Review – Oglivy On Advertising

Oglivy On Advertising

by David Oglivy, published 1985

How to produce advertising that sells

Advertising doesn’t need to be “creative”, it needs to be so interesting that a person is compelled to buy the product
When Aeschines spoke, they said, “How well he speaks.” But when Demosthenes spoke, they said, “Let us march against Philip.”
The wrong advertising can actually reduce the sales of a product
Study the product you are going to advertise and look for a “big idea” that can sell it (a big idea whose genesis is found in your research of the product itself)
Find out what kind of advertising your competitors have been doing for similar products, and with what success, to get your bearings
Consumer research: investigate how they think about your kind of product, what language they use when they discuss the subject, what attributes are important to them and what promises would be most likely to make them buy your brand
Product positioning: what the product does, and who it is for
Decide what image (personality) you want for your brand
Your advertising should consistently project the same image, year after year
People don’t pick products, they pick images; few customers try all products within a space and compare before picking one they like best
Unless your advertising contains a big idea, it will pass like a ship in the night
When researching: stuff your conscious mind with information and then unhook your rational thought process and see what creative ideas flow in
Questions to ask about a potential “big idea”: did it make me gasp when I first saw it? do I wish I had thought of it myself? is it unique? does it fit the strategy to perfection? could it be used for 30 years?
Make the product itself the hero of your advertising
Just say what’s good about your product, and do a clearer, more honest, more informative job of saying it
If you are lucky enough to write a good advertisement, repeat it until it stops selling
A good advertisement can be thought of as a radar sweep, constantly hunting new prospects as they enter the market
Lessons from direct response: use 2-minute commercials (not 30-seconds), there are more sales late at night (not during prime time), use long copy (not short copy)
Do your homework, avoid committees, learn from research, watch what the direct-response advertisers do

How to run an advertising agency

If each of us hires people who are smaller than us, we will become a company of dwarfs; but if each of us hires people who are taller than us, we will become a company of giants
Every time I give someone a title, I make a hundred people angry and one person ungrateful
Even a mature agency with a pool of potential leaders does well to refresh its blood occasionally by hiring partners from outside
Don’t hire: your friends, partners’ children, your own children, or clients’ children (ambitious people won’t stay in organizations following nepotism)
It is suicide to settle for second-rate performance
It is a good idea to start the year by writing down exactly what you want to accomplish, and end it by measuring how much you accomplished (you can pay people bonuses based on something like this)
Companies cannot grow without innovation
Be ruthless and let all the “chefs” feel that they work in the “best kitchen in the world”
The more centers of leadership you create, the stronger your agency will become
The final test of a leader is the feeling you have after you leave his presence after a conference; have you a feeling of uplift and confidence?
Every company should have a written list of principles and purpose
Agencies are seldom for sale unless they’re in some kind of trouble
Retirement planning: buy the building that houses your office with your excess capital
Never allow two people to do a job that could be handled by one
Never summon people to your office, go to see them in their offices, unannounced
If you want to get action, communicate verbally

How to get clients/how to find an agency

Only first-class business, and that in a first-class kind of way
What you should worry about is not the price of your agency, but the selling power of its advertisements
Tear out the advertisements you envy, and find out which agency did them
Pick the agency whose campaign interests you the most
Don’t haggle over price and if anything, offer to pay more to ensure extra attention and service
Don’t keep a dog and then bark yourself

Print advertising

Five times as many people read the headlines as read the body copy
Unless your headline sells your product, you have wasted 90% of your money
Promise the reader a benefit
Headlines which contain news are sure-fire
Headlines that offer the reader helpful information attract above-average readership
Include the brand name in your headline
In local advertising, including the name of the city in the headline attracts better readership
The silliest thing of all is to run an ad without a headline
On illustrations: have a remarkable idea; the reader should ask, “What goes on here?” at a glance; illustrate the end-result of using your product; crowd scenes don’t pull; don’t show the human face scaled larger-than-life; babies, animals and sex catch the most attention; when you use photographs of a woman, men ignore the advertisement and vice versa
Remember: when people read your copy, they are alone
Copy should be written in a language people use everyday
Avoid analogies, stay away from superlatives, include a testimonial
An ad’s chance of success is directly proportional to the number of pertinent merchandise facts included in the copy
Until you have a better answer, copy others
Illustration at the top, headline underneath illustration, copy under headline
Capitals retard easy reading; don’t place periods at the end of headlines; use serifed fonts as they aid easy reading

How to make TV commercials that sell

The more amateurish the performance, the more credible
Commercials which name competing brands are less believable and more confusing
Provided they are relevant to your product, characters are above average in their ability to change brand-preference
Cartoons can sell things to children but they are below average in selling to adults
Use the name within the first ten seconds
Play games with the name
Open with the fire, you only have 30 seconds
Sound effects can make a positive difference
It is better to have the actors talk on camera
Show the viewer something she has never seen before
The only limit is your imagination
Make your commercials crystal clear
Because radio is a high-frequency medium, people get tired quickly of the same commercial so make several

Competing with Procter & Gamble

They use research to determine the most effective strategy, and they never change a successful strategy
They always promise the customer one important benefit
They believe that the first duty of advertising is to communicate effectively
All their commercials include a ‘moment of confirmation’
In 60% of commercials, they use demonstrations
Their commercials talk directly to the consumer, using language and situations which are familiar to her
They communicate the brand name, always within the first 10 seconds and an average of 3 times in addition thereafter
Their commercials deliver the promise verbally and reinforce it with supers
They show consumers what the product will do for them
They show the users of their products deriving some emotional benefit
They use slices of life, user testimonials and talking heads, all proven ad techniques
They do not spend their money naming competing brands
Continually test new executions of ongoing strategies
Continually test higher levels of expenditure
Almost all brands are advertised throughout the year

Miracles of research

Research lets you measure the reputation of your company
Research can estimate the sales of new products and the advertising expenditures necessary to earn maximum profits
Research can help you determine optimum positioning of your product
Research can define your target audience
Research can find out what factors are most important in the purchase decision and what vocab consumers use when talking about your kind of product
Research can save you time and money by ‘reading’ your competitor’s test markets
Research can determine the most persuasive promise; advertising which promises no benefit to the consumer does not sell, yet the majority of campaigns contain no promise; the selection of the promise is the most valuable contribution that research can make to the advertising process; try to find a process that is not only persuasive, but unique
Research can tell you which of several premiums work best
Use research to measure a commercial’s ability to change brand preferences; recall testing is a waste of time

What little I know about marketing

You can judge the vitality of a company by the number of new products it brings to market
Concentrate your time, your brains and your advertising money on your successes
In the long run, the manufacturer who dedicates his advertising to building the most sharply defined image for his product gets the largest market share
Sales are a function of product-value and advertising. Promotions can not produce more than a temporary kink in the sales curve
Regard advertising as part of the product, to be treated as a production cost, not a selling cost
The task of advertising is not primarily one of conversion but rather of reinforcement and assurance

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