Ogilvy and Me

When I landed my first internship with GoMobile, my creative director, Ryan Moss, suggested I read a couple books, one of which being Hey Whipple, Squeeze This! I really enjoyed reading Hey Whipple, and learned a lot from it. In fact, I have loaned it on to another friend who has started to take a liking to the advertising industry. Ryan, if you’re reading this, I swear I’ll get it back to you some day.

I haven’t really been able to sit down and read the books I’ve wanted to during the school year due to my workload from the classes I have been taking. However, this spring break, I was determined to do it. When it came time to pick a book, it was a little overwhelming. Due to the fast pace in which the industry is changing, everyone has something to say about how web 2.0 is going to take us into the next decade, how this medium is passé, and how this one has the most potential, etc.

Instead of picking a “new age” book, I chose Ogilvy On Advertising. This book by David Ogilvy of Ogilvy & Mather wasn’t written in this decade, or even the last. It was first published in 1983. Now why chose a book that would seem to be obsolete in today’s age? My latest advertising professor, Dr. Marcus Cunha, Jr., made a simple, yet brilliant point, which I will never forget. When talking about new media and its impact on the industry, he made sure to show us how the media and vehicles are different, but the concepts behind them, between the consumer and brand, between the client and the agency, stay the same.

So I picked up Ogilvy On Advertising and read on.

Being a young gun in the industry, still in college, I found the “jobs in advertising” chapter to be informative and enlightening, especially since I am in the process of possibly diversifying my internship experience perhaps outside of Seattle next summer. Upon Ogilvy making the point that most people in advertising seem to be happy with their careers, which is important, I thought back to a short trip I took with a couple GoMobile coworkers in September.

We drove down to Portland, Oregon, to see the showing of Art & Copy and the introduction to the film by David Kennedy of Wieden + Kennedy who cleverly donned a shirt that simply read “K+W.” After the film, which was the most professionally motivational movie I have watched yet, Mr. Kennedy conducted a question and answer session, in which I asked him what advice he had for a young individual taking his first steps into the industry. He replied by telling me, “If you really want to go into this industry… I’ll take you behind the bar and break both of your thumbs.” Laughter. Then on a serious note, he told me how demanding of an industry it is, with an unmistakably somewhat negative undertone. I could tell he wasn’t trying to rain on anyone’s parade, but if the art director behind the world’s most memorable catch phrase, “Just Do It,” was telling me how rough it had been, I had better roll my sleeves up. I digress.

David Ogilvy later goes into great depth in what he constitutes as a great print ad or TV spot, constantly referring to specific research for the different components of the advertisement. For example, he says how the average readership of print ads’ body copy is about 5 percent. This was in the early ‘80s. I can only imagine that in today’s age where consumers’ attention spans are decreasing by the decade, that number has at least been cut in half.

One of the parts I found to be the most interesting was the last chapter, his predictions for the coming changes in the industry. Ogilvy lists off thirteen total, a few of which are particularly interesting to me. He forecasts “billboards will be abolished.” While billboards are certainly not extinct, the out of home industry has certainly changed. The use of billboards has certainly expanded to such places as commuter stops, mobile billboards, within sports stadiums and even behind small planes, just to name a few.

Next, Ogilvy claims, “the clutter of commercials on television and radio will be brought under control. The word, “clutter” is quite subjective, but I believe his prediction to have come true, in my opinion. Those who actually watch television live through the networks, still experience the commercials during the breaks. Not only have people become somewhat desensitized to these, few are even watching television live. So many are watching their shows on their own time, either through Hulu or DVR, so the new emphasis is put on integrating your client’s brand into the show itself or these new digital platforms such as Hulu or social media, where brands are becoming more and more intertwined with consumers’ lives. So I would agree that there is less clutter since the advertising is becoming integrated more smoothly and less obtrusively. For a brand to be successful, they’re becoming more than just a commercial. They’re becoming lovemarks.

Throughout reading this book, I couldn’t help but constantly make references and imagining Donald Draper of AMC’s Mad Men in the place of David Ogilvy. Granted the show is still a show, some of the similarities portrayed by Mad Men, given the time frame were entertaining and enjoyable. Ogilvy On Advertising provided me with a great deal of timeless information on the industry, and some ideas to compare and contrast as I mature and learn more about this constantly evolving business.