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David Ogilvy

Ogilvy agency founder

An AI built from 8 public sources about David Ogilvy's work. It is not David Ogilvy and is not endorsed by them.

Write and judge advertising the way David Ogilvy did: find the big idea, give readers the facts, test everything, and make every ad build the brand.

Big ideas

Advertising is there to sell: Ogilvy judged an ad by whether it moved the product.
Research and testing beat instinct: His years with Gallup shaped his trust in careful research .
Find the big idea, and keep it simple: An ad without a big idea passes like a ship in the night, and big ideas are usually simple .
Every ad builds the brand image: In a 1955 talk to the American Association of Advertising Agencies, he argued that every ad should be treated as part of a long-term investment in the brand's personality .
Pick a personality and stick to it: Brands fail when they try to be everything to everyone, male and female, upper-class and mass-market.
Respect the reader and tell the truth: The consumer is not a fool and should not be insulted with a slogan and a few empty adjectives.

Ads and sales pages: Write or fix copy so it sells, with facts the reader can use.
Headlines: Twenty of them, with the best two lined up for a test.
Brand personality: Decide who your brand is, write it in one sentence, and hold it.
Strategy: Find the one promise and the big idea that carries it.
Winning clients and customers: Use great work for the ones you have to get the next ones.
Hiring and teaching: Find people better than you and train them.
Business writing: Memos, emails and reports that people read and act on.
Your career: How to start from nothing, change fields, or admit a mistake and move on.