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One of my favourite books Iāve ever read, feels like itās time for a re-read. My copy is pretty old; I believe itās actually from the 70s. Check out that killer content page. David was the real deal https://t.co/7GvGSNg8rP
Check out the first page!!! My god. I wish we could follow him on Twitter. https://t.co/U4wbNEdnHj
Immediately before even learning anything about his advertising background Iām struck by his flair for storytelling. The man knew how to seize what was interesting. IMO you canāt have a mind like this and be happy working for other people; his brilliance is too potent
āI made a botch of Oxford. [...] I was too preoccupied to do any work, and was duly expelled.ā āFor the next 17 years, while my friends were establishing themselves as doctors, lawyers [...], I adventured about the world, uncertain of purpose.ā How I adore this man š
He starts by talking about his experience as a chef - (oh, how beautiful a Netflix special with Ogilvy and Bourdain wouldāve been!) - hire ambitious people and challenge them - the head chef must cook well - sincere praise from people with high standards wins precious loyalty https://t.co/jMdmN9iGQr
- āa great sense of occasionā is great for morale - do not tolerate incompetence, B players demoralize your A players David faced a dilemma re: snitching on a colleague. He did it (Lol Iām cheating by posting pics of the whole book but his prose is just so delicious) https://t.co/FhLHqUYpQY
I gotta zoom out otherwise Iām going to post the whole book š get it and read it, itās so short and snappy and every word is used well. What Iām enjoying on re-read is his calm, measured confidence in knowing what he believes and why he believes it. Ultra-competence
He has summarized and compressed his own insight so skillfully and so densely that my usual twitter-book-summarizing skill is basically worthless here, since heās already applied that filter to his own writing. Damn you, David Ogilvy, rendering 1000s of tepid blogposts obsolete https://t.co/UcDHw7kuPl
āI have no ambition to precede over a vast bureaucracy. That is why we have only nineteen clients. The pursuit of excellence is less profitable than the pursuit of bigness, but it can be more satisfying.ā Ogilvy was DHH before DHH
Ogilvy established such a reputation for excellence that if he saw a remarkable ad anywhere, he would find out who wrote it, and call them to congratulate them - and theyād almost invariably ask him if he was hiring
āI ask the candidate to send me the six best advertisements and commercials he has ever written. This reveals, among other things, whether he can recognise a good ad when he sees one, or is only the instrument of an able supervisor.ā The intellectual rigor here is Feynman-esque
āThe business community wants remarkable advertising, but turns a cold shoulder to the kind of people who can produce it. That is why most advertisements are so infernally dull. Albert Lasker made $50m partly bc he could stomach the atrocious manners of his great copywriters.ā
Ogilvy then lists out those copywriters *by name!* On this front he reminds me of Alex Ferguson and Lee Kuan Yew, two other men with incredible track records and an almost gleeful eagerness to name names when pointing out who fucked up
āCourtiers cannot create potent campaignsā āTalent is most likely to be found among nonconformists, dissenters and rebelsā https://t.co/SDz1XFApUT
āThe majority of businessmen are incapable of original thinking, because they are unable to escape the tyranny of reason. Their imaginations are blocked.ā I am only 16 pages in š how do I avoid tweeting every single passage in this whole book...
āIn the modern world of business, it is useless to be a creative, original thinker unless you can also sell what you create. Management cannot be expected to recognise a good idea unless it is presented to them by a good salesman.ā
Ogilvy worked intense hours, but also took frequent vacations āso that my brain can lie fallow - no golf, no cocktail parties. [...] while thus employed in doing nothing, I receive a constant streams of telegrams from my unconscious, and these become the raw material for my ads.ā
Ogilvy subscribed to the idea that creative greatness cannot be achieved by committee, it requires forceful individuals who are often ācantankerous egotistsā https://t.co/rpoj4Oe2JG
On How to Get Clients: I think itās remarkable that Ogilvy made a list of the five clients he wanted most. You seldom hear people talk like this. My own friends working in ad agencies today admit that they get mediocre clients to pay the bills. Ogilvy wasnāt interested in that https://t.co/3UAYA9WBYQ
I love this bit: when talking about a failed partnership, he says āI take comfort from the fact that he went on to great things at other agencies, unencumbered by an insufferable partner.ā Such a class act, damn https://t.co/4Gya0uO4Rj
How did he get his start? Killer content marketing + the Trump-Musk playbook of outrageous āidioticā proposals to dominate the press. Incredibly comprehensive, very industrious, very strategic https://t.co/w2PqmD9TZA
The agencies which are the most successful in new business are those whose spokesmen show the most sensitive insight into the psychological makeup of the prospective client Get the prospect to do most of the talking https://t.co/jyl702WU7v
āI regard the hunt for new clients as a sport. If you play it grimly, you will die of ulcers. If you play it with lighthearted gusto, you will survive your failures without losing sleep. Play to win, but enjoy the fun.ā
I Loled the last time and I loled again https://t.co/8bpoxEgLbt
I have to say, while all my favorite books have great content, itās never the content itself that gives them Hall Of Fame status - itās the voice, the way of seeing. Inhabiting Ogilvyās mind is such a pleasure. Heās so lively, cheerful and full of zest and gusto, itās infectious
There are several things Ogilvy does that seem counter-intuitive business-wise in the short run, but are clearly genius in the long run (reminding me of Fergie and LKY again). He recommends other agencies over his own, and turns down large clients and TELLS them theyāre too big https://t.co/JgTd9voeO1
By being clear about *exactly* what he wants, no more and no less, Ogilvy develops an almost mythical level of freedom and independence. He canāt be bought. This mythical status makes people want him and his preciously genuine counsel even more. *wipes tear* itās beautiful
āI always use my clientsā products [...] and why not, pray tell? Are these not the best goods and services on earth? I think they are, and that is why I advertise them.ā I admire the way he realized his vision of making an excellent, joyful living w/o compromising his values https://t.co/n4wbd9mQDF
āI also resign accounts when I lose confidence in the product. It is flagrantly dishonest for an advertising agent to urge consumers to buy a product which he would not allow his own wife to buy.ā An honest advertiser! I am quite convinced that he must have been one
āAmerican businessmen are not taught that it is a sin to bore your fellow creatures.ā (Singaporeans are never taught this either. š ) https://t.co/y7OarEQFqo
Good ads arenāt about what looks impressive, but about what sells. āHow well he speaksā vs ālet us march against Philip.ā https://t.co/nC8gCeH0mu
It takes uncommon guts to stick to one style in the face of all the pressures to ācome up with something newā every six months Every ad, radio program, TV commercial is not a one-time shot, but a long-term investment in the total personality of their brands https://t.co/ZX4NhY57bZ
āThe manufacturer who dedicates his advertising to building the most sharply defined personality for his brand will get the largest share of the market at the highest profitā (assuming no significant difference in product) https://t.co/6gk7mCM0tN
āIāll bet you ten dollars I can write a newspaper page of solid type and youād read every word of it.ā https://t.co/5MnqwYGd4p
āIn another headline, I used the word ineffableā, only to discover that I didnāt know what it meant myself.ā This sort of self-deprecation is quite charming and disarming (when it comes from a founder-CEO) https://t.co/t7aEzo9nAr
Interestingly, Ogilvy disliked posters and hated billboards (and paints an evocative picture of his fantasy of starting a secret society of masked vigilantes chopping them down) https://t.co/EN8g0mSNrn
Seriously, the man wrote in twitter threads https://t.co/ORlP5GnwNO
Going to bed! Hereās Alex Ferguson also naming names https://t.co/dZ9dUB0MjC
Fergie names names. He fined Mark Bosnich for being repeatedly late for training. "Schmeichel, Ince, Keane, Cantona could all start a fight in an empty house." "Some people, like Veron, just seem to be immune to discipline. You cannot build a team with blithe free spirits."
And hereās my thread of book threads, let me know if you want me to follow up on any of them https://t.co/ikrY9DOP9r
Thread of books I'm reading in 2018. Deciding that I'm going to focus on optimizing for "books started" (which is fun and interesting) rather than "books finished" (which for me has a sort of masochistic, completionist connotation I'd like to be free of).