The Unpublished David Ogilvy by David Ogilvy
It was after listening to David Senra’s Founders Podcast episode on this book that inspired me to buy it myself and mark it with my own notes and highlights. “The Unpublished” was a retirement gift to David Ogilvy from his team when he moved on from Ogilvy & Mather. It’s a collection of all his own writings, talks, memos written on paper, and lists. I give it a 9/10. Fast read and the high level of how organic all the content is makes the reading experience intimate giving me a peek into working at his firm during the 60s and 70s.
Early Years
The copy must be human and very simple, keyed right down to its market. Every word in the copy must count. Concrete figures must be substituted for atmospheric claims; cliches give way to facts, and empty exhortations to alluring offers.
David Ogilvy’s Notes, Memos, and Letters
A Teaching Hospital: I have a new metaphor. Great hospitals do 2 things: They look after patients and they teach young doctors. Ogilvy & Mather does two things: We look after our clients and we teach young advertising people.
A handwritten note David wrote to Joel Raphaelson, 1964: Joel: I thought you promised to show me the Sears ads (with copy) last Tuesday. It is now three months since Struthers picked them. Longer than the period of gestation in pigs.
A memo to the head of the Ogilvy Center for R&D, in response to the suggestion that the Center publish a newsletter: “Can you imagine Einstein issuing ‘What’s new in research’ memo?”
A memo: Unless your advertising contains a Big Idea it will pass like a ship in the night… Too dull to be remembered, too dull to build a brand image, too dull to sell - you cannot bore people into buying your product.
A memo about changing your mind: I can only quote Ralph Waldo Emerson: “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds… speak what you think today in words as hard as cannonballs, and tomorrow speak what tomorrow thinks in hard words again, thought it contradicts everything you said today.”
An interview where David was asked by an Australian journalist why ‘he lasted so long: 1) I have outlived all my competitors 2) My obsessive interest in advertising has no dimmed 3) My younger partners have tolerated my presence in their midst 4) I had the wisdom to give them a free run. As a result, Ogilvy & Mather has outgrown its founder.
A response about his work habits:
1) I have never written an advertisement in the office. Too many interruptions. I do all my writing at home.
2) I look at every advertisement which has appeared for competing products during the past 20 years.
3) I am helpless without research material
4) I write out a definition of the problems and a statement of purpose which I wish the campaign to achieve. Then I go no further until that statement and its principles are accepted by the client.
5) Before writing the copy, I write down every conceivable fact and selling idea.
6) I write the headline. I try to write 20 headlines for every advertisement. I never select the final headlines without asking the opinions of other people in the agency. I seek the help of the research department and get them to do a split run on a battery of headlines.
7) At this point I can no longer postpone doing the actual copy. So i go home and sit down at my desk, I find myself entirely without ideas. I get bad-tempered. If my wife comes into the room, I growl at her (this has gotten worse since I gave up smoking)
8) I am terried of producting lousy advertising. This causes me to throw away the first 20 attempts.
9) If all else fails, I drink a half of bottle of rum and play a Handel oratorio on the gramophone. This generally produces a rush of uncontrollable gush of copy.
10) Next morning I get up early and edit the gush.
11) Then I take the train to New York and my secretary types a draft.
12) I am a lousy copywriter but I am a good editor. I go to work editing my own draft. After four of five editings, it looks good enough to show to the client. If the client changes the copy, I get angry – because I took a lot of trouble writing it and what I wrote, I wrote on purpose.
Lists
A memo to Ogilvy & Mather management titled, How To Write: the better you write, the higher you go in Ogilvy & Mather. People who think well, write well. Good writing is not a natural gift, you have to learn to write well. Here are 10 hints:
1) Read Roman-Ralphaeson book on Writing That Works. Read it three times.
2) Write the way you talk. Naturally.
3) Use short words, short sentences, and short paragraphs.
4) Never use jargon words like reconceptualize, demassification, attitudinally, judgementally. They are hallmarks of a pretentious ass.
5) Never write more than 2 pages on any subject.
6) Check your quotations.
7) Never sent a letter or memo on the day you write it. Read it aloud the next morning and edit it.
8) If it something important, get a colleague to improve it.
9) Before you send your letter or your memo, make sure it is crystal clear what yu want the recipient to do
10) If you want ACTION, don’t write. Go and tell the guy what you want.
Speeches & Papers
From a speech to the American Association of Advertising Agencies:
Every advertisement is part of the long-term investment in the personality of the brand.
The manufacturer who dedicates his advertising to building the most favorable image, the most sharply defined personality, is the one who will get the largest share of the market at the highest profit - in the long run.
From a talk to the staff during Christmas 1962:
Set exorbitant standards, and give your people hell when they don’t live up to them. There is nothing so demoralizing as a boss who tolerates second-rate work.
When your people turn in an exceptional performance, make sure they know who admire them for it.
Above all, make sure you are getting the most out of your people. Men and women are happiest when they know that they are giving everything they’ve got.
From a talk to McKinsey & Company in 1972:
The harder your people work, the happier they will be. I believe in the Scottish proverb: “Hard work never killed a man.” Men die of boredom, psychological conflict and disease. They never die of hard work.
I am stickler for meeting deadlines. I can do almost any job in one weekend. I think everyone can. The trouble is that most chaps are too lazy to burn the midnight oil. The are unwilling to rise to the occasion.
On the other hands, I believe in lots of vacations. When one of my partners get abrasive, it is usually because he has worked too long without a vacation. I also believe that the partner in a service business should be sabbaticals to recharge their batteries.
When people aren’t having any fun, they seldom produce good work. Kill grimness with laughter. Encourage exuberance. Get rid of sad dogs who spread gloom.
When a client hires Ogilvy & Mather or McKinsey – he expects the best. If you don’t make sure he gets it, you shortchange him and he won’t come back for more.
From a speech to the Advertising Research Foundation in New York 1986:
As a copywriter, what I want from researchers is to be told what kind of advertising will make the cash register ring. A blind pig make sometimes find truffles but it helps to know that they grow under oak trees.
Principles & Management
In a letter to the global Ogilvy & Mather managerial team:
To keep your ship moving through the water at maximum efficiency, you have to keep scraping the barnacles off its bottom. It is rare for a department head to recommend the abolition of a job or even the elimination of a man; the pressure from below is always for adding. If the initiative for barnacle-scraping does not come management, barnacles will never be scraped.
New Business: The best way to get new accounts is to create for our present clients the kind of advertising that will attract prospective clients.
Corporate Culture
Attitude Towards Clients
The recommendation we make to clients are the recommendations we would make if we owned their companies, without regard to our own short-term interest. This earns their respect, which is the greatest asset an agency can have.
The line between pride in our work and neurotic obstinacy is a narrow one. We do not grudge clients the right to decide what advertising to run. It is their money.
Ex Cathedra (aka from the highest seat)
We sell – or else.
You cannot bore people into buying your product; you can only interest them in buying it.
The consumer is not a moron. She is your wife. Don’t insult her intelligence.
Unless you campaign contains a Big Idea, it will pass like a ship in the night.
Never run an advertisement you would not want your own family to see.
Leadership
I saw my old boss in the kitchens of the Hotel Majestic fire one of his chefs because the poor devil could not get his brioches to rise straight. I was shocked by the ruthlessness, but it made all the chefs feel that they were working in the best kitchen in the world.
The man who David Ogily felt had the wist things to say about leadership was Field Marshall Montgomery who said:
“The leader must have infectious optimism, and the determination to persevere in the face of difficulties. He must also radiate confidence, even when he himself is not too certain of the outcome.”
“The final test of a leader is the feeling you have when you leave his presence after a conference. Have you a feeling of uplift and confidence?”