Confessions of an Advertising Man Book Summary - Confessions of an Advertising Man Book explained in key points

Listen to the Intro

00:00

Confessions of an Advertising Man summary

Name: Confessions of an Advertising Man
Rating: 4.6 (40 reviews)
Author: David Ogilvy

David Ogilvy

Advice and techniques for building advertising empires from the era of Mad Men

4.6 (40 ratings)

16 mins

Table of Contents

Confessions of an Advertising Man
summarized in 10 key ideas

Audio & text in the Blinkist app

Key idea 1 of 10

Choose your clients carefully and cultivate long-term relationships with them.

In its infancy, an advertising agency must hunt for whatever business it can get. But in the long run, it should aim to cultivate a select number of large key accounts.

This means being very picky and gradual when adding new clients. A basic limiting factor on growth should be your ability to train new staff to handle an account – a process that takes about two years. A first-class agency can afford to be selective because the demand for excellence is always higher than the supply.

So how do you choose your clients? First of all, you must be comfortable working with them, for your relationship will be an intimate one. Find out why they are leaving their former agency. Could it be that no agency can abide them, because they actually need therapy more than they need good advertising?

Second, both you and your client must seek a long-term, mutually beneficial relationship. With an average profit margin of 0.5%, advertising agencies cannot afford clients who drive such a hard bargain that no profit is made on their account.

Some clients may have a reputation for changing their agencies frequently – avoid them, for you cannot remedy their infidelity. And never take on products that are either brand new or dying. The former are risky and very expensive to introduce to a market, whereas the latter cannot be helped by any advertising.

Some companies publicly announce which advertising agencies they are considering for their account. In such cases, you should withdraw voluntarily rather than risk failing publicly.

Finally, never add an account that is so big you cannot afford to lose it, or you will live in constant fear.

Choose your clients carefully and cultivate long-term relationships with them.

Build your business by being a lasting, valuable partner to your clients.

Building an advertising business from scratch is very difficult, but it can be done with a bit of luck — and a lot of effort and self-promotion.

Landing new accounts is a thrilling experience, and your business depends on it. Nevertheless, consider client hunting as a sport: try to win but don’t take it too seriously. Set your long-term goals high. On the second day of his agency’s existence, Ogilvy named five major blue chip companies – including legends like Shell and the Campbell Soup Company – as targets. All five eventually became his clients.

Be honest in your advertisements and your business dealings – you’ll do better in the long run.

The advertising industry is often seen as a realm of lies and illusions, but in fact dishonesty is short-sighted and unprofitable – a consumer duped into buying an inferior product once will not return for repeat business, and your agency will quickly lose its reputation.

Hence, only advertise products you can proudly stand behind. Unless you truly believe they are good, you have no business advertising them.

Build a great working atmosphere by hiring proven hard workers with brains and integrity.

The number one responsibility of an advertising executive is cultivating a good atmosphere for the creative staff to work in. To do so, you must only hire people who will contribute to such an atmosphere.

Employ hardworking, well-mannered men and women who have the brains to produce great advertisements and the guts to stand up to their own bosses. Look for people who genuinely enjoy what they are doing, are excellent at their craft, and treat each other with respect and integrity.

To inspire devotion and enthusiasm in your staff, demand excellence and lead by example.

Long ago, Ogilvy worked as a chef in the elite kitchen of a Parisian hotel where the head chef, Monsieur Pitard, inspired an incredibly intense sense of duty, enthusiasm and devotion among his staff. It is from his example that Ogilvy learned the basics of leadership.

First, you must demand the highest excellence from your staff. Just as the head chef in Paris inspected every single dish before it left the kitchen, you too should inspect every single campaign before it leaves the agency, and send it back for more work if it is unsatisfactory.

Your advertisements should sell products, not entertain people.

Forget about designing so-called “creative” campaigns or writing “award-winning” copy. Good advertisements – regardless of media – should sell products without drawing attention to themselves. The most important metric to track for advertisements is the amount of sales they bring in, and it stands to reason that the advertisers who can most readily observe this metric know best what kind of advertisements work.

This is why it pays to monitor mail-order companies and large department stores. Both are in a position to count the sales generated by each individual advertisement – mail-order companies from the coupons sent in and department stores from the increase in sales the day after the advertisement. Hence, you can be sure they are well informed as to what works and what doesn’t.

To get people’s attention, use facts, intrigue and take advantage of research.

Consumers are bombarded with billions of dollars worth of advertisements every day. To get their attention in this crowded marketplace, your voice must be unique and riveting. Be charming, memorable and straight-to-the-point, as if you were talking to someone at a dinner party.

Advertisements are most effective when they give people facts, even if those facts are not unique to your product. For example, when Ogilvy advertised KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, he emphasized KLM’s comprehensive safety precautions. Every other airline also used these precautions, but since KLM was the only one talking about them, this approach proved immensely effective.

Create ambitious campaigns and test them thoroughly.

In advertising, there is often pressure to come up with something new and discard the old. But when you create an advertising campaign, you must always aim to make it a long-term success rather than just a one-hit wonder. In fact, try to make it the most successful campaign in history – never shoot for mediocrity.

Think in the long-term. Great adverts can be run for a very long time, and never lose their pull; the Sherwin Cody School of English ran the same advertisements successfully for 42 years.

As a client, find a great agency and do your best to help them create great ads.

Let’s turn the tables for a second. What if you are a client? How can you extract the best possible service from your agency?

First, don’t haggle with them or try to cut corners by underspending on your advertising; it will just cost you in the long run. Unless your agency is making a profit on your account, they will not put their best brains on it and therefore, your advertising will suffer.

Career advice for the young: work hard, become a specialist and seize golden opportunities.

When you start working at an advertising agency, you are usually assigned a rather unimportant job, perhaps as an assistant account executive. Nevertheless, from that moment on, your goal must be to become the most knowledgeable, best-informed person in the entire company on your specific assignment. Read textbooks, trade journals and marketing plans related to your client’s industry, and spend your free time getting to know their consumers. Pretty soon, you will know more about your client’s situation than your superior, meaning you’ll be ready for his or her job.

Consider specializing in copywriting, research or a specific media instead of just making a career as an account executive. You will find it far harder to impress anyone as a run-of-the-mill account man than as a rock-solid specialist.

Want to see all full key ideas from Confessions of an Advertising Man?

Key ideas in Confessions of an Advertising Man

More knowledge in less time

Read or listen

Get the key ideas from nonfiction bestsellers in minutes, not hours.

Find your next read

Get book lists curated by experts and personalized recommendations.

Shortcasts ^New

We’ve teamed up with podcast creators to bring you key insights from podcasts.

What is Confessions of an Advertising Man about?

Confessions of an Advertising Man (1963) is a collection of advice and techniques for building successful advertising campaigns and agencies. Written in the era of Mad Men, the book is still considered essential reading in the advertising industry, but also provides advice for aspiring managers in any business.

Who should read Confessions of an Advertising Man?

Anyone interested in Ogilvy’s fundamentals of great advertising campaigns
Anyone hoping to make a career in advertising
Anyone who has ever seen the TV show Mad Men

About the Author

Considered “the Father of Advertising”, David Ogilvy is hailed as a genius by his clients and a marvelous boss by his staff. The Scotsman dropped out of Oxford and worked as a chef in Paris, a door-to-door salesman in Scotland and a researcher at Dr. Gallup’s Audience Research Institute. He eventually founded and built up one of the world’s most famous advertising agencies, known today as Ogilvy & Mather, which has 450 offices around the world.

Categories with Confessions of an Advertising Man

Marketing & Sales Communication Skills

Books like Confessions of an Advertising Man

The 1-Page Marketing Plan

Allan Dib

Get New Customers, Make More Money, And Stand Out From The Crowd

How to Use More Than 100 Secrets of Ad-Agency Psychology to Make BIG MONEY Selling Anything to Anyone

You Can't Be Seen Until You Learn to See

Confessions of a Media Manipulator

15 min

4.0

Truth, Lies and Advertising

Jon Steel

The Art of Account Planning

13 min

4.4

Hey Whipple, Squeeze This!

Luke Sullivan with Sam Bennett

The Classic Guide to Creating Great Ads

Overcoming in Uncertain Times

18 min

4.3

100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People

Susan M. Weinschenk

The essential guide for every designer from a behavioral psychologist

Warren Buffett and the Business of Life

Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business

28 min

4.4

The Better Brain

Bonnie J. Kaplan and Julia J. Rucklidge

Overcome Anxiety, Combat Depression, and Reduce ADHD and Stress with Nutrition

The classic text that proves the power of positive thinking

Inspiration, Influence, and Persuasion through the Art of Storytelling

Innovative Advertising for a Digital World

366 Meditations on Power, Seduction, Mastery, Strategy, and Human Nature

30 min

4.5

The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck

Mark Manson

A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life

The 15 Most Powerful Principles for Wealth, Health, and Happiness

26 min

4.6

Baby Steps Millionaires

Dave Ramsey

How Ordinary People Built Extraordinary Wealth-and how You Can Too

15 min

3.9

Poor Charlie's Almanack

Peter D. Kaufman

The Wit and Wisdom of Charles T. Munger

26 min

4.3

(Article) Why can't the world's greatest minds solve the mystery of consciousness?

Oliver Burkeman

Original article published in The Guardian

Short Life Advice from the Best in the World

18 min

4.2

The Six Pillars of Self-Esteem

Nathaniel Branden

The Definitive Work on Self-Esteem by the Leading Pioneer in the Field

19 min

4.3

Get Your Sh*t Together

Sarah Knight

A No F*cks Given Guide

14 min

4.0

The Storytelling Edge

Shane Snow and Joe Lazauskas

How to Transform Your Business, Stop Screaming into the Void, and Make People Love You

20 min

4.4

The Interpretation of Dreams

Sigmund Freud

Sigmund Freud’s influential cornerstone work

18 min

4.2

Why We Eat (Too Much)

Andrew Jenkinson

The New Science of Appetite

Know thyself, then go out and conquer the world!

Hedge Funds and the Making of a New Elite

20 min

4.3

Outsmarting the Crowd

Bogumil K. Baranowski

A Value Investor’s Guide to Starting, Building, and Keeping a Family Fortune

The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction

25 min

4.4

How to Make People Like You in 90 Seconds or Less

Nicholas Boothman

Make Instant, Meaningful Connections for Interviewing, Selling, Managing, Pitching

18 min

4.2

Love More, Fight Less

Gina Senarighi

Communication Skills Every Couple Needs

Your Seven Triggers to Persuasion and Captivation

Mastering the Habits That Matter Most

20 Go-To Principles to Help You Market Like a Marketer

The Science of Shopping

The Next Big Marketing Idea

The Official TED Guide to Public Speaking

Why Now is the Time to Cash in on Your Passion

16 min

4.1

When the Body Says No

Gabor Maté

The Cost of Hidden Stress

The Dark Art and Curious Science of Creating Magic in Brands, Business, and Life

Own Your Morning. Elevate Your Life.

How to Get It, Keep It, & Sell More Than Ever

21 min

4.5

The New Strategist

Günter Müller-Stewens

Shape Your Organization and Stay Ahead of Change

24 min

4.1

Content Marketing Revolution

Dane Brookes

Seize Control of Your Market in Five Steps

Timeless Stoic and Buddhist philosophy

92 Tools to Unlock the Secrets to Innovation, Growth, and Sustainability

25 min

4.2

The Almanack of Naval Ravikant

Eric Jorgenson

A Guide to Wealth and Happiness

Lose up to a Pound a Day, Reclaim Energy and Focus, Upgrade Your Life

People ❤️ Blinkist

Sven O.

It's highly addictive to get core insights on personally relevant topics without repetition or triviality. Added to that the apps ability to suggest kindred interests opens up a foundation of knowledge.

Thi Viet Quynh N.

Great app. Good selection of book summaries you can read or listen to while commuting. Instead of scrolling through your social media news feed, this is a much better way to spend your spare time in my opinion.

Jonathan A.

Life changing. The concept of being able to grasp a book's main point in such a short time truly opens multiple opportunities to grow every area of your life at a faster rate.

Renee D.

Great app. Addicting. Perfect for wait times, morning coffee, evening before bed. Extremely well written, thorough, easy to use.