David Ogilvy Article

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David Ogilvy

Born 23 June 1911West Horsley, Surrey

Died 21 July 1999 (aged88)Chteau de Touffou, Bonnes, France

Occupation Advertising executive

David Ogilvy (businessman)From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

David Mackenzie Ogilvy (/olvi/; 23 June 1911 21 July 1999), CBE, was an advertising executivewho was widely hailed as "The Father ofAdvertising".[1] In 1962, Time called him "the mostsought-after wizard in today's advertising industry".[2]

Contents

1 Early life (19111938)2 At Gallup (19381948)3 The Ogilvy & Mather years (19491973)4 Life with WPP and afterward (19891999)5 Works6 Notes7 References8 Further reading9 External links

Early life (19111938)

David Mackenzie Ogilvy was born on 23 June 1911 at West Horsley, Surrey in England.[3] His mother,Dorothy Blow Fairfield, was Anglo-Irish. His father, Francis John Longley Ogilvy (c. 1867 - 1943) wasa Gaelic-speaking Highlander from Scotland who was a classics scholar and a financial broker. Ogilvyattended St Cyprian's School, Eastbourne, on reduced fees because of his father's straitenedcircumstances and won a scholarship at age thirteen to Fettes College, in Edinburgh. In 1929, he againwon a scholarship, this time in History to Christ Church, Oxford.

Without the scholarships, Ogilvy would not have been able to attend Fettes or Oxford Universitybecause his father's business was badly hit by the depression of the mid-1920s. His studies were notsuccessful, however, and he left Oxford for Paris in 1931 where he became an apprentice chef in theHotel Majestic. After a year, he returned to Scotland and started selling AGA cooking stoves, door-to-door. His success at this marked him out to his employer, who asked him to write an instruction manual,The Theory and Practice of Selling the AGA Cooker,[4] for the other salesmen. Thirty years later,Fortune magazine editors called it the finest sales instruction manual ever written.

After seeing the manual, Ogilvy's older brother Francis Ogilvythe father of actor Ian Ogilvyshowedthe manual to management at the London advertising agency Mather & Crowther where he wasworking. They offered the younger Ogilvy a position as an account executive.

At Gallup (19381948)

In 1938, Ogilvy persuaded his agency to send him to the United States for a year, where he went to workfor George Gallup's Audience Research Institute in New Jersey. Ogilvy cites Gallup as one of the majorinfluences on his thinking, emphasizing meticulous research methods and adherence to reality.



During World War II, Ogilvy worked for the British Intelligence Service at the British embassy inWashington, DC. There he analyzed and made recommendations on matters of diplomacy and security.According to a biography produced by Ogilvy & Mather, "he extrapolated his knowledge of humanbehaviour from consumerism to nationalism in a report which suggested 'applying the Gallup techniqueto fields of secret intelligence.'"[5] Eisenhowers Psychological Warfare Board picked up the report andsuccessfully put Ogilvys suggestions to work in Europe during the last year of the war.

Also during World War II David Ogilvy was a notable alumnus of the secret Camp X, located near thetowns of Whitby and Oshawa in Ontario, Canada. According to an article on the:[6] "It was there hemastered the power of propaganda before becoming king of Madison Avenue. Although Ogilvy wastrained in sabotage and close combat, he was ultimately tasked with projects that included successfullyruining the reputation of businessmen who were supplying the Nazis with industrial materials."[7]

After the war, Ogilvy bought a farm in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania and lived among the Amish. Theatmosphere of "serenity, abundance, and contentment" kept Ogilvy and his wife in Pennsylvania forseveral years, but eventually he admitted his limitations as a farmer and moved to Manhattan.

The Ogilvy & Mather years (19491973)

Having worked as a chef, researcher, and farmer, Ogilvy now started his own advertising agency withthe backing of Mather and Crowther, the London agency being run by his elder brother, Francis, whichlater acquired another London agency, S.H. Benson. The new agency in New York was called Ogilvy,Benson, and Mather. David Ogilvy had just $6,000 in his account when he started the agency. He writesin Confessions of an Advertising Man that, initially, he struggled to get clients. Ogilvy also admitted(referring to the pioneer of British advertising Bobby Bevan, the chairman of Benson): "I was in awe ofhim but Bevan never took notice of me!" They would meet later, however.[8]

Ogilvy & Mather was built on David Ogilvy's principles; in particular, that the function of advertising isto sell and that successful advertising for any product is based on information about its consumer. Hedisliked advertisements that had loud patronizing voices, and believed a customer should be treated asintelligent. In 1955, he coined the phrase, "The customer is not a moron, she's your wife" based on thesevalues.[9]

His entry into the company of giants started with several iconic advertising campaigns: former FirstLady, Eleanor Roosevelt, did a commercial for Good Luck Margarine in 1959. In his autobiography,Ogilvy On Advertising, ad mogul David Ogilvy considered it a mistake to persuade her to do the ad not because it was undignified, but because he grew to realize that putting celebs in ads is a mistake.

"The man in the Hathaway shirt" with his aristocratic eye patch which used George Wrangel as model;"The man from Schweppes is here" introduced Commander Edward Whitehead, the elegant bearded Brit,bringing Schweppes (and "Schweppervescence") to the U.S.; a famous headline in the automobilebusiness, "At 60 miles an hour the loudest noise in this new Rolls-Royce comes from the electric clock";"Pablo Casals is coming home to Puerto Rico", a campaign which Ogilvy said helped change theimage of a country, and was his proudest achievement.

One of his greatest successes was "Only Dove is one-quarter moisturizing cream". This campaignhelped Dove become the top selling soap in the U.S.



Ogilvy believed that the best way to get new clients was to do notable work for his existing clients.Success in his early campaigns helped Ogilvy get big clients such as Rolls-Royce and Shell. New clientsfollowed and Ogilvy's company grew quickly.

In 1973, Ogilvy retired as Chairman of Ogilvy & Mather and moved to Touffou, his estate in France.While no longer involved in the agency's day-to-day operations, he stayed in touch with the company.His correspondence so dramatically increased the volume of mail handled in the nearby town of Bonnesthat the post office was reclassified at a higher status and the postmaster's salary raised.

Ogilvy & Mather linked with H.H.D Europe in 1972.

Life with WPP and afterward (19891999)Ogilvy came out of retirement in the 1980s to serve as chairman of Ogilvy, Benson, & Mather in India.He also spent a year acting as temporary chairman of the agencys German office, commuting weeklybetween Touffou and Frankfurt. He visited branches of the company around the world, and continued torepresent Ogilvy & Mather at gatherings of clients and business audiences.

In 1989, The Ogilvy Group was bought by WPP Group, a British parent company, for US$864 million ina hostile takeover made possible by the fact that the company group had made an IPO as the firstcompany in marketing to do so.

During the takeover procedures, Sir Martin Sorrell, the founder of WPP, who already had a tarnishedreputation in the advertising industry following a similar successful takeover of J. Walter Thompson,was described by Ogilvy as an "odious little shit",[10] and he promised to never work again. (Reportssoftened it to "odious little jerk", and when Martin Sorrell signed his next company report, he followedthe signature with the letters OLJ.) Two events followed simultaneously, however: WPP became thelargest marketing communications firm in the world, and David Ogilvy was named the company's non-executive chairman (a position he held for three years). Eventually he became a fan of Sorrell. A letter ofapology from Ogilvy adorns Sorrell's office, which is said to be the only apology David Ogilvy everoffered in any form during his adult life. Only a year after his derogatory comments about Sorrell, hewas quoted as saying, 'When he tried to take over our company, I would liked to have killed him. But itwas not legal. I wish I had known him 40 years ago. I like him enormously now.'

At age seventy-five, Ogilvy was asked if anything he'd always wanted had somehow eluded him. Hisreply was, "Knighthood. And a big family - ten children." His only child, David Fairfield Ogilvy, wasborn during his first marriage, to Melinda Street. That marriage ended in divorce (1955) as did a secondmarriage to Anne Cabot. Ogilvy married Herta Lans in France during 1973.

He didnt achieve knighthood, but he was made a Commander of the Order of British Empire (CBE) in1967. He was elected to the U.S. Advertising Hall of Fame in 1977 and to France's Order of Arts andLetters in 1990. He chaired the Public Participation Committee for Lincoln Center in Manhattan andserved as a member of the Metropolitan Museum of Arts 100th Anniversary Committee.[11] He wasappointed Chairman of the United Negro College Fund in 1968, and trustee on the Executive Council ofthe World Wildlife Fund in 1975. Mr. Ogilvy was inducted into the Junior Achievement U.S. BusinessHall of Fame in 1979.

David Ogilvy died on 21 July 1999 at his home, the Chteau de Touffou, in Bonnes, France. Ogilvyremains one of the most famous names in advertising and is considered one of its dominant thinkers.

Works



His book Ogilvy on Advertising is a general commentary on advertising and not all the ads shown in thebook are his. In early 2004, Adweek magazine asked people in the business "Which individuals - alive ordead - made you consider pursuing a career in advertising?", and Ogilvy topped the list. The same resultcame when students of advertising were surveyed. His best-selling book Confessions of an AdvertisingMan (ISBN 1-904915-01-9) is one of the most popular and famous books on advertising. Based on thisbook, there is a strong suspicion that Ogilvy is the inspiration for Don Draper in the popular series MadMen.

Ogilvy's advertising philosophy followed these four basic principles:

Creative brilliance: had a strong emphasis on the "BIG IDEA".Research: coming, as he did, from a background in research, he never underestimated itsimportance in advertising. In fact, in 1952, when he opened his own agency, he billed himself asresearch director.Actual results for clients: "In the modern world of business, it is useless to be a creative, originalthinker unless you can also sell what you create."Professional discipline: "I prefer the discipline of knowledge to the anarchy of ignorance." Hecodified knowledge into slide and film presentations he called Magic Lanterns. He also institutedseveral training programs for young advertising professionals.

Notes1. "New York Times Tribute, 1999 (http://www.nytimes.com/1999/07/22/business/david-ogilvy-88-father-of-

soft-sell-in-advertising-dies.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm)2. Time Magazine cover story, October 12, 1962 (http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,829288-

6,00.html)3. "David Ogilvy Biography" (http://www.ogilvy.com/About/Our-History/David-Ogilvy-Bio.aspx).

Ogilvy.com. Retrieved July 3, 2015.4. David Ogilvy (June 1935). The Theory and Practice of Selling the AGA Cooker

(http://www.agamarvel.com/total_control/aga_ogilvy_booklet.pdf) (PDF). AGA Heat Limited.5. "Biography" (http://www.ogilvy.com/history/media/biography.pdf) (PDF). Ogilvy.com.6. CBC website7. "The Real Camp X: 10 Facts About Canadas Elite Spy School"

(http://www.cbc.ca/xcompany/m/dispatches/the-real-camp-x-10-facts-about-canadas-elite-spy-school).Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. January 29, 2015.

8. Mani Ayer (July 26, 1999). "The Adman Who Hated Hype"(http://www.rediff.com/business/1999/jul/26ogilvy.htm). Rediff.com.

9. Cracknell, Andrew (3 May 2012). "Ads From The Real Mad Men" (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andrew-cracknell/mad-men-ads_b_1305136.html). The Huffington Post. Retrieved 9 January 2015.

10. Arif Durran (May 28, 2012). "Sorrell says Adam & Eve acquisition 'shows DDB needed some help' "(http://www.campaignlive.co.uk/news/1133996/). Campaign.

11. Finding aid for the George Trescher records related to The Metropolitan Museum of Art Centennial, 1949,1960-1971 (bulk 1967-1970)(http://libmma.org/digital_files/archives/Trescher_Centennial_records_b18234550.pdf). The MetropolitanMuseum of Art. Retrieved 5 August 2014.

References1. Ogilvy, D. (1983), Ogilvy on Advertising, John Wiley and Sons, Toronto, 1983 ISBN 0-517-

55075-X (and Pan Books, London, 1983 ISBN 0-330-26985-2).2. Ogilvy, D. (1963), Confessions of an Advertising Man, Atheneum, Revised edition, 1988, ISBN 0-

689-70800-9. 1.000.000 copies sold by 2008.3. Terry, Dan'l (1994), "David Ogilvy" in The Ad Men & Women, Edd Applegate, ed., Greenwood,

Westport, CT, 1994 ISBN 0-313-27801-64. Roman, Kenneth (2009) 'The King of Madison Avenue'. Palgrave Macmillan. Basingstoke,

Hampshire, RG21 6XS, England

Further reading



Wikiquote has quotations

related to: David Ogilvy

(businessman)

Conant, Jennet The Irregulars: Roald Dahl and the British Spy Ring in Wartime Washington(Simon and Schuster, 2008)

External linksDavid Ogilvy interview on The David Susskind Show

(Full Episode) (http://www.hulu.com/watch/46488/the-

david-susskind-show-the-pope-of-modern-advertising---

david-ogilvy)

A film clip "The Open Mind - About Advertising (1982)"

(https://archive.org/details/openmind_ep1025) is available for free download at the Internet

Archive

Ogilvyisms, timeline and classic ads. (http://www.ogilvy.com/history/)

Article by marketer Steve Gibson (http://www.greaterprofitsguaranteed.com/genius.html)

contains lengthy excerpt from a speech by Ogilvy

Video of David Ogilvy reminiscing about George Gallup. (http://www.gallup-

robinson.com/ogilvy.html)

The Theory and Practice of Selling the Aga Cooker Training Manual.

(http://www.lannigan.org/the_theory%20and_practice_of_selling_the_aga_cooker_training_manu

al.htm)

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