3-3-2012
(by Buzz Knight) A friend of mine some time ago recommended the book ?Confessions of an Advertising Man? by David Ogilvy (pictured) as a timeless masterpiece that had implications for us today in a crowded media world. Unfortunately, I didn?t immediately react to his recommendation and I?m kicking myself for not doing it sooner. At the age of 37, with a staff of 2 and no clients he founded his New York based agency, which later merged to form the international company now known as Ogilvy and Mather. If you don?t pick up your own copy of the book first issued in 1963 I?ll give you a summary of some key takeaways.
1) How to Manage
Ogilvy actually in Chapter One refers to ?How to Manage an Advertising Agency? but the chapter can be called ?How to Manage a Radio Station.? Every year he would assemble his troops and give them a candid report on the operations along with the kind of behavior he admired. One of his great lines in this chapter is ?I admire people who work with gusto. If you don?t enjoy what you are doing, I beg you to find another job. Remember the Scottish proverb, ? Be happy while you?re living, for you?re a long time dead.?
Another great line in his speech to the brigade which greatly sums up what we would all admire in our radio stations is ? I admire self- confident professionals, the craftsman who do their jobs with superlative excellence. They always seem to respect the expertise of their colleagues. They don?t poach.? Besides telling his staff what he expects of them he also speaks about what he expects of himself:
?I try to be fair and firm.?
?I try to sustain the momentum of the agency.?
?I plan our policies well into the future.?
?I try to recruit people of the highest quality.?
?I try to get the best out of every man and women in the agency.?
What a great collection of inspiring thoughts to take back to our radio stations.
2) How to Build Great Campaigns
Ogilvy spends a ton of time talking in the book about the craftsmanship needed to make great campaigns, write ?potent copy?, and rise to the ?top of the tier.?His first premise regarding great campaigns that is so beautifully simplistic yet many times we don?t practice this in radio is ?What you say is more important than how you say it.?
Ogilvy goes on to say that ?your most important job is to decide what you are going to say about the product and what benefit you are going to promise.?
His other key ?Great Campaign? messages are:
?Unless your campaign is built around a great idea it will flop?
?Give the facts.?
?You cannot bore people into buying?
?Make your advertising contemporary?
?If you are lucky enough to write a good advertisement, repeat it until it stops pulling.?
The entire section on ?Potent Copy? should be weaved into the fabric of every one of our production departments at our radio stations. When Ogilvy discusses the ?Body Copy? he advises: ?When you sit down to write your body copy, pretend that you are talking to the women on your right at a dinner party. She has asked you ?I?m thinking of buying a new car: Which would you recommend?? Write your copy as if you were answering the question.?
I love this book and it?s so easy to refer to it on a regular basis for inspiration.
We should strive for that inspiration every day in our radio experience.
As Ogilvy says: ?tell the truth but make the truth fascinating.?
Buzz Knight is the Vice President of Program Development for Greater Media and he can be reached at bknight@greatermediaboston.com. Knight was named among ?Best Programmers? by Radio Ink Magazine in 2007 and 2010. He has served on the programming subcommittee of the National Association of Broadcasters(NAB) and is currently a member of the Arbitron Radio Advisory Council and the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) COLRAM Committee.
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