Almost forty years ago, storied ad man David Ogilvy sat down in an office somewhere in India and recorded a little film confessing the — as he put it — “secret weapon” of the advertising world.
It was a hot day, so he took off his jacket, exposing his infamous red suspenders.
Ogilvy spoke simply and directly to his audience on the other side of the camera.
The prophecy he uttered in that grainy 7-minute film all those years ago has come to pass, with a bullet.
Though visionary, Ogilvy could not have imagined just how powerful his “secret weapon” would become in the age of the internet, or how it would ultimately be wielded by individuals building media companies with nothing more than a laptop and sufficient quantities of sweat.
Watch the grand old man below. If you think his ideas outdated, you’re simply not thinking.
Make the connection between Ogilvy’s 80-year-old secret and the principles we talk about around here week in and week out.
There is nothing new under the sun, we need only the humility and wisdom to correctly apply and re-apply what has come before.
(And in case you’re afraid that Ogilvy’s legendary impatience with “creativity” means you have to be a hack, nothing could be further from the truth. Ogilvy wrote about the benefit of an ad writer being both a killer and a poet, and the ads he wrote showed he was a master of both.)
Ladies and Gentlemen, I envy you. For forty years, I’ve been a voice crying in the wilderness. Today, my first love is coming to its own. You face a golden future. ~ David Ogilvy
About the Author: Robert Bruce is VP of Marketing for Copyblogger Media, as well as its Resident Recluse. Get more from him via Twitter or Google+.
He really is so right. Direct mailing is truly an amazing marketing technique that. It’s interesting, though. I decided to Google “Direct Mail,” and one of the first synonyms of it was “junk mail.” If direct mail is considered junk mail, that must mean that the marketers are doing something wrong. Or, perhaps, they are over using it.
I like what Ogilvy says at the end, though, with the quote you mentioned above. We really are in a golden age of direct marketing and it really is an explosive weapon…A secret weapon. And we get to reap the benefits of something that he spent so long trying to sell us.
Jacob, a lot of people *do* consider direct mail junk mail. The cool thing is, online content marketing (when done correctly) is perceived as the opposite of junk — as valuable. That’s where Ogilvy has taken us. Same principles, different execution in a different environment.
And that’s the trick, Brian. A lot of the e-mail marketing that I see done is a blatant attempt at making money. I’ve unsubscribed from too many newsletters because all I got were, “Just so you know, that offer is running out…Hurry, hurry, hurry.” But, where’s the value? What value have you provided me or is it just me padding your wallet? It’s nice, though…My phone makes a lot less noise now. In the end, if value is offered, then the marketing has been a success. Value creates trust. Trust creates customers.
Excellent point Brian. It’s all about creating content that is designed to bring value to the reader, not sell a product or service. Thinly veiled pieces of promotional fluff don’t do you any good.
The difference between junk mail and content marketing is permission.
Props to Seth Godin for helping to make that so.
Thanks for this video Brian. What a remarkable man he truly was.
Direct mail is considered “junk” when it is irrelevant to their current perceived wants or needs, but considered *awesome* when it is highly relevant.
Just watch someone go through their mail
“Junk … junk … bill … junk … OOH!!!”
Somebody was obviously a psychic! A true visionary!
What he calls direct response smells a lot like social media. His secret weapon, direct mailing, has now turn into email campaigns today in this internet age.
One very important thing that he mentioned was measurability. Now more so that ever, marketers now have the ability to the measure quite accurately the effectiveness of marketing efforts and come up with an accurate ROI.
There is a opportunity to do some truly great things and connect with our target audiences more than anytime in history.
Great Video!
Robert, what time capsule did you open to find this treasure?
It’s encouraging and inspiring — thanks for finding it and sharing it here.
It’s so easy, as a writer, to paint sunsets, while the people you’re trying to captivate and engage are too busy obsession about their own cellulite to notice.
As you preach here at Copyblogger, clear beats clever every time, right? Our job is to do jobs for people that 1) make them money, 2) save them money, 3) save them time, 4) save them energy, 5) protect something or someone they value and 6) makes them feel a way they want to feel. Plus, we must do these jobs in remarkable ways so that they’ll tell others.
I came to marketing through poetry and literature, believe it or not. I’ve had to learn (the hard way) how to be a killer. Still learning this every day, actually, and I’m 19 years into what’s been a rewarding marketing career.
Thank you for reminders like this! I need them!
All the best writers I’ve ever hired have come out of creative writing, fiction or poetry or both, so I think you’re in good company.
“Still learning every day” is a great sign, imo.
Great find, man! This is the stuff legends are made off. I almost feel like getting myself some red suspenders (such is human nature
Amazing. Well, actually it’s a common lesson on this site but a powerful one. Thanks for the video.
I totally admire his presentation skills. He reeks of confidence that comes form testing and measuring. Talk about authenticity – wow! I’m with you Jacob. Just send me a last chance or going away subject line and that’s what I do – unsubscribe and go away!
Ogilvy does seem to have been blessed with a powerful measure of confidence.
Everything David Ogilvy ever said is a gift in these days of internet marketing. I still get clients telling me no-one reads long copy, but I continue to fight the fight! It helps to remind people that the internet gives them the opportunity to break up the message into more manageable chunks on different pages, and also to segment the message for the different buying styles of the readers.
It’s great to hear a man who knows so much about his passion that he can foresee the future of it as well.
It was nice to take a step into the past for a few minutes and see the direct response marketers that came before us speak so well.
Hey Robert.
I’m loving these posts of classic advertisers and copywriters. Do you have more to come? They are so informative.
I saw this video a long time ago when I first took a job at an ad agency and was trying to learn more about the business. At first I had no idea what he was talking about, but when I referenced the video a few months later it made perfect sense.
The agency I worked at was one of these “general agencies” he talks about, focused on creative ideas, cute lines, funny videos, etc. As a sales guy it made no sense to me – where was the sale!?!? What made even less sense to me was that “general agencies” were able to charge the highest premiums.
That was why I decided to leave the general agency business. Anyone with a little bit of foresight can see that it’s a castle built on sand.
Content marketing is the solution Ogilvy would have wanted to see rise to the top of the strategy hierarchy. It is the perfect intersection between selling/positioning a business and creative advertising. I’m excited to see content marketing evolve as it becomes more accepted.
Ogilvy actually did some lovely content marketing, he just had a very compressed window (magazine print ads, for example) to do it in.
Really?! So I guess it was more advertorial then. It’s really awesome how ahead of the game someone can be. It would be fun to see some of that work.
Btw Sonia, thanks for the great newsletter emails. I subscribe to your content marketing email courses. Really useful stuff in there.
I was at the Direct Marketing Association annual conference in Atlanta when this video first was shown.
It was electric to see the master British spy and advertising genius, even if on video (promotions did not say he was not going to be physically there). He was a legend to the direct response community even then.
He was living in his chateau in France and swooping into Ogilvy offices worldwide to help the company with especially meaningful accounts. Normally, the clients were so impressed, they awarded the account – all except Hallmark, one of the short list that Ogilvy never won.
From the moment of this speech in the mid-1980′s until now, I have often thought of this speech and realized how many important lessons Ogilvy crammed into this short talk. I have referred back in my mind to the points he made over and over.
Listening to Ogilvy, you realized that what was said was quite true. It still is.
Measured response remains the key as it is today, regardless of the talk of “brand building” and other phrases to cover the fact that a lot of money was just wasted on some campaign.
From his days in opinion research with Gallup before WWII, Ogilvy learned how to read the mind of the consumer and focus the points to best sell the product. During WWII, Ogilvy was instrumental in helping the British shape American opinion to first, lend-lease and then, enter WWII on the British side. He used his direct marketing skills to help shape American foreign policy and then, after the war, American tastes for products and services.
A favorite ad he did, “At 60 mph, the loudest sound you hear is the ticking of the clock” tells the story and DEMANDS you read on. — the client was Rolls-Royce. That is the sort of copy we can only hope to create.
He’s right on so many levels. What do they teach in MBA programs? Brand marketing – which is great if you happen to be working for Proctor and Gamble.
When I ran my contracting company I wasn’t worried about my brand – just making sales. So, while I didn’t know there was a name for it, I was using direct response marketing for targeted ads and and content marketing for web and hard copy content to educate the community.
It works.
This is a good secret to know.
Ah, sometimes we need to be taken back to the basics as what we are doing now is not reinventing the wheel, it is oiling it to make it roll better.
Thanks so much for bringing this back into our minds.
Wow, Robert. Loved watching that video you found. Very powerful.
Can definitely relate this to online marketing and the fact that direct response is the end result all businesses have to rely on to make it. Leads can come from every person in a business and if all of them are trained in direct response, imagine the possibilities for a company. Same for affiliates of companies online too. Wow – I kind of wonder what a company could do with everyone knowing how to convert leads. Got me thinking…
I like it. I like it a lot.
Just one complaint. You guys got the video about two pixels too wide, and consequently it protrudes to the right too far.
But that’s okay.
Thanks for the treat Robert. This David guy is the real thing.
Interesting video, and thought-provoking. The Internet is taking us to shorter pieces, but the direct-response concept is quite applicable. Thanks!
G’Day Robert,
A friend suggested that I buy a copy of “Ogilvy On Advertising” when I started my business over 30 years ago. I still have it. .As one of our local gurus put it when explaining internet marketing in a later book, “if you think this sounds like old fashioned mail order, you’re right.”
I’m rather surprised that so many so-called web marketers seem hellbent on reinventing the wheel when they can’t drive the cart that they’re sitting in.
My favourite Ogilvy quote : “The customer is not a moron. She is your wife.” Many thanks for posting the film.
Regards
Leon
I first saw that video on the Eisenbergs’ site last month:
http://www.bryaneisenberg.com/2011/05/we-convert-or-else-are-we-still-struggling-to-be-creative/#axzz1OAtWEWqg
Worth watching over and over.
Robert,
Thank you.
We, your readers, appreciate your point of view. David Ogilvy is a legendary advertising genius. He has an empire named after him. I don’t know anybody in advertising who has not come across David Ogilvy’s trademarks.
However, I would have to disagree with you–tactfully, and with all due respect.
Everything has not already been invented yet. And we don’t constantly have to re-visit the past for our lessons. In fact, history is neither perfect nor excellent. It only provides guidelines or lessons, that’s all, and it is valuable in that sense.
We don’t have to re-invent the wheel, but we do have to innovate. Without innovation, progress is just not possible.
Constant innovation comes from Kaizen, a Japanese term for continuous quality improvement.
Yes, it is a life-long challenge. It is about incremental improvement. You don’t have to make rapid strides or make huge jumps into the unknown. That may be possible in some cases, of course, but not always necessary.
Ogilvy may have been a genius, but even geniuses have limitations. Maybe there are poets and killers today who are smarter than Ogilvy and other icons. Let us not discount that possibility and give such people credit where credit is due.
In the days to come, you may find creative types who can envison ideas and possibilities which eluded the grasp of the Ogilvys of our world. And innovators are neither confined to India nor to the profession of advertising.
There are many great advertising professionals out there who never had any background in advertising at all.
If memory serves, Bob Bly has a college degree in engineering and his is in good company too. Just food for thought.
Cheerio.
Innovation is born of style. Style is born of personality. Apply your singular personality to what has come before and you’ll innovate in ways nobody has ever seen.
Computers have existed since the beginning of time, but it took Jobs/Woz to build the Mac.
Awesome post, Robert – I’ve always loved that video and your post really does it justice.
Really cool post. “Old Skool Sales”… ;]
Robert, I don’t know where you dug this up from (I assume YouTube) but it is priceless and timeless. Even though he only knew about direct mail when he recorded this, his message also covers the new digital direct response methodology. Only after a message is tested by direct response can it then be sent out into the unmeasurable unknown.
I feel that Copyblogger is a perfect example of ‘masters of the craft’ who re-imagine and re-configure concepts, ideas and utterings from the past and through their present day personalities bring these gems of wisdom back to life. Formulas are just that… formulas. But to take a formula and make it do something extraordinary is the key to creativity. When that happens, the personality associated with it becomes outstanding. Oglivy is a great example.
Great post – I’ve been reading this blog for a while – just wanted to drop in and say keep up the great work! Always awesome marketing insight
That was really cool. It’s nice to see one of the best at his best.
Amazing.
Thanks for sharing it.
I wonder what he would have thought of copyblogger.com?
The Franchise King®
Love this line by yourselves…
with nothing more than a laptop and sufficient quantities of sweat
It’s true that anybody sitting in their bedroom can come up with a media empire with a bit of broadband and wordpress. Even the distribution side of things can be taken care of if you use social media channels effectively.
Thanks for sharing the video because having just finished the book good to put a face to the great man!
Great share. Although ahead of his time, it’s unbelievable how many still have not caught on. Currently re-reading Drayton Bird – Commonsense Diect & Digital Marketing – more of the same and updated for the modern comms channels.
Every business owner needs to understand direct response copy!! It’s not just a process, it’s a language all its own. My clients who understand how to write copy- or at least understand the purpose, structure, and format- sell more, make more money, and have greater success filling their coaching programs, live events, etc. Basically, if you want to make money, you need to know how to sell. Thanks for sharing this gem!
The secret is now exposed. Thank you for sharing. This is very inspiring indeed and I myself way pushed to do better.
I found a very inspiring letter that Ogilvy wrote for the United Negro College Fund. His sales letter raised $180,000, in 2011 dollars, in less than a day.
The sales letter was fund raiser aimed at people who had no interest in the charity, interrupted them on their way home from work, and yet was incredibly successful.
You can read the whole thing here: http://www.franchise-info.ca/monetizing/faq/are.html
“Ogilvy on Advertising” should be required reading for anyone who intends to call him or herself a marketing consultant, ad agency, or PR specialist — before said consultant goes out into the business world and starts throwing bad advice around, especially to small business owners who can’t afford to get it wrong the first time.
I read both of Ogilvy’s best-known books (the other is “Confessions of an Advertising Man” 20 years ago when I started out as a freelance copywriter and have used OOA as my Bible ever since. He put into words everything I already thought — and still do — about the absurdity of most modern advertising; mainly, his admonition that advertising should be designed and written to garner RESULTS, not awards or praise for cleverness and creativity.