on headline length is conflicting—some sources found the short headlines sold more; others found that headlines with 10 words sold more. Therefore, use whatever length is appropriate for your ad.

• For example, a Volkswagen ad about quality control used the one-word headline “Lemon” to describe the cars that didn’t pass inspection. “Lemon” made its way into popular usage and is...

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Type #2: “Slice of life.” In these commercials, two actors argue about a product, and by the end of the commercial, one has convinced the other that the product has merit. Slices of life are common and often cheesy, but they work.

Type #3: Testimonials. In these commercials, someone talks about how good your product is or how it has changed their life. The best testimonials are given by consumers who don’t know they’re being filmed, and you can encourage a vehement response by asking your actor to criticize your product.

• For example, in one Shell commercial, an announcer explains that an actor is going to discourage customers from buying Super Shell. Then, the actor bad-mouths Super Shell to a customer named Mrs. Longo. He says that she probably gets bad mileage, and she counters that she gets great mileage.

Type #4: *Demonstrations. These commercials show how well your product works. (Note: If you want to demonstrate that your product is better than competitors’, that’s fine, but don’t name their brands. People are less likely to believe your ad and more likely to be confused about which company the ad is actually for.)

• For example, in a commercial...

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• Under-researching. Many corporate campaigns don’t receive the same amount of research as product campaigns.
• Limited media. Some companies don’t use TV, and this decreases their reach.
• CEO appearances. CEOs aren’t trained announcers and may not be as well-spoken as an actor.
• Use of initials. If you reduce your company name to initials, people won’t know what the letters stand for or might mistake your company for someone else.
  • For example, both Brown Boveri and British Broadcasting use BBC.

Influencing Legislation

It’s possible to use corporate advertising to influence the public to support legislation, but it’s difficult for two reasons:

1. People don’t trust companies. In TV shows, two-thirds of businesspeople are portrayed as bad people (greedy, stupid, selfish, and so on).
2. Many businesspeople aren’t aware of the opinions of non-businesspeople. For example, some businesspeople didn’t realize that some people don’t like capitalism.

Additionally, there are limitations on advertising that aims to change legislation:

• It’s not considered a business expense by the IRS.
• Many TV networks won’t run this type of...

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Even once you create a profitable campaign, keep testing variables to try to come up with something even more profitable. You can do this both by adding new elements to your campaigns (such as adding a personalized letter from the head of the company to your direct-mail campaign), or eliminating elements (such as no longer including a brochure with your letters).

Testing Media

Direct-response ads can also help you figure out the most effective media outlets in which to place your ads. For example, if you get low response from your ads in one publication, you might stop advertising there and put the money towards advertising in a different publication.

When considering media:

• Look at where your competitors place their ads. Likely, they get good responses from the outlets they use on a regular basis.
• Be aware of editorial changes in magazines. This may change audience and readership.
• Note that people buy less when TV programming is good because their minds aren’t free to wander—they’re focused on the show, not the commercials.
• On TV, advertise in January, February, and March, and on weekends, late evenings, and early mornings, because these are...

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1. Advertising agencies, such as Ogilvy & Mather, that hire for a variety of positions.

Ogilvy only ever worked in agencies, so this is the only category his book covers in detail. Agencies tend to be interesting places to work—you can move internally, the culture is stimulating, and agencies often have an international presence, so you can work anywhere in the world (it helps if you speak the local language).

When you start your career, prioritize learning opportunities over salary. Look for an agency at which the top people teach interns, and the established employees are still open to professional development.

Positions

Advertising agencies hire for a variety of positions:

Copywriters

Copywriters write the prose that appears in ads or the dialogue in TV commercials. They’re the most important (if not the most visible) people in agencies, but at most agencies, there are half as many copywriters as account executives. (Copywriters usually dislike account executives, and the feeling is mutual. Copywriters think account executives are bullheaded and stupid. Account executives tend to think copywriters are divas.)

To be a successful copywriter, you...

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Human Resources

An important part of running an agency is managing the people who work for it.

Hiring

To run a successful agency, you need talented, trained staff. Try to recruit people who are:

• More skilled than you. Ogilvy had good luck with graduates of Harvard and St. Paul’s.
• Smart. Understand that being smart means more than IQ—it includes common sense and curiosity.
• Literate. Make sure everyone can communicate in writing—most communication in advertising is on the page.
• Good at leadership. Look for people whom you could see running your agency. Look at what they did in college—if they held leadership positions, they’ll probably hold them again.

Be cautious of or don’t hire any of the following:

• Your friends. If they don’t do their job well, you’ll have to fire them, and your friendship is unlikely to survive.
• Your clients. Your clients might be good at their business, but their skills are unlikely to transfer to the advertising business.
• Your clients’ children. If there’s conflict, you might lose the client.
• Your children or your partners’ children. Your most ambitious staff will be...

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• For example, during a seven-year period, Ogilvy got every single account he competed for just by showing them the campaigns he’d done for his other clients. In fact, clients even came to him—one day, a man came into the office and offered him the IBM account.

There are three other ways to attract new clients:

Option #1: Presentations

When a client is interested in your agency, give them a presentation to convince them they want to hire you.

Here are some tips for a successful presentation:

• Keep the presentation budget reasonable. Some agencies spend up to half a million dollars presenting to clients, and they’d need to keep the account for 20 years to recover this.
• Mix up the seating so that your team and the client’s team are integrated.
• Practice your presentation.
• Don’t read off your notes.
• Listen to the client. You’re evaluating the client as much as they’re evaluating you—you don’t want to take on someone who will be difficult.
  • For example, Ogilvy was lectured for two hours by a Magnavox head and decided he didn’t want to work with him.
• Admit your weaknesses before the client notices them. This will make it seem like...

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Once you’ve signed with an agency, treat them as follows:

1. Don’t interfere with their work. For example, when Ogilvy was showing a campaign to the chairman of Sears, the comptroller came in and tried to edit the copy. The chairman shut him down.
2. Give them an annual performance report. This will nip problems before they grow too big.
3. Don’t set up more than two approval processes. Otherwise, it will take a long time to get ads approved.
4. Be nice to copywriters—if you don’t like their work, be gentle; if you do, be effusive.

If your company is too small to be taken on by an agency, you might try recruiting a retired copywriter. Retired copywriters tend to miss the work and appreciate money.

(Shortform note: In the book, this chapter is presented as an “open letter” advising a company that wants to hire an agency. We’ve summarized it from the point of view of a client.)

The Public

While clients probably have a favorable view of adpeople, there are many critics of the industry. **Some people think it’s manipulative, insincere, subversive, evil, trivializing, and one professor at the New School of Social Research referred to it as...

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• Australia. Australian advertising was improving. It was more influenced by the U.S. than Britain.
• New Zealand. Most of the top talent in New Zealand had left and gone to work in other countries.
• India. Indian agencies knew a lot about advertising but with some exceptions, didn’t seem to be able to apply it. They had some unique challenges—they needed to advertise in 12 languages, most of the population was illiterate, and the average person earned $5 a week so was unlikely to buy products even if advertising reached them.
• Kenya. Like India, Kenyan ads had to be written in multiple languages (nine) and much of the population was illiterate. Additionally, people earned $10 a week so didn’t have a lot of disposable income to spend on the products they see in ads. Most advertising was via radio (there were only 30,000 TV sets in the country) and contests and scholarships worked well. Also, advertising needed to be tribally appropriate—for example, the Kikuyu see fish as snakes, so advertising cooking supplies with a fish recipe would be ineffective.
• The Soviet Union. There wasn’t much advertising in the Soviet Union besides campaigns for...

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• They used good commercial crafting: they used demonstrations in 60% of their commercials, familiar language and settings in their commercials (for example, kitchen products are shown in a kitchen, not a lab), they mentioned the brand name early and often, stated and repeated the promise, used supers, avoided celebrities, created characters, and never named the competing brand—they just called it “the other leading” product. They were starting to use music and humor.
• Their commercials used a lot of words, often 100+ in even 30-second commercials.
• They didn’t explain why products worked—they found that their consumers were more interested in results than the behind-the-scenes workings.
• They promised emotional benefits.
  • For example, they promised that using Dash detergent would make you more appreciated.
• They spent 45% of their TV budget on daytime, 45% on fringe, and 30% on prime time.
• They used 45-second commercials as well as 30-second ones because the extra time gave them more opportunities to set the scene and hook the viewer.
• They advertised throughout the year rather than flighting...

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Like Lasker, Stanley Resor held other jobs before getting into the advertising industry. While he attended Yale, he worked as a tutor and bookseller. Later in life, he started working for J. Walter Thompson.

Unlike Lasker, Resor didn’t think much of copywriters. He focused on his account executives and valued research. Every month, he asked the same 5,000 consumers what they bought, he built a test kitchen in the agency, and he experimented with TV before it was even viable for advertising.

Also unlike Lasker, Resor treated his staff very well. He was very interested in other people’s opinions—he believed in consensus and hated hierarchies—and his company had no formal structure or job descriptions. He was good at attracting and keeping top talent.

Resor was responsible for some firsts in the industry—he was the first person to set up international offices and the first to employ a woman copywriter when he hired his wife, Helen.

Resor worked long hours and adhered to his principles. He refused to advertise liquor or patent medicine accounts, and he turned down the opportunity to work with Camel.

**Resor led J. Walter Thompson for 45 years, until he was 80....

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1. Foreign agencies will move into the U.S. and be successful.
2. Multinational companies will increase their advertising and sales worldwide. Campaigns will be adjusted to be appropriate locally.
3. Direct-response advertising will become a general technique rather than a specialty.
4. TV commercials will become more economical.