Confessions of an Advertising Man
How an agency is actually built and paid.
Summary
Ogilvy published this in 1963 after building Ogilvy Benson and Mather from nothing, and it covers both how to run an agency and how to make advertising that sells. It is shorter and more personal than his later Ogilvy on Advertising.
The agency management chapters cover how to get clients, how to keep them, how to handle clients you should resign, how to hire, and how to run a creative organisation. His hiring position, that a company that hires people smaller than itself becomes a company of dwarfs while one that hires people bigger becomes a company of giants, is the most quoted passage. He also states rules about firing, about promoting from within, and about the treatment of subordinates.
The advertising chapters state the rules he derived from direct response testing, including the primacy of the headline, the value of long copy for considered purchases, the requirement to understand the product thoroughly before writing, and his hostility to advertising judged by creative awards rather than by sales. He also writes about the agency's own new business practices, about the value of publicity for the agency itself, and about his own history including the Aga cooker sales manual, the Gallup research work and the tobacco farming period.
The book is from 1963 and the specific practices, media and client relationships are historical. Ogilvy is self-promoting throughout and the tone is confident to the point of arrogance. Its lasting value is the combination of advertising discipline with a candid account of how a professional services firm is actually built and managed.
Key takeaways 8
- An organisation that hires people smaller than itself becomes a company of dwarfs, and one that hires people larger becomes a company of giants.
- Advertising should be judged by whether it sells rather than by creative awards, and the two frequently diverge.
- Understanding the product thoroughly before writing anything is what produces the specific claim that makes the advertisement work.
- Headlines carry most of the value of an advertisement, since far more people read them than read the body copy.
- Long copy sells more than short copy for considered purchases, which contradicts the preference of most clients and agencies.
- A professional services firm should resign clients that damage it, and Ogilvy names the conditions under which he did so.
- New business should be pursued selectively and openly rather than through the speculative pitching that the industry normalised.
- An agency should promote from within and pay attention to how it treats its own people, since the product is entirely the people.
Who should read it
Founders of professional services firms and marketers who want both the agency management material and the earlier statement of Ogilvy's advertising rules.
Where it sits in the reference 4
Who recommended it 3 · 1 direct
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