He was 38 years old -- and unemployed.
He was a college dropout. He has been a cook, a door-to-door oven
salesman, a diplomatist and a farmer.
He knew nothing about marketing and had never written any copy. He
professes to be interested in advertising
Yet, he became one of the most revered marketing minds in the world.
He helped to establish modern advertising with his big ideas. He
produced many of the world's most famous and sophisticated ad campaigns.
His style, wit and convictions helped mold an industry.
But most importantly, he knew how to sell. His copy followed the basic
rules of advertising: research and position the product, develop a brand
image, build culture, and have a big idea.
Here’s the story:
David Ogilvy was born in West Horsely, England on June 23, 1911.
But he did not graduate from Oxford; as he put it years later, he "got
thrown out." He called this "the real failure of my life."
After Oxford, Ogilvy went to Paris, where he worked in the kitchen of
the Hotel Majestic.
When Ogilvy returned to Britain, he worked as a door-to-door salesman
for Aga Cookers. He sold stoves to nuns, drunkards and everyone in
between. In 1935 he wrote a guide for Aga salesmen that Fortune later
called "probably the best sales manual ever written."
And in 1936, his older brother Francis got David an internship at the
London ad agency Mather & Crowley.
David Ogilvy immigrated to the United States in 1938. He became
associate director of George Gallup's Audience Research Institute in
Princeton, New Jersey.
During World War II, he worked with British Security Coordination and
served as second secretary to the British Embassy in Washington. After the
war, Ogilvy lived among the Amish in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania and
worked as a farmer.
But he thought he could never earn his living as a farmer, so at the
age of 38, he decided to start his own advertising agency.
Once again, he went to brother Francis for assistance. S. H. Benson
Ltd., another London shop, also invested $45,000, but insisted that
Ogilvy, who had been out of advertising for 10 years, hire someone who
knew how to run an agency. Ogilvy chose Anderson Hewitt, an accountant he
had met briefly in 1941. The business opened as Hewitt, Ogilvy, Benson &
Mather (HOB&M).
One of the first ads he wrote as the head of his own agency was
"Guinness Guide to Oysters".
Ogilvy always stressed that "every advertisement must contribute to the
complex symbol which is the Brand Image".
Brand Image meant the personality of the product -- a combination of
its name, packaging, price, its advertising style, the nature of the
product, etc.
An ad campaign, Ogilvy said, must always revolve around a sharply
defined personality -- a coherent image that you must stick to year after
year.
In 1951, a small shirtmaker, C. F. Hathaway, came asking for help. This
led Ogilvy to create the image of a man with the black eye patch, and "The
Man in The Hathaway Shirt" campaign was born. This narrative, creative
campaign ran for 25 years.
For Schweppes, Ogilvy persuaded the client, Commander Whitehead, to
appear in his own advertisements. The campaign featuring the distinguished
looking, bearded Brit in various ads and commercials ran for eighteen
years.
For Rolls-Royce, he used the headline, "At 60 Miles An Hour The Loudest
Noise In This New Rolls-Royce Comes From The Electric Clock". This remains
the most famous automobile advertisement of all time.
By 1960 he had achieved his ambition to run a great agency that spread
around the globe and firmly in place as one of the top agencies in all
regions.
In 1965, Ogilvy dropped his title of chairman of what had become Ogilvy
& Mather's U.S. operations (remaining chairman of O&M International - OMI)
to become creative director - a position he kept for nearly 10 years,
before "retiring" to Touffou, in 1973.
Ogilvy came out of retirement in the 1980s to serve as Chairman of
Ogilvy&Mather in India. He also spent a year acting as temporary chairman
of Ogilvy&Mather Germany. He visited branches of the company around the
world and continued to present Ogilvy&Mather at gathering clients and
business audiences.
When in 1989, Ogilvy group was brought buy WPP, two events occurred
simultaneously: WPP became the largest Marketing communications firm in
the world, and David Ogilvy was named the company’s non-executive
chairman, a position he held for 3 years.
Ogilvy died on July 1999 at his home in Touffou, France.
Since I study all the great marketing and
advertising gurus from the past for a
living, you can guess I know what works and what doesn't . But there is only
one that has made me serious money.
Click here to see who.
