David Ogilvy is known as the father of advertising and in his book, “Confessions of an Advertising man”, he lists out the principles he followed to take his agency, Ogilvy, Benson and Mather to the peak of advertising industry. In this book, he also offers advice to both the clients and the agencies on the dos and don'ts of the advertising industry.
The book is an excellent read which entails how an organization should work, what an employer, how objective he should be, how to maintain high motivation levels in his employees, how to lead by example and how honest you should be with your employees and clients without being naïve. For all this, he used real life examples. In short, the book illustrates many aspects of organizational
But once the first client is bagged, it all boils down to the consistency and quality of work. It is also very important to listen more to the clients than do the talking as it shows that the listener is actually interested in the problem of the client. It is also important to take only as much as you can eat. Ogilvy never took an account that he thought was too big that he could not afford to lose it. This breeds fear and frightened agencies lose the courage to give candid advice and finally lose everything. Ogilvy himself made it a point to take only those accounts in which he really believed. He himself used most of the clients’ products and believed that his clients provided the best in their businesses.
In chapter 3, Ogilvy advises on how to keep clients. The best way is to provide the clients the best talent and maintain close contact with them at all levels. It is important to see the problem through the eyes of the client. Ogilvy himself bought shares of his clients as he thought it would help him think better as a part of the family. It is also important to admit mistakes and maintain confidentiality at all steps. Similarly, it is also important to resign accounts when the one no more believes in the product or the account is no more profitable to the agency.
Chapter 4 advises companies on how to be good clients. It is important to select the right agency, brief the agency well, and let them do their work and not harangue and haggle them over