Quote

You have only 30 seconds in a TV commercial. If you grab attention in the first frame with a visual surprise, you stand a better chance of holding the viewer. People screen out a lot of commercials because they open with something dull. When you advertise fire-extinguishers, open with the fire.

David Ogilvy

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David Ogilvy
Age: 88 †
Born: 1911
Born: June 23
Died: 1999
Died: July 21
Businessman
Businessperson
Economist
Writer
West Horsley
Surrey
David MacKenzie Ogilvy
Something
Stand
Visual
People
Fire
Commercial
Advertise
Open
Seconds
Viewer
Attention
Screen
Commercials
Chance
Screens
Grab
Better
Holding
Viewers
Firsts
Dull
Frame
First
Surprise
Visuals

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I figure that my staff will be less reluctant to work overtime if I work longer hours than they do.
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Develop your eccentricities early, and no one will think you're going senile later in life
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If you ever have the good fortune to create a great advertising campaign, you will soon see another agency steal it. This is irritating, but don't let it worry you nobody has ever built a brand by imitating somebody else's advertising.
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If you ever find a man who is better than you are - hire him. If necessary, pay him more than you pay yourself.
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The pursuit of excellence is less profitable than the pursuit of bigness, but it can be more satisfying.
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Tell the truth, but make the truth fascinating.
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Can advertising foist an inferior product on the consumer? Bitter experience has taught me that it cannot. On those rare occasions when I have advertised products which consumer tests have found inferior to other products in the same field, the results have been disastrous.
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Positioning should be decided before the advertising is created
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My motto has always been: Only first class business and that in a first class way
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Never stop testing, and your advertising will never stop improving. Testing was used in advertising decades ago. The internet has made testing so easy that every online marketer can use it to improve advertising results. Google content experiment is a free tool for you to do split testing.
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Do not address your readers as though they were gathered together in a stadium. When people read your copy, they are alone. Pretend you are writing to each of them a letter on behalf of your client.
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The secret of long life is double careers. One to about age sixty, then another for the next thirty years.
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The best idea is the simplest.
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The more story-appeal there is in the picture or in the photograph, the more people would look at your ad
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Training should not be confined to trainees. It should be a continuous process, and should include the entire professional staff of the agency. The more our people learn, the more useful they can be to our clients.
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Ninety-nine percent of advertising doesn't sell much of anything.
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I'd like to be remembered, as a copywriter who had some big ideas. That's what the advertising business is all about. Big ideas
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Headlines can be strengthend by the inclusion of emotional words like darling, love, fear, proud, friend and baby.
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If you always hire people who are bigger than you are, we shall become a company of giants
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