David Ogilvy kävi kylässä

Hienoa David, kun pääsit käymään. Mistä ajankohtaisesta aiheesta aloitetaan?

First, study the product you are going to advertise. The more you know about it, the more likely you are to come up with a big idea for selling it. When I got the Rolls-Royce account, I spent three weeks reading about the car.

Se on pitkä aika. Ei meillä ole ikinä niin montaa viikkoa presentaatioon.

Hard work, says the Scottish proverb, never killed a man. People die from boredom and disease.

Yölamppu ei tosiaan enää pala toimistoissa. Korona-ajan etäily vaikuttaa muuttaneen työkulttuuria pysyvästi.

Bill Bernbach once told me that he never stayed in the office after five, never took work home, and never worked at weekends. ’You see, David, I love my family’.

Se on huojentavaa. Bill pärjäsi kuitenkin ihan hyvin. Jostain syystä nykyajan työelämä ajaa ihmisiä piippuun.

The copywriter lives with fear. Will he have a big idea before Tuesday morning? Will the client buy it? Will it sell the product? I have never sat down to write and advertisement without thinking THIS TIME I AM GOING TO FAIL.

Tuttu tunne.

It is horribly difficult to recognize a good idea. I shudder to think how many I have rejected. Research can’t help you much, because it cannot predict the cumulative value of an idea, and no idea is big unless it will work for thirty years.

Hah, meillä pitkäikäisellä konseptilla tarkoitetaan maksimissaan paria vuotta ennen kuin kaikki halutaan laittaa taas uusiksi.

George Cecil wrote the American Telephone advertising for 40 years, and wrote it well. For 18 years I used face of my client Commander Whitehead as the symbol of his own product.

Mutta tuskin kuitenkaan ajoitte samaa mainosta? Nykyajan trendi tuntuu olevan se, että samaa mainosta luukutetaan raivostuttavuuteen asti.

If you are lucky enough to write a good advertisement, repeat until it stops selling. Scores of good advertisements have been discarded before they lost their potency. Henry Ford once said to a copywriter on his account: ‘Bill, that campaign of yours is dandy, but do we have to run it forever?’ to which the copywriter replied, ‘Mr Ford, the campaign has not yet appeared’. Ford had seen it too often at too many meetings.

Siitä tulikin mieleen, että millä keinolla markkinointiväki pääsisi takaisin johtajien pakeille emmekä jämähtäisi keskijohdon palloteltavaksi?

Every time you see a client, you have to be sufficiently briefed on his business to give relevant advice. When I was the chief executive of my agency, I always took home two briefcases, and spent four hours reading their contents. Not much fun for my wife.

Ei varmasti. Hauskoja eivät ole myöskään tilien kilpailutusprosessit. Ne syövät kohtuuttomasti kaikkien toimistojen aikaa.

Manufacturers have complicated the process of selecting agencies beyond reason. This long and expensive process does not necessarily result in the selection of the best agency. The agency which would create the best advertising over a period of years may not have the luck to come up with the best campaign in the few weeks allotted to the contest.

Monesti niissä toivotaan huumoria, mutta ei mitään oikeasti hauskaa vaan pikkiriikkisen pilkettä silmäkulmaan. Sellaista on vaikea tavoittaa.

I must warn you that very, very few writers can write funny commercials which are funny. Unless you are one of the few, don’t try.

Mutta siis mitä sitten?

What is a good advertisement? An advertisement which pleases you because of its style, or an advertisement which sells the most? They are seldom the same.

Niinkö? Mutta eikö luovuus…

When I write an advertisement, I don’t want you to tell me that you find it creative. I want you to find it so interesting that you buy the product.

Ennen kuin hiillyt, niin vaihdetaan lempiaiheeseesi eli tutkimuspuoleen. Dataa on nyt enemmän kuin koskaan, ja tekoälyn myötä yhä useampi esiintyy sen asiantuntijana.

The best fun I ever had was in the early days of Ogilvy & Mather, when I was both Research Director and the Creative Director. On Friday afternoons I wrote research reports to the Creative Director. On Monday mornings I changed hats, read my reports and decided what to do about them – if anything.

Tutkimukset ovat varmasti syynä myös siihen, että meitä ohjeistetaan yhä useammin laittamaan logo yläkulmaan ja kertomaan viesti ensimmäisten sekuntien aikana.

Many copywriters think it crass to belabor the name of the product. However, for the benefit of those who are more interested in selling than entertaining, here is way to register you brand name: Use the name within the first 10 seconds.

Kuulostaa tutulta.

Few copywriters share my appetite for research. The late and great Bill Bernbach, among many others, thought that it inhibited creativity. My experience has been the opposite.

Eli tutkimuksista löytyy vastaus kaikkeen?

Grateful as I am to researchers who have helped me to produce effective advertising, I have bones to pick with them. Researchers use graphs which are incomprehensible to laymen. And their reports are too long. Worst of all, researchers use pretentious jargon. Come off it.

Suomi on taantumassa, ihmisten fiilikset pohjalla ja markkinoinnista leikataan. Mitä sanoisit johtajille?

If you stop advertising a brand which is still in its introductory phase, you will probably kill it – for ever. Studies of the last six recessions have demonstrated that companies which do not cut back their advertising budgets achieve greater increases in profit than companies which do cut back.

Sitä hoetaan täälläkin. Vielä kun viestin saisi menemään läpi.

I have come to regard advertising as part of the product, to be treated as production cost, not a selling cost. It follows that it should not be cut back when times are hard, any more than you would stint any other essential ingredient in your product.

Vielä lopuksi, mitä ennustat markkinointivuodelta 2026?

When I set up shop on Madison Avenue in 1949, I assumed that advertising would undergo several major changes before I retired. Yes, there have been changes but their significance has been exaggerated by pundits in search of trendy labels. Consumers still buy products whose advertising promises them value for money, beauty, nutrition, relief from suffering, social status and so on. All over the world.

Lohdullista kuulla. Kiitos David, kun annoit aikaasi. Koitetaan jaksaa.

Make it fun to work in your agency. When people aren’t having any fun, they don’t produce good advertising. Get rid of sad dogs who spread gloom.

David Ogilvyn vastaukset ovat sitaatteja kirjasta Ogilvy on advertising vuodelta 1985.