What makes some advertisements consistently successful while others fall flat? How can businesses create marketing campaigns that stand the test of time?
Marketing legend David Ogilvy developed powerful strategies that transformed the advertising industry. His approach focuses on building strong brand images, thorough testing, and maximizing successful campaigns.
Read more to explore Ogilvy’s marketing strategy and discover how these time-tested principles can revolutionize your advertising efforts.
David Ogilvy’s Marketing Strategy
Ogilvy explains how to strategically knit effective ads into a broader marketing plan to boost profits over the long run. We’ll discuss three aspects of Ogilvy’s marketing strategy.
#1: Reinforce a Brand Image
The best advertisements don’t just persuade consumers that a product is valuable; they also support long-term strategy by reinforcing the brand image. A brand image is the cumulative impression a brand makes in the minds of consumers over years of advertising. Ogilvy argues that the stronger and more distinct a brand’s image is, the more often consumers will choose to buy it over a competitor.
According to Ogilvy, the key to strengthening brand image is offering consistency over time. The most effective ads magnify and reinforce an existing brand image rather than reinvent it. This is why so many of the world’s biggest brands—such as Coca-Cola and McDonald’s—have maintained the same brand image for decades.
Ogilvy points out that when developing a distinct brand image, it’s inevitable that the brand will appeal more to some demographics than others. For instance, a clothing brand that positions itself as cutting-edge may naturally alienate older and more traditional customers. To some extent, this is necessary; trying to make a brand that appeals equally to everyone will result in a brand with no distinctiveness at all—one that gets overlooked.
Tip #2: Always Test Your Advertisements
Ogilvy asserts that you must test your advertising on consumers before launching a campaign. This process allows you to identify and correct any major flaws with your ads early on. If you fail to test thoroughly enough and you launch a campaign with glaring faults, it will damage your brand image and significantly decrease sales. For instance, you might discover that test audiences aren’t hooked by the headline of a new magazine ad campaign for a kitchen appliance, allowing you to rewrite it before rolling it out.
(Shortform note: In the digital age, it’s possible—and commonplace—for advertisers to test and make changes to their campaigns after launch. By continually measuring signals such as conversion rates (the percentage of people who see your ad, and then take a desired action), you can test how well your ads are performing and make changes to improve them. That said, launching a campaign to test requires a substantial up-front investment, so Ogilvy’s strategy of pre-launch testing is still valuable for ensuring that your campaigns’ major flaws don’t cause them to sink.)
Tip #3: Repeat Successful Ads
When an ad is successful, keep running it until it ceases to generate sales. Every time you run the same ad, it’ll reach some new consumers who weren’t in the market for your product before, and it’ll often be just as effective on them as it was for others in the past. According to Ogilvy, many brands make the mistake of frequently rotating their ads because they feel like they need something new. In doing so, they cut short the lifespan of every successful ad.
(Shortform note: According to some experts, running the same ad isn’t just valuable because it continually impacts new consumers—ads are the most valuable when they repeatedly impact the same consumers. The “Rule of Seven” in marketing states that customers will typically see your ad seven times before they’re prepared to make a purchase. This is because, in such a noisy marketplace, the only messages someone will remember are those that they hear over and over again, in nearly the exact same way. Advertisers make the mistake of cycling their ads too early because they’re so much closer to their ads than consumers are, which makes them seem stale.)
