6 Pieces of advice David Ogilvy would give modern-day marketers
Everyone talks about how great Ogilvy was, but would his tactics work in the modern age of marketing? Here are 6 lessons David Ogilvy would give a modern-day marketer.
Lesson 1: Stop Trying To Be So Creative In marketing there are often 2 types of people: Left-brain marketers (Analytical & data focused) Right-brain marketers (Creative & artsy) Looking at his ads, you'd think Ogilvy was in the latter category, with creative headlines and unique ads. In reality, he was heavily against over-creative ads. He said, "In the modern world of business, it is useless to be a creative, original thinker unless you can also sell what you create. If it doesn't sell, it isn't creative." At first glance, I thought Ogilvy was anti-creativity. But when I started thinking about it, I completely agreed with him. Nowadays, it feels like a lot of marketers make ads for other marketers. They want to be talked about on LinkedIn, featured in Adweek, or go viral. When what they should be focused on is creating something that actually sells their product to their target audience. And Ogilvy would hate that. So the first piece of advice I think he'd give all of us, is to stop thinking about what people will think about your campaigns and instead, think about if they'll drive action with your target audience. Lesson 2: You Need More Story Appeal One of the biggest lessons I took from reading Ogilvy's work was the importance of story appeal. His infamous Hathaway ad is the perfect example of this in action. And if you've been staring at it for a second, there is something very peculiar about it isn't there? The man… he has an eye patch on? Why does he have an eye patch? Does he have no eye? Is he a pirate? That is what Ogilvy calls "Story appeal". Lesson 3: Where's The Depth? The advice you get today is to shorten everything. Shorter paragraphs. Shorter sentences. Shorter advertisements. He goes on to say: "Long copy sells more than short copy, particularly when you are asking the reader to spend a lot of money." Lesson 4: Stop Trying To Entertain Marketing in 2024 is much closer to entertainment than informative - and Ogilvy would hate that. He says, "I do not regard advertising as entertainment or an art form, but as a medium of information. The more informative your advertising, the more persuasive it will be." Lesson 5: Get Out Of The Spotlight We've already talked about the fact that Ogilvy hated over-creative ad campaigns, but the only thing he disliked more than that was ads that drew attention to themselves. He says, "A good advertisement is one which sells the product without drawing attention to itself." Lesson 6: You're Not Testing Enough I'm not sure about you, but I definitely haven't been using enough testing in our marketing. So when I read this quote from Ogilvy, it felt like he was personally calling me out: "Never stop testing, and your advertising will never stop improving." TL;DR Stop Trying To Be So Creative You Need More Story Appeal Where's The Depth? Stop Trying To Entertain Get Out Of The Spotlight You're Not Testing Enough