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    How To Create Advertising That Sells by David Ogilvy

    david ogilvy cartoon

    To me, as a copywriter who focuses on making sales (not just writing fswancy-schmancy words), I think this was one of the most iconic ads ever.

    It has no images.

    It fits on a single page.

    It only uses black ink.

    It sold more than a billion dollars worth of business.

    It hangs on my wall 35 years after it was published!

    Here it is:

    og_ad.jpg

    ::swoon:: !!

    What an amazing piece of advertising right? By openly sharing their secret sauce, Ogilvy & Mather managed to pull in a billion+ dollars of contracts stemming from this series of advertisements.

    This single page of 9pt font size text will never win any design awards, but it sure as hell sold a lot of lucrative contracts!

    I like it because it contains an entire marketing education on a single page.

    It was written by David Ogilvy and circulated in magazines in 1982. All it does is spell out all the knowledge the Ogilvy & Mather advertising agency has learned throughout the years.

    In fact it's 98% information, and only 2% selling.

    It utilizes this weird phenomenon where:

     

    When you GIVE AWAY amazing free information, people tend to BUY MORE from you!

     

    It's such a great resource, that 35 years after it's publication, in my home, I keep this advertisement as a permanent fixture:

    ogilvy advertising that sells frame picture

    I love glancing at this ad and getting ideas from it, so here below we have reproduced the text so it's easier to read in the computer age:

    Enjoy :)

     

     

    Let's talk about David Ogilvy for a second:

    david-ogilvy-characteristics.png
    David Ogilvy seemed like a pretty goddamn awesome guy. He's one of the inspirations for the show Mad Men.

    He was super vocal about how dumb it was that agencies would make advertisements that would try to win awards....and not focus on making sales.

    In fact he authored an INCREDIBLE BOOK (and still one of my Top 3 Favorites) called Ogilvy On Advertising about this subject, and it contains hundreds of real examples of successful (and unsuccessful) advertisements:

    Ogilvy on Advertising book by David Ogilvy

    He was a HUGE fan of the direct mail world because of how scientific they were in their marketing vs the not-scientific-at-all advertising agencies of the world.

    He (accurately) predicted most advertising would start being measured down to the penny. As computers became more prevalent this became truer and truer.

     

    Here's some of my favorite David Ogilvy quotes:

    Here's a couple of my favorite Ogilvy quotes.

    david ogilvy quote about idiots

    David Ogilvy quote on headlines

    David Ogilvy Quote the customer is not a moron she's your wife

    David Ogilvy quote on testing and improving

     

     

    Download the whole collection of Ogilvy & Mather "How to" ads:

    Click here to subscribe

    -- Keep in your own files --

    -- Share it with friends and colleagues --

    -- Download as Google Doc, Word, or PDF file --

     

    Hopefully you enjoyed this post and learned something!

    Sincerely,

    Neville Medhora - David Ogilvy Wannabe

    P.S. Did you know this ad was in a series of 6 ads of similar nature? Here's the other 5 ads:


    User Feedback

    Recommended Comments



    Guest Tim McReynolds

    Posted

    Hi Neville,

    I have been following you, like a fan, not a stalker, for years. That's for publishing this. Your preach David Ogilvy then Gary Halbert, then Ogilvy and then Halbert.

    At first I was thinking "O my goodness when will this guy get to the meat of copyrighting, when's he going to teach me how to make money."

    OK, I get it now.

    Enjoy your stuff and everybody who you recommend. Now that I understand maybe you have some secret sauce that will make me take action. O wait!. That probably has to be me, doesn't it?

    Thanks Neville

    Link to comment
    Guest max peters

    Posted

    I don't know about the other ones, but Kennedy and Cialdini are Dan Kenney and Robert Cialdini.
    Link to comment
    Guest Neville

    Posted

    Hey Tim, this is more of a fun homage to David Ogilvy....look through the sidebar of my blog and you'll find all the how-to articles you're looking for!
    Link to comment

    Hey Neville,

    thanks for taking the time to share this and the other resources too. Always find your content super helpful. Huge fan of Ogilvy and love his book, it's also one of my favourites. My current fav is Breakthrough Advertising by Eugence Schwartz. You mention Ogilvy on Advertising as one of your 3 favourite books. What are the other two?

    Link to comment
    I have a question, How can I get feedback on copywriting ? is there like a website that provides this service ?
    Link to comment
    Guest Neville

    Posted

    Well you can get it from Facebook Groups like "The Cult of Copy" and such, but it's not guaranteed the feedback will be good.

    Inside my own course we have bi-monthly office hours where you can get feedback directly from me.

    Link to comment
    Guest Neville

    Posted

    Hey Angus, glad you like all the stuff we publish here :)

    I have my entire list of 8 or so top copywriting books here.

    I'd say my Top 3 are:

    #1.) The Boron Letters – by Gary Halbert:

    #2.) Adweek Copywriting Handbook – by Joseph Sugarman

    #3.) Ogilvy on Advertising – by David Ogilvy

    Hope those are helpful Angus!

    Link to comment
    Guest Eddy Howey

    Posted

    Hey Neville,

    I copied this out by hand a few months back and by the end of it I felt like I learnt a hell of a lot.

    By reading your stuff, A lot of Halbert, Ogilvy and more I managed to pick up my first gig (not exactly a large pay cheque) by providing the client with loads of information... She hired me straight away.

    thanks,

    Edy

    Link to comment
    Guest Chad Bettis

    Posted

    Greetings Neville,

    It seems to me, a new copywriter - just graduated AWAI six figure copy-writing - that the only copywriters making money are teaching or writing for other copywriters. Please to share how to get going and make money?

    Link to comment
    Guest Neville

    Posted

    Hey Chad, that's not really true at all. Here's salaries for different types of copywriters:

    https://copywritingcourse.com/copywriter-salary

    ...and you can see how to get more exposure for your services by reading these:

    https://copywritingcourse.com/how-to-become-a-copywriter/

    https://copywritingcourse.com/freelance-writing-jobs-for-beginners/

    It's like being a freelancer in anything...just because you call yourself a copywriter doesn't mean the world thinks you have any skills.

    You have to PROVE yourself to the world by writing lots of articles, by contributing good writing, by working with successful clients, by building your way up.

    An example is Tam Pham, search his name on this article and see how he did it:

    https://copywritingcourse.com/freelance-writing-jobs-for-beginners/

    Link to comment
    Guest Scott Martin

    Posted

    Not true, Chad. But I can understand why you think this.

    There are plenty of copywriters, including several extremely accomplished and famous copywriters, who don't write copy anymore. They find it easier to teach young copywriters than to write copy. Plus it can be lucrative for them but now these copywriters are finding it harder to find nascent copywriters willing to spend $500 for an hour of being yelled at and told they're useless.

    The best, most consistent, and longest-lasting opportunities still come from actually writing copy for clients who value direct response copywriters.

    Link to comment
    Guest Erik Stafford

    Posted

    Great piece, thanks for sharing. Where did you ever find a copy of this ad that was a high enough resolution to print and frame?!?!

    Thanks,

    Erik

    Link to comment
    Guest Neville Medhora

    Posted

    You're welcome Erik! At my last apartment the interior decorators that setup the whole thing knew I loved Ogilvy Ads, and made high res photocopies from my Ogilvy On Advertising book and framed them.

    Apparently they tried to get them printed online but got some copyright issues, so they went to a local Kinkos and did it!

    Link to comment
    Guest Copy Work: Get Better At Copywriting By Handwriting Famous Pieces Of Work! :: Kopywriting Kourse

    Posted

    […] ad campaign. It featured the president of the Schweppes company Commander Whitehead, who Ogilvy thought looked perfect for this […]
    Link to comment
    Guest Sean Van Zant

    Posted

    GREAT blog post, Neville :) Will use some of these principles!
    Link to comment
    Guest What’s the best copywriting book you’ve ever read? :: Copywriting Course

    Posted

    […] How To Create Advertising That Sells […]
    Link to comment
    Guest Sayeb

    Posted

    Hey, Neville big fan of your work and advice, I'm a copywriting student and I want to share my journey as A copywriting student for other fellows to follow along and also to build my reputation as a copywriter and get some credibility, and want to create this ad in a checklist form for people to access for free on my site, therefore I was wondering who holds the rights to these files, in case I upload them on my site for reference purposes. I also wanted to take permission from you in order to use your swipe files for creating a brief analysis of some of the copies, of course giving you credit and linking back to your site. I would love to get your advice as a youtube student of yours maybe, haha.
    Link to comment
    Guest CHRISTOPHER NDIWE

    Posted

    Sir David Ogilvy appears to be a true father of Advertising !.Outstanding oxford guru.!
    Link to comment
    Tyrone Baker-Perley

    Posted

    I love this! David Ogilvy will forever be a legend and one of my biggest inspirations 

    Link to comment



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