''Ogilvy on Advertising'' is a useful book for everyone interested in the art of persuasive writing and communication. And since it was published in 1983, it has remained one of the most widely read, quoted and consulted books in the Advertising profession.
If you are in advertising, this book should be a worthwhile investment, whether you are in creative or account servicing. If you are a brand manager, this book could help you make your advertising more effective and your brand more powerful.
The book also has useful chapters on finding jobs in advertising, winning new clients, and running an agency. Good advice when it comes from the founder of one of the world's largest agency networks, with 359 offices in 100 countries.
The secrets of million dollar writing
''Ogilvy on Advertising'' gives you the inside secrets to how David Ogilvy's writing made the cash registers ring for his clients like Rolls Royce and Shell.
''At 60 miles an hour the loudest noise in this new Rolls-Royce comes from the electric clock,'' wrote Ogilvy in one of the most memorable ads in automobile history. Hard-to-forget ads like this written by Ogilvy made millions for his clients in sales and for his agency in billings.
A good book for communicators, and those who write to be read.
Even if you aren't in advertising, ''Ogilvy on Advertising'' could make a huge difference to the way you communicate. The book is a treasure chest of hands-on tips and pointers gained through years of research on how people react to communication, advertising in particular and how advertisers can best move them to action. In my humble opinion, the book would be treasured by
Writers wanting to influence people with their words
Advertising professionals who want to make ads that sell
Brand managers who want to create branding success
Ad agencies that need to win clients
Salesmen and direct marketers exploring selling ideas and appeals
Public relation managers in need of corporate communication tips
Communicators wanting to add power to their messages
Journalists and media people wanting to know about readership patterns
Consumer researchers wondering what turns people
This book is one of the only books that tells you how people read things. It tells you, with research figures, which headlines are read more, which appeals work best for which people, how one ad gets ten times more response than the other within the same budget, by using research and common sense.
And it includes valuable tips on direct mail, TV advertising, B2B advertising, travel advertising, advertising for social causes, and of course, what Ogilvy was best known for, the role of research in advertising.
What tricks can a dead copywriter teach us? David Ogilvy was a college drop out, cook, salesman, and farmer. And, of course, the most famous advertising writer in the world. The book ''Ogilvy on Advertising'' shares with you the techniques that helped David Ogilvy nurture an ad agency from no clients and a staff of two into O&M into a worldwide advertising enterprise.
Not a mean feat when you consider that Ogilvy never went to Business School. He did spend a few years with George Gallup's Audience Research Institute.
What separates David Ogilvy as a writer giving you advice is that every tip he gives you is based on research.
Consider a few of the research-based tips the book provides (I quote):
Five times as many people read the headline (the title of your write up) than the copy.
Titles that offer the reader helpful information attract above-average readership. Tell me you haven''t heard of the book called ''How to Win Friends and Influence People.''(Another one of my favourites that I hope to review sometime on mouthshut).
When you put your title in quotes, 28 percent more people will recall it again.
If you use leading (line spacing) between paragraphs, you increase readership by 12 per cent.
(I unquote).
The best part - the ad clips and the captions.
This book features so many of the world's best advertisements, most of them with extraordinary examples of fine writing that it's an investment every advertising person should make.
Moreover, every ad clip is accompanied by a detailed caption explaining what made it a good ad. Only browsing through the captions and ads in this book can be a refresher course in the craft of advertising, trust me.
It would take at least two generations to collect so many examples of compelling advertising in one place, advertising that built formidable brands and endeared them to their users.
It was bloody expensive for me. And bloody good too.
The book is such a treasure, people in advertising would actually sell their soul to get a copy. But it's not that expensive, considering the usual prices that advertising books have.
The cheapest offer I saw currently was 14 dollars and a few cents on the web. Amazon is offering it at a huge discount. In India, you could buy it for under Rs 1,000 I think from any good bookshop that stocks advertising books (remember, this is THE book for ad people).
It was as expensive as buying a car, for me, because I bought it when I was just starting out my career as a copywriter, overworked and underpaid. But through the years, this book has paid for itself and is the secret of all the good ads I have written so far. So, it's worth the money if you want to make good ads.
Dil maangey more?
In case you want to read more books by David Ogilvy, there's his first book 'Confessions of an Advertising Man' and 'David Ogilvy: An Autobiography'.
I hope to review more books on Advertising if mouthshut members find my reviews helpful....
