New David Ogilvy biography out now - Tells you what his biography failed to

If you’re interested in perhaps the most influential advertising man ever – which you surely should be - read The King of Madison Avenue, by Ken Roman.

Few people knew David Ogilvy better than Ken, a former CEO of the Ogilvy Group who worked with him for 26 years, and spent several more researching this book, which you can get from Amazon.

You cannot divorce the nature of a man from his achievements. Anyone interested in what made Ogilvy tick - his oddities (quite a few), his failures, his weaknesses, his strengths, his worries, his ambitions, his likes, his hates - will find them here. (He once said to me, by the way, “I may not be a good lover, but I’m a damn good hater.”)

I devoured half the book at a sitting. Besides being well-written it tells me all the things I wanted to know that David’s autobiography - Blood, Brains and Beer - didn’t. That curiously impersonal book disappointed many people, because it dished absolutely no dirt whatsoever.

Why his own book failed

David said he knew it would never do well because “when you write about advertising you’re competing with midgets. When you write an autobiography you’re competing with giants.” The truth is, though, that you want an autobiography to tell you about the face behind the mask, warts and all. That one didn’t; the new one does.

For me, who only knew him in the twilight of his career, the book was full of interest. I always wanted to know about David and women. (The way he left his first wife was extraordinarily unkind – and crazy). I wanted to know what exactly he did in the secret service during the war – and indeed why he never fought. I wanted to know the exact relationship he had with his brilliant elder brother, Francis. I wanted to know whether he worried as much as I do.

Claude Hopkins and John Caples may have made more impact on the nature of advertising and direct marketing. Albert Lasker made far more money. Many think Bill Bernbach’s agency was more “creative”. But nobody – to my mind – had such an influence on so many people.

By no means original

This is even though many of his ideas were not at all original - though he certainly was one of a kind, believe me.

The headline of his most famous advertisement, for Rolls Royce, was almost identical to one run many years earlier by another car maker, Pierce-Arrow. Other people talked about the brand and its image before him. Others – going back to the 19th century - pointed out that advertising should be about selling, not showing off. And still yet others trumpeted the importance of research.

But nobody took these thoughts and theories, reflected on them, elaborated on them, explained them and proposed them so memorably, persuasively, and with such style.

I only ever met two geniuses. Charlie Chaplin was one. David Ogilvy was the other.

Chaplin I literally just met, very briefly, when I was doing publicity for a film. A small man with bright eyes, buried in a navy blue overcoat and a big white scarf, accompanied by a beautiful wife.

But I worked with David Ogilvy for quite a few years towards the end of his career. Indeed, Ken’s research was so diligent he sat me down for an hour in a pub in Mayfair and asked for my reminiscences. Others knew David better, but I got to know him quite well and had some good times with him. This book brought him back to life for me. But it also tells you a great deal about the development of advertising, how to build a successful business –and what bloody hard work it is.

Read it. You can get a good deal on Amazon.co.uk, through it's not yet in stock. If you buy it with Ogilvy on Advertising at Amazon.com you get a healthy discount. And if you haven't read that, you should be ashamed of yourself.

Oh, and just in case you're wondering, no: I am not an Amazon affiliate or even a Ken Roman affiliate; I am a financial nincompoop (nice word, eh?)

Ha bloody ha ... what service was that then?

I read in the papers the other day that Lord Mandelson, ennobled by the Great Bloated Haggis, Saviour of the Universe, for bringing politics into further disrepute, "sought to reassure anxious Labour MPs yesterday by expressing regret at the way the postal market was opened up to competition in 2006.

But, the report continued, "his olive branch appeared to cut little ice (great mixed metaphor, by the way) with Labour backbenchers, of whom 71 have signed a Commons motion opposing plans to sell a minority stake in Royal Mail, warning that it "would risk fracturing one of Britain's greatest public services".

Er, would you hit me again with that one, please? Fracturing what? My Newman Street office happens to be a hundred yards or so away from the big West End Post Office, whose stool-perching toilers are the mainstay of the nearest pub.

This pub was built over 100 years ago. Newman Street was then famous for its brothels. In those days if you wanted to tell your wife in Croydon (a London suburb) that you would be late for dinner - maybe because you planned doing a naughty in Newman Street - you could post your letter at lunchtime and she would get it in time to turn off the oven.

Nowadays you couldn't be sure it would arrive the next day, or even arrive at the right address. I got six letters last Friday addressed to Drayton Bird Associates staff who don't exist. Three are actually people who live in flats in our building, are far too intelligent to work for me. This is because the database that links names with postcodes is useless. Rather like the Royal Mail, actually.

Anyhow, give it time and the lads in the pub will all be out of work because TNT and others will have fractured their service, eaten their lunch - and emptied their pints.

New David Ogilvy biography out now. Tells you what his autobiography failed to

If you’re interested in perhaps the most influential advertising man ever – which you surely should be - read The King of Madison Avenue, by Ken Roman.

Few people knew David Ogilvy better than Ken, a former CEO of the Ogilvy Group who worked with him for 26 years, and spent several more researching this book, which you can get from Amazon.

You cannot divorce the nature of a man from his achievements. Anyone interested in what made Ogilvy tick - his oddities (quite a few), his failures, his weaknesses, his strengths, his worries, his ambitions, his likes, his hates - will find them here. (He once said to me, by the way, “I may not be a good lover, but I’m a damn good hater.”)

I devoured half the book at a sitting. Besides being well-written it tells me all the things I wanted to know that David’s autobiography - Blood, Brains and Beer - didn’t. That curiously impersonal book disappointed many people, because it dished absolutely no dirt whatsoever.

Why Ogilvy’s own book failed

David said he knew it would never do well because “when you write about advertising you’re competing with midgets. When you write an autobiography you’re competing with giants.” The truth is, though, that you want an autobiography to tell you about the face behind the mask, warts and all. That one didn’t; the new one does.

For me, who only knew him in the twilight of his career, the book was full of interest. I always wanted to know about David and women. (The way he left his first wife was extraordinarily unkind – and crazy). I wanted to know what exactly he did in the secret service during the war – and indeed why he never fought. I wanted to know the exact relationship he had with his brilliant elder brother, Francis. I wanted to know whether he worried as much as I do.

It’s all there, and more.

Claude Hopkins and John Caples may have made more impact on the nature of advertising and direct marketing. Albert Lasker made far more money. Many think Bill Bernbach’s agency was more “creative”. But nobody – to my mind – had such an influence on so many people.

This is even though many of his ideas were not at all original - though he certainly was one of a kind, believe me.

One of two geniuses I met

The headline of his most famous advertisement, for Rolls Royce, was almost identical to one run many years earlier by another car maker, Pierce-Arrow. Other people talked about the brand and its image before him. Others – going back to the 19th century - pointed out that advertising should be about selling, not showing off. And still yet others trumpeted the importance of research.

But nobody took these thoughts and theories, reflected on them, elaborated on them, explained them and proposed them so memorably, persuasively, and with such style.

I only ever met two geniuses. Charlie Chaplin was one. David Ogilvy was the other.

Chaplin I literally just met, very briefly, when I was doing publicity for a film. A small man with bright eyes, buried in a navy blue overcoat and a big white scarf, accompanied by a beautiful wife.

But I worked with David Ogilvy for quite a few years towards the end of his career. Indeed, Ken’s research was so diligent he sat me down for an hour in a pub in Mayfair and asked for my reminiscences.

Other knew David better, but I got to know him quite well and had some good times with him. This book brought him back to life for me. But it also tells you a great deal about the development of advertising, how to build a successful business –and what bloody hard work it is.

Read it. You can get a good deal on Amazon.co.uk, through it's not yet in stock. If you buy it with Ogilvy on Advertising at Amazon.com you get a healthy discount. And if you haven't read that, you should be ashamed of yourself.

Oh, and just in case you're wondering, no: I am not an Amazon affiliate or even a Ken Roman affiliate; I am a financial nincompoop (nice word, eh?)

Follow-up to those guys holding me up

Alex Gibson, who clearly does strange things at the dentist wrote this to me:

I was listening to you on my mp3 player in the dentist's waiting room on Monday.

You said something along the lines of:

"One of the best things about the internet is that it makes it cheap to do the most important thing in marketing, which is testing".

Like the two guys in your post, I do split-testing for clients using Website Optimizer and bumps of 20% to 40% are commonplace. But, for some reason, getting clients to test is like pulling teeth.

(Particularly if they're "testing virgins")

It's the damnedest thing.

If I propose something that'll get them 10% more traffic, they jump at it.

But, suggest getting 10% more out of their existing traffic and they either think it's voodoo or too much like hard work (even when I show them examples and offer guarantees).

I'm wondering, is this normal?

Do you find that it's easier to sell clients on brand new advertising than it is to sell them on a re-write of their existing copy?"

The answers Alex's questions are "yes" and "yes".

This is even though it is always more sensible to try and improve something that's working than strike off in an entirely new direction - and even though you'll make more out of improving your approach to people you've got than people you're just acquiring.

I think people prefer to test new creative and on getting new traffic rather than making more from what they've got because of the human preference for the new. I often used to say at seminars when people asked me about this new thing and that new thing, "Why don't you try and get the basics right first?"

By coincidence I had a colleague in today who was moaning that it's hard to get any client to do enough testing. He has conducted over 100 tests that we're thinking of making into a book. Some of what he's done is really revealing, especially in the use of colour.

Incidentally, as further proof of the speed of change in our little world it seems my friend Ben and Karl are no longer the only Authorised Google Optimiser Consultants in Britain - just the first ever.

But they remain the only ones to hold me up.

What’s holding me up?

Who are these two young stalwarts, holding up the tottering edifice that is Bird?

They are Ben Jesson and Dr. Karl Blanks, partners in www.conversion-rate-experts.com.

They are the only Authorised Google Optimiser Consultants in Britain, which sounds rather grand but more to the point they are pretty damn good at filling up tired old men with lethal-strength Cobra lager, which is much more dangerous.

Besides being a helpful life support, they told me one thing that I recommend to everyone reading this, which I will reveal to you in a minute

How did I meet them?

I was talking last year at Ken McCarthy’s System Seminar in London, and so were they. Ken - the first person ever to run an internet marketing conference back in 1993 - says this was one of the two best events out of all the scores he has run since.

I suspect Karl and Ben's content was better than my jokes. But then again, if you go to their site and read the bit on the right under “Send me my free newsletter" I guarantee it will make you laugh. And when, pray, was the last time you got a giggle out of anything to do with website conversions?

I thought so.

So what is the idea I mentioned? It is almost ludicrously simple - and a wonderful way of educating those whose websites are full of meaningless drivel (which means most firms).

I am amazed I never thought of this simple, yet clever idea, because for over 30 years I've been telling people to read their copy out loud before they run it. Good writing is just organised speech.

They just say: "A prospect has just rung up to ask what you do and how you can help them. Now answer them by reading the copy on your home page out loud."

As you can imagine, this results in embarrassment for many whose sites are full of corporate waffle.

If you love words, as I do, there is a splendid, rather odd word for this little exercise. It is eleemosynary, meaning, "intended for a charitable purpose."

And God knows, it is charitable to show people what awful tripe their website people are banging up on their sites.

Which reminds me: for some reason people pay more for website copy than for the ordinary kind. I can't imagine why. People who read copy, wherever it may be, do not mysteriously change into something else; and the task of persuasion is achieved in pretty much the same way.

So I write in exactly the same way (like this, in fact) wherever my stuff appears.