david ogilvy on the future of advertising

There's been a lot of speculation lately about the ad agency of the future. Ironically, I've been reading a new book about an ad man from the past and I'm struck by the prescience of David Ogilvy. He famously insisted on the superiority of advertising that provides measurable results. Ogilvy, Benson and Mather (as it was then called) was the first ad agency to integrate direct marketing (the ancestor of digital) into traditional campaigns. His preference was informed, no doubt, by his experience as a door to door salesman. He began his career hawking stoves, of all things. Not exactly an impulse buy. (Especially to canny Scots in the depths of a Depression. He learned to go around to the back door, to sell the cook first because if she didn't buy in, there was no hope of making a sale to her employer.)

Here's a few Ogilvy mantras that ring as true today as they did in the typewriter era. (Ogilvy never actually used a typewriter, he wrote longhand using only freshly sharpened pencils. For other untold tales about D.O. from the POV of a man who worked with him for years, pick up Kenneth Roman's excellent--and first-- biography King of Madison Avenue.)



The public is more interested in personalities than corporations.

This never changes. The only time someone wants to talk to a corporation, is when they're trying to wangle a refund from it. It may be the age of "conversational marketing" but consumers won't engage with a monolith company unless they're given a reason to do so. (See Alan Wolk's now-famous post on this topic.)

It has been found that the less an advertisement looks like an advertisement, the more people will stop and look at it.

Hence the rise of embedded marketing, iphone apps, branded entertainment and widgets.

You aren't advertising to a standing army; you are advertising to a moving parade.

Of course, the parade moves a lot faster now, and to many more places. Still, a brand message must move nimbly with it.

Every advertisement must contribute to the complex symbol which is the brand image.

A brand message has to live in myriad environments these days, but no matter where it goes, it must carry the same DNA and core values.

Our business is infested with idiots who try to impress by using pretentious jargon.

In his day it was "suboptimize." In our day it's "folksonomy" and "glocalisation" and other words meant to make consultants appear worthy of exorbitant day rates.

Advertising isn't an art form, it's a medium of information.

Ogilvy alienated some colleagues by speaking out against over-the-top TV production extravaganzas and awards. He was interested only in creating messaging that produced results for the client. Here's a pep talk he gave (virtually) to one of his direct response departments. Just substitute the word "digital" for "direct" and it makes for an informative webinar.

Campbell's new label ingredient: biometrics

According to the Wall Street Journal, Campbell's is changing its iconic label in an effort to (duh) make people buy more soup. They spent two years researching package and logo designs by tracking microscopic changes in skin moisture, heart rate and other biometrics to see how consumers react to them. This "neuromarketing" approach is an attempt among consumer-good companies to understand how consumers respond to marketing and advertising.

In interviews, participants said the soup pictured on the can and shelf labels didn't look warm, so steam is added in the new label. And the big spoon full of soup provoked little emotional response, so it was removed.

The company hopes the label and display changes will help shoppers connect on a deeper level to the products and boost its condensed soup sales by 2% over the next two years. Hmmmmmm, good luck with that, Campbell's.

Full article here.

film promo goes beyond trailer, to retailer

Olympics got you hankering for a higher performance bod? Check out a new website where you can put in an order for a bionic arm that "handles twice the load of a human arm" (special 2 for 1 pricing) or a human heart "guaranteed to give you the blood pressure of an Olympic athlete." Faux site may not sell many organs but my guess is, it will be brilliantly effective at what it's intended to do: get you to shell out $12 for a ticket to an upcoming film. Repo Men, starring Jude Law as reclaimer of bionic body parts from unfortunate buyers behind on their payments, is due out March 19. Faux website courtesy of Goodness Mfg, LA ad agency staffed by creatives from Crispin.

Found on AdFreak

Dodge Superbowl spot generates direct response on youtube

Thank god it's the era of CGC and youtube so that Dodge's $3 million man-as-endangered-species spot could be rebutted for a fraction of the price by New York-based writer/producer MacKenzie Fegan. Her skillful parody airs views from Venus. Or is it Mars? I can never remember. But hey, how come only the guys get the car? (Full transcript here.)



Fegan is someone Dodge's agency W+K might consider wooing to Portland. They're in dire need of a female car creative out there, if this spot on Dodge's youtube channel is indication of what they think women want.

found in the twitterverse, via Edward Boches

Parisian Oops

You knew it was coming. Spoof of Google's "Parisian Love" that revises the story, throwing in a search for "unplanned pregnancy options." Conceived (sorry) by Upright Citizen's Brigade, an NY/LA based improv troupe whose grads go to SNL and other comedy enterprises. Would that, for our sake, they'd end up in advertising.

mad ave vs. main street

Another reason I'm enthusiastic about BrandBowl, I suppose, is that its robo-pollsters confirm (at least as of this writing) my choice of Google for Superbowl 2010 winner. No half-naked men (or women), no pyrotechnics, no appeal to base instincts. Just the most powerful form of salesmanship there is: a simple story well told to dramatize product benefit. Nice play, Google. But, to demonstrate dispiriting chasm between Mad Ave and Main St, the spot ranks a measly #43 on USA Today's ad meter.



Brandbowl and I part ways on E-trade, however. Call me a sucker, but I love E-trade's talking babies and admire that Grey New York, hard as it must have been to rail against change artists, stuck with a concept that's charmed people for years into handing over their lucre. It's #15 on Brandbowl, but #7 on USA Today. Which I prefer to think means I'm not totally out of touch with mainstream consumers.

mullen's nifty new brand-o-meter

The game play yesterday most exciting to me was Mullen's kickoff of BrandBowl, a microsite that combines tweeting, ad reviews and a host of metrics to let viewers generate and view real time ratings of brands, not just spots. A sweet link to Hulu replayed commercials almost as soon as they aired. Scoreboard continually shifted, and is still shifting this morning, reflecting real-time assessments via twitter hashtag #brandbowl which Mullen promoted earlier in the week. Partnering with Radian 6, they've tallied results assessing content from thousands of players generating almost 100,000 tweets. Next year, I assume brands will be vying for ad space. Brilliant, Ed Boches.