PDF Summary:Confessions of an Advertising Man, by David Ogilvy
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1-Page PDF Summary of Confessions of an Advertising Man
Wondering how to build a successful career in the world of advertising? In Confessions of an Advertising Man, David Ogilvy—a marketing tycoon known today as the “Father of Advertising”—distills the wisdom he picked up over decades in the industry. Whether you’re just starting your advertising career or you’re the head of an agency, this book will serve as a foundational source of knowledge.
In this guide, you’ll learn how to create advertisements that capture consumers’ attention in an increasingly crowded marketplace. You’ll also discover practical advice for running an advertising agency, such as how to protect your organization's reputation. In commentary, we’ll supplement Ogilvy’s marketing advice with ideas from books like Building a StoryBrand and Permission Marketing. Additionally, we’ll provide relevant tips for the business side of advertising from books like The Go-Giver and The Dichotomy of Leadership.
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A Consistent Brand Image Triggers Memories
In How Brands Grow, Byron Sharp slightly disagrees with Ogilvy about how brand image increases sales. Unlike Ogilvy, Sharp believes that consumers don't make purchasing decisions by considering which brand image appeals to them the most. Instead, consumers tend to buy whichever brand is most memorable and therefore comes to mind first. According to Sharp, the key to building a strong brand image is increasing the likelihood that consumers will think about your brand when making a purchase decision.
To accomplish this, Sharp (like Ogilvy) recommends keeping your brand image consistent over time. Specifically, create recognizable brand assets, such as logos, colors, and slogans, and feature them in every ad you produce. These assets act as triggers that bring back positive memories of your brand whenever consumers encounter them. For instance, if your logo is a man with a distinctive mustache, consumers will remember your brand if they see someone in real life with that style of mustache. Overall, this increases the chance that they’ll think of your brand first and choose it when deciding what to buy.
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, 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.)
Leading an Advertising Firm
So far, we’ve discussed how to create successful ads and weave them into an effective long-term strategy. Now, let’s discuss the management side of the advertising business: Here are three of Ogilvy’s tips on how to effectively lead an advertising agency.
Tip #1: When Hiring, Scout for Creative Talent Above All Else
According to Ogilvy, the number one reason his agency succeeded was because he was gifted at identifying and hiring the most creative marketers. He argues that truly creative people possess unique qualities that others lack—qualities that are necessary for an agency’s success.
Creative people are more in touch with their subconscious mind and imagination, which helps them come up with more winning ideas. Additionally, creative people are skilled at seeing any situation from multiple perspectives, which allows them to discover and share insights that most people would never think of. For instance, if a creative person is designing an ad for mousetraps, they might wonder what cats (who also catch mice) think of them. This could inspire them to design an ad where a housecat files for unemployment, complaining that the client’s high-quality mousetraps put them out of a job.
On the other hand, Ogilvy admits that creative people tend to be more rebellious and contrarian than the average person. Although this can make them difficult to work with, he recommends doing whatever you can to keep them around anyway. The creative results they produce are almost always worth the hassle.
Creative People May Be Highly Sensitive
In The Highly Sensitive Person, Elaine Aron describes a type of person she calls “highly sensitive” that overlaps with Ogilvy’s concept of a uniquely creative person. Aron describes highly sensitive people (HSPs) as having stronger than normal emotions and the ability to process information on a deeper, subtler level. She also notes that HSPs have unusually strong feelings of empathy—in other words, they naturally adopt the perspectives of others, just like Ogilvy’s creatives.
Further, Aron notes that HSPs excel at using past experiences to inform present decisions, which gives them a strong sense of intuition. This may be the mechanism by which Ogilvy’s creatives more readily access their imaginative subconscious mind: They intuitively recall ideas they’ve encountered in the past (but aren’t consciously remembering) that relate to their current situation.
Aron suggests that HSPs, like Ogilvy’s creatives, can sometimes be difficult to work with due to their unconventional minds. HSPs aren’t necessarily rebellious like Ogilvy’s creatives, but their tendency to process everything at a deep, complex level can make them seem like unusually slow learners. However, like Ogilvy, Aron asserts that the talents of these unique individuals make accommodating their quirks worthwhile.
Although not all HSPs are creatives, Aron states that they’re generally more creative than the general population. Thus, scouting and nurturing individuals with HSP traits could help you build highly creative marketing teams.
Tip #2: Clearly Communicate Your Expectations to Employees
Ogilvy explains that once you’ve recruited a highly creative team, your job as a manager is to build a creative-friendly culture that allows them to do great work. To do this, communicate to your employees a clear set of guidelines for how to act at work. Because you’re their boss, your employees will naturally seek your approval. Thus, they’re likely to act the way you encourage them to.
Ogilvy, for instance, tells his employees that he wants them to respect one another, honestly and openly resolve their disagreements, and enjoy working hard. He believes that if employees live up to these expectations, it’ll create the positive and productive atmosphere necessary for creative work.
Criteria for Effective Culture-Setting Guidelines
In What You Do Is Who You Are, Ben Horowitz offers some tips for designing guidelines for your employees that effectively establish the culture you want. He argues that the rules you set should satisfy three criteria:
They’re easy to remember.
Employees can apply them in their work every day.
They prompt employees to consider the deeper reasoning behind them.
Arguably, Ogilvy’s rules are too vague and abstract to remember and apply daily, making them less likely to shift an organization’s culture. Instead of simply telling employees to embody certain values, you could revise Ogilvy’s advice by posing simpler rules that prompt them to consider these deeper values.
For example, instead of telling employees to “respect each other,” you could tell them to consult at least one other person whenever they make any strategic decision, which leads to mutual respect. Instead of telling them to “resolve disagreements honestly,” you could tell them to air all their grievances in a 10-minute meeting every morning. Instead of telling them to “enjoy working hard,” you could assign points to their work and tell them to score higher than other departments.
Furthermore, Horowitz argues that outlining effective rules isn’t enough. Contrary to what Ogilvy says, employees won’t dutifully follow your guidelines just to please you. Rather, leaders must strictly follow their own guidelines. Otherwise, employees will follow the example you set rather than the rules you say.
Tip #3: Protect Your Agency’s Reputation
Finally, Ogilvy notes that it’s important to protect your advertising agency’s reputation. Every ad you create shows the world how skilled your agency is. Without a reputation for consistently making ads that sell, you won’t be able to secure major clients or attract high-quality employees.
(Shortform note: Although it’s important to maintain a strong reputation, it would be unreasonable—and harmful—to think that every ad your agency produces needs to be perfect. Often, managers with perfectionist tendencies pass their high personal standards on to their employees. Consequently, those employees become overwhelmed with stress and reluctant to take the risk of suggesting new ideas.)
To protect your reputation, don't tailor your ads to clients' requests if their ideas will genuinely ruin the ad. It’s better to lose a client than to let them pressure you into putting out bad work.
(Shortform note: Ideally, you’ll be able to explain to clients why their ideas won’t accomplish their goals like they think they will. This way, you can preserve the relationship without degrading your work. If you don’t have an objective reason to shoot down a client’s idea, tell them you need time to consider it, and use that time to think through your argument.)
Ogilvy also cautions against partnering with clients who sell flawed products or are otherwise destined for failure. If your client’s business fails, some people will inevitably blame your advertising, unjustly staining your reputation. To avoid falling into this trap, only accept a client if you’re confident you can run a successful campaign for them.
Potential Client Red Flags
How do you know if a client is destined for failure? Here are some warning signs:
Employees are frequently quitting, which indicates that they don’t see a future for the company.
Workers are constantly overwhelmed, fixing emergencies yet continually failing to address the root issues.
Employee morale is low and no one seems excited at work.
Upper management fails to openly communicate with the rest of the organization about problems the company faces.
Working With Clients
Once you’ve found clients who will help you build your agency’s reputation, how do you convince them to hire you? In this section, you'll learn how to attract new clients and maintain great relationships with your current ones.
How to Earn New Clients
There’s no single, surefire way to earn a client’s business. Ogilvy explains that every client is different, and you’ll need to employ different strategies to win their trust. Try to understand the unique ways that each client thinks, and you’ll have a better chance of convincing them to hire your agency.
Although Ogilvy emphasizes that the process of earning a potential client’s trust will look different every time, he offers a couple of strategies that work in the majority of cases. First, being an active listener in conversation often makes people perceive you as insightful, which reflects well on your agency. The less you speak, the more respect you’ll gain.
(Shortform note: In The Psychology of Selling, Brian Tracy sorts customers into categories based on their behavior when making a deal, and he explains the most effective sales strategies for each. His advice likely applies equally well to advertisers looking to make deals with potential clients: For instance, Ogilvy’s suggestion to be an active listener in conversation would work better for social customers (who make personal connections before committing to a business deal). In contrast, this advice may not be as effective for directive customers (who want results and see small talk as a waste of time). Prepare and practice unique pitches for each kind of client so you can adjust your pitch as you sense what kind of client you’re talking to.)
Ogilvy also suggests being honest and vulnerable with clients by admitting your agency's weaknesses. This honesty will make you seem more trustworthy and respectable. For example, if your agency is new and lacks the track record of an established firm, confess this to potential clients rather than hiding your inexperience.
(Shortform note: In Daring Greatly, Brené Brown explains that many people avoid vulnerable actions like owning up to their professional weaknesses because they believe that doing so makes them weaker. However, she argues that the opposite is true: Acknowledging your weaknesses makes you stronger because it empowers you to do what it takes to overcome them. Likewise, admitting your weaknesses may help earn clients’ trust and respect because it shows that you’re confident you can overcome them. For instance, if an agency owns up to its sparse track record, it indicates that its members believe they can win clients solely based on the strength of their new work.)
If you’re founding a new agency, your first few clients will be the toughest to secure because you lack the positive reputation of an established firm. Ogilvy encourages you to compensate for this disadvantage by working harder than anyone else. One way to do this is by developing speculative advertising campaigns for prospective clients, pro bono. Clients are more likely to take a chance on your new agency once you show them what your campaign for them would look like.
(Shortform note: Although Ogilvy asserts that developing ad campaigns on spec may help you secure your first few clients, other experts warn that this tactic may encourage some clients to take advantage of you. For instance, unscrupulous clients in some creative fields launch “contests” that invite creatives to submit their speculative work. The client then uses the best work and awards prizes to the “winners" that are worth far less than a standard industry wage. Instead of giving away entire campaigns speculatively, consider offering short-term projects that demonstrate your competence without providing your entire product for free.)
How to Keep Clients Happy
Once you’ve secured deals with a number of clients, the key to your agency’s success is keeping those clients happy. Maintaining ongoing relationships with clients is the primary way to keep your agency in business, and Ogilvy offers a few tips for how to do so.
Tip #1: Be Reliable
First, Ogilvy argues that upholding your commitments—particularly deadlines—is absolutely necessary to maintain a client’s trust and respect. If your team fails to deliver on their basic promises to the client, your reputation as a reliable professional will collapse.
(Shortform note: To ensure that you reliably meet your promised deadlines, consider requesting 25% more time than you think you’ll need when committing to a deadline. In doing so, you counteract the planning fallacy: the fact that we consistently underestimate the time it’ll take to accomplish something, even when we know that it’s taken us longer in the past.)
Tip #2: Build Personal Connections
According to Ogilvy, forging personal relationships with clients is also crucial to keeping their business. The more that employees throughout your agency work alongside people at all levels of your client’s organization and genuinely connect with them, the less likely the client is to sever ties.
(Shortform note: In The Go-Giver, Bob Burg and John David Mann argue that the best way to strengthen your professional relationships is to offer favors to people you work with without expecting them to owe you anything in return. For instance, if your client mentions that they need short-term workers, offer to get them in touch with a temp agency you’ve had positive experiences with. This kind of genuine service gives you influence by making you attractive on a personal level. To create a culture in which workers at every level act selflessly toward whoever they interact with, you could publicly celebrate employees who go out of their way to help someone in your clients’ organizations.)
Tip #3: Make Your Clients Your Top Priority
Make sure that your top employees concentrate on pleasing your existing clients rather than scouting for new ones. Ogilvy asserts that your best marketers will be tempted to look for more lucrative clients than those they already have, but don’t let them—putting your current clients on the backburner will lose their trust and endanger your business. Ideally, every client should feel like they’re your organization’s first priority.
(Shortform note: Although Ogilvy implies here that catering to existing clients and scouting for new clients are mutually exclusive, he clarifies in his later writing that this isn’t the case. In Ogilvy on Advertising, he emphasizes that doing your best work for existing clients is the best way to attract new clients. The better your current work is, the easier it is to convince other clients to work with you—you just need to show them your work. Furthermore, doing world-class work may give you such a good reputation that high-quality clients will actively seek you out, removing the need to scout for them at all. Emphasizing this fact to your top marketers will encourage them to make their current clients their top priorities.)
Tip #4: Prepare Backup Campaigns
Finally, Ogilvy recommends preparing a specific emergency precaution to reduce the chances that a client will fire you: Every time you create a campaign for a client, prepare an entire second campaign as a backup. If your first campaign underperforms or your client decides they dislike it, having a second option immediately at your disposal will make it more likely you’ll get a second chance. Taking this precaution requires a lot of time and money, but if it can save you a client, it’s worth it.
(Shortform note: In The Dichotomy of Leadership, Jocko Willink and Leif Babin concur with Ogilvy that contingency plans can be valuable—but they temper this advice by warning that it’s possible to overprepare. Consider whether your backup plans create more problems than they solve. Backup ad campaigns could be more costly than they’re worth, particularly for agencies operating with limited resources. Diverting money and time toward a backup plan could even prevent agencies from delivering a high-quality primary campaign.)
Tip #5: Remember That It’s Impossible to Keep Every Client Happy
Although there’s plenty you can do to keep clients happy, Ogilvy acknowledges that it's impossible to satisfy all of them all the time. Losses are inevitable. Clients may switch agencies in search of novelty or due to other factors beyond your control. Therefore, continually scout for new clients (even though satisfying your existing clients should be your first priority).
(Shortform note: When a major client inevitably ends your business relationship, don’t focus solely on scouting for replacements right away. With the right approach, you can sometimes win back former clients. To do this, be respectful and professional rather than clingy during their transition. Do everything you can to ensure the client has a positive impression of you. After some time passes, research your former client’s current needs thoroughly and make them a tailored offer that precisely meets those needs. This dedication and thoughtfulness may be enough to convince them to give you a second chance.)
Climbing the Corporate Ladder
We’ve discussed what it takes to be an effective leader in an advertising agency—but what if you’re not yet in a leadership position? We’ll conclude this guide with Ogilvy’s advice to up-and-coming marketers who want to know how to rise through the ranks at an agency.
According to Ogilvy, the way to earn a promotion is to work harder and create more ads than any of your peers. By being the best—putting in the extra hours, honing your skills, and demonstrating all-around superior performance—you can attract the attention of executives looking for the next advertising prodigy. Managers are always looking for the most promising individuals because they understand that standout ads are almost always the brainchild of a single advertiser, not a team.
That said, don’t make it obvious to your peers that you're primarily focusing on impressing managers. If your coworkers perceive you as an adversary, they may sabotage your chances of promotion. Maintain cordial relationships, but stay focused on your work as an individual.
(Shortform note: In The 48 Laws of Power, Robert Greene argues that you can persuade others to help you by convincing them that doing so would benefit them. By this logic, you could turn coworkers from adversaries into allies by showing them how your promotion would help the entire team. For example, if you negotiated with a manager to get one of your coworkers a more flexible work schedule, they would trust you to continue prioritizing their needs if you got promoted to a management role. If your manager ever asked for their opinion of you, they would enthusiastically recommend you for a promotion.)
If you want to attract managers’ attention by putting in extra hours at work, how should you spend them? Ogilvy recommends researching your clients’ products and industries more than anyone else—even your bosses. The more you understand about the product you’re advertising, the more persuasive and effective your campaigns will be.
Last, Ogilvy encourages honesty and transparency, even when you make a mistake. Owning up to your errors can help you earn respect and trust from your coworkers and clients, further distinguishing you as an exceptional employee who should be promoted.
(Shortform note: In Extreme Ownership, Jocko Willink and Leif Babin take this idea further, arguing that the best team members take responsibility for the mistakes of others. For instance, if someone on your team loses the files for an important client presentation your team has been preparing for, you might say to a manager, “My bad, I should have made sure everything was uploaded to the cloud.” This shows that you’re committed to doing everything within your power to achieve the team’s mission—an attitude that’s sure to earn you respect, trust, and hopefully a promotion.)
Tailor Your Work to Your Managers
Although working hard, honing your skills, and deeply understanding your clients will make it more likely you’ll earn a promotion, some argue that these traditional merit-based distinctions aren’t enough. To truly accelerate your career, you also need to strategically adapt to the unique politics of your organization.
Ogilvy asserts that managers are on the lookout for individuals with the most potential. However, every manager assesses that potential in different ways. To maximize your chances of promotion, tailor your work to the managers you’re trying to impress and make it as visible to them as possible.
To do this, first identify the managers who decide which workers get promoted. Then, analyze each of their behaviors, priorities, and values. Read through any public content they’ve written, talk to colleagues who know them, and (if possible) directly ask them about their goals and what success looks like to them.
Once you know what your managers believe leads to success, do everything you can to demonstrate your value in those areas. For instance, if your manager is looking for ways to stay on the cutting edge of your industry, spend time brainstorming new ways to use technology that you can suggest in your next meeting.
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