Quote

Unless your campaign has a big idea, it will pass like a ship in the night.

David Ogilvy

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

David Ogilvy
Age: 88 †
Born: 1911
Born: June 23
Died: 1999
Died: July 21
Businessman
Businessperson
Economist
Writer
West Horsley
Surrey
David MacKenzie Ogilvy
Marketing
Pass
Unless
Bigs
Ship
Idea
Campaign
Night
Ships
Ideas
Campaigns
Like
Consumers

More quotes by David Ogilvy

Image
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
Image
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.
David Ogilvy
Image
What you learn is more important than what you earn.
David Ogilvy
Image
If you have all the research, all the ground rules, all the directives, all the data - it doesn't mean the ad is written. Then you've got to close the door and write something - that is the moment of truth which we all try to postpone as long as possible.
David Ogilvy
Image
Readers travel so fast they don't stop to decipher the meaning of obscure headlines.
David Ogilvy
Image
Ninety-nine percent of advertising doesn't sell much of anything.
David Ogilvy
Image
I admire people with gentle manners who treat other people as human beings.
David Ogilvy
Image
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.
David Ogilvy
Image
The advertisers who believe in the selling power of jingles have never had to sell anything.
David Ogilvy
Image
Remove advertising, disable a person or firm from proclaiming its wares and their merits, and the whole of society and of the economy is transformed. The enemies of advertising are the enemies of freedom.
David Ogilvy
Image
Every advertisement should be thought of as a contribution to the complex symbol which is the brand image.
David Ogilvy
Image
If you always hire people who are bigger than you are, we shall become a company of giants
David Ogilvy
Image
The secret of long life is double careers. One to about age sixty, then another for the next thirty years.
David Ogilvy
Image
Tell the truth, but make the truth fascinating.
David Ogilvy
Image
Political advertising ought to be stopped. It's the only really dishonest kind of advertising that's left. It's totally dishonest.
David Ogilvy
Image
Most headlines are set too big to be legible in the magazines or newspaper. Never approve a layout until you have seen it pasted into the magazine or newspaper for which it was destined. If you pin up the layouts on a bulletin board and appraise them from fifteen feet, you will produce posters.
David Ogilvy
Image
Candor compels me to admit that I have no conclusive research to support my view that jingles are less persuasive than the spoken word. You'd run like hell if a salesman came to your door and began singing at you. Why do it in advertising?
David Ogilvy
Image
Creativity needs discipline and freedom.
David Ogilvy
Image
The best idea is the simplest.
David Ogilvy
Image
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. She wants all the information you can give her.
David Ogilvy