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I just ordered this bumper sticker for a friend from MakeStickers.com

I recently read Confessions of an Advertising Man by David Ogilvy, and thought it was an awesome book about the advertising business, A true classic.

Ogilvy’s rules on How to Write Potent Copy:

On Headlines:

1. The headline is the most important part of the ad; it is what gets the reader’s attention and what makes them keep reading. Invite readers and do not say anything to exclude any readers.
2. Every headline should appeal to the interest of the consumer.
3. Try to put news in the headline. The words new and free are the most powerful words that can appear in the headline.
4. There are several other words that are effective: How to, Suddenly, Now, Announcing, Improvement, etc. Headlines can also include emotional words.
5. Five times as many people read the headlines and the body.
6. Include a promise in the headlines, and longer headlines sell more than short headlines.
7. If the headlines make the consumer curious, they will more likely read the body.
8. Do not try to write tricky headlines, be simple and to the point.
9. Do not use negatives in the headlines.
10. Always make the headlines have a meaning.

On Body Copy:

1. Write the body as if you were recommending the product to a stranger.
2. Do not try to impress the reader with big words, be simple and concise with the body.

I recently read Confessions of an Advertising Man by David Ogilvy, and thought it was an awesome book about the advertising business, A true classic

Ogilvy hated the idea of firing people the produced good work, but in the advertising field it was necessary when the advertising failed the client, and the client fired the agency (happens all the time today too)

So here are Ogilvy’s rules on How to Keep Clients:

1. Appoint the best people possible to each account, and do not let executives go after accounts, it makes them greedy.
2. Avoid hiring unstable executives who are hard for people to get along with.
3. Avoid taking clients who change agencies on a regular basis.
4. Keep contact between the agency and the client on all levels of the business.

He also added these bits to the above four rules: Never join two clients in one ad.  Never keep a client who has reduced the quality of their product.

I recently read Confessions of an Advertising Man by David Ogilvy, and thought it was an awesome book about the advertising business, A true classic

According to Ogilvy, the first clients are the hardest to get, but after you get a reputation of doing good work, companies start to seek you.

Ogilvy’s Rules for Selecting New Clients:

1. Only advertise products which you are proud to be associated with, never advertise a product that you don’t respect and don’t like.
2. Never advertise for a company that you feel has better advertising than you can offer.
3. Never advertise for a company that has had failing sales for a long period of time. This normally means that the advertising will not help the sales.
4. Make sure that the client understands that the advertising agency has to make money as well; don’t make the client money while losing money from your own company.
5. Question any account that would not be very profitable. If it gives you a chance to show off your skills to other potential clients, then take the account.
6. Always find the motive for the client switching agencies, if he was let go from the previous agency, find out why.
7. Do not take clients that put little importance in advertising.
8. Never advertise for a product that is not yet on the market.
9. Never take associations as clients.
10. Only give in to the demand that a person be hired if you get the account if you feel that the person is capable of doing good work for your company

And lastly, if a company publicly announces the companies which it is considering to do their advertising, do not try to get the account, if you do not get it, you will publicly be known for being inferior to the successful company in some way.

I recently read Confessions of an Advertising Man by David Ogilvy.

Here are his rules on…

How To Build Great Campaigns:

1. What you say is more important than how you say it.
2. Unless your campaign is built around a great idea, it will flop.
3. Give the facts. (The consumer isn’t a moron; she is your wife. You insult her intelligence if you assume that a mere slogan and a few vapid adjectives will persuade her to buy anything.)
4. You cannot bore people into buying.
5. Be well-mannered, but don’t clown. (You should try to charm the consumer into buying.)
6. Make your advertising contemporary.
7. Committees can criticize advertisements, but they cannot write them.
8. If you are lucky enough to write a good advertisement, repeat it until it stops pulling.
9. Never write an advertisement which you wouldn’t want your own family to read.
10. The image and the brand. (Every advertisement should be thought of as a contribution to the complex symbol which is the brand image.)
11. Don’t be a copy-cat.

I recently read Confessions of an Advertising Man by David Ogilvy, and thought it was an awesome book about the advertising business, even if it was written in the 60s by a man who started an agency in 1952.

Here are his rules on…

How To Be A Good Client:

1. Emancipate your agency from fear.
2. Select the right agency in the first place.
3. Brief your agency very thoroughly indeed.
4. Do not compete with your agency in the creative area.
5. Coddle the goose who lays the golden egg. (provide enough time and resources to do the job well.)
6. Don’t strain your advertising through too many layers.
7. Make sure your agency makes a profit.
8. Don’t haggle with your agency.
9. Be candid and encourage candor.
10. Set high standards.
11. Test everything.
12. Hurry. (Profit is a function of time.)
13. Don’t waste time on problem babies (Back your successes and abandon  your losses.)
14. Tolerate genius.
15. Don’t under spend. (The surest way to overspend on advertising is not to spend enough to do the job properly.)

I use a great little menubar item called Mail Unread Menu that has been telling me that there is an update available every few minutes all morning. The funny thing is that it “requires Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard or greater” which isn’t even available until tomorrow…

And yet, every few minutes, it politely interupts me and tells me that there’s an update available, even though I can’t actually take advantage of the upgrade until tomorrow. WTF?

I’m reminded of this quote this morning from Dave Barry after reading an article on scheduling and meetings by Paul Graham:

“Meetings are an addictive highly self-indulgent activity that corporations and other organizations habitually engage in only because they cannot actually masturbate.” – Dave Barry

I’ve only worked at one organization that used meetings well all the time. It was simple: we had a one hour all company meeting once a week that lasted no longer than an hour. Anytime we met outside of that, I think we wasted a lot of time… because we weren’t as focused, and we’d already met that week and discussed some of what was on the schedule for that “other” meeting. If we’d have just focused on limiting all group contact to that one weekly meeting I think people would have gotten really good at communicating everything they needed to quickly and efficiently, and we would have left “the makers” a lot more time to get shit done… but hindsight is always 20/20, isn’t it?

When you aren’t sure if you’re keeping you integrity, ask yourself these questions:

1. What do I know to do?
2. What am I saying I will do?
3. What do others expect me to do, even though I haven’t said I will do it?
4. What do I have to do to have my work complete?
5. What do I have to do so that it’s done the way it has to be done to be considered complete?