Ogilvy Copywriting Skill

Apply these principles when writing, reviewing, or critiquing any copy with a sales or persuasion goal. Advertising is not art. It is information in service of selling. Every decision should serve that end.

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The Hierarchy: What Matters Most

Ogilvy's framework operates in order of priority. Later decisions only matter if earlier ones are correct.

1. Positioning (the most important decision)

Positioning is not a tagline. It is the answer to two questions: what does this product do, and who is it for?

The entire campaign depends on this decision being made first, before any copy is written.

• Dove was positioned as a beauty bar for women with dry skin — not a soap that cleans.
• Schweppes was positioned as a mixer — not a soft drink.
• Mercedes-Benz was positioned for non-conformists who reject status symbols — not for status seekers.

Wrong positioning means every downstream decision is built on a broken foundation. Research helps. Decide it early. Lock it in before writing a word.

Psychological segmentation beats demographic segmentation. Any agency can target "women 25-45." The better move is targeting a mindset — people who believe X, who reject Y, who want to feel Z.

2. The Promise (the second most important decision)

A promise is not a claim, slogan, or theme. It is a specific benefit the consumer will receive.

Samuel Johnson: "Promise, large promise, is the soul of an advertisement."

Rules for the promise:

• It must be a benefit, not a feature.
• It must be unique and competitive.
• The product must actually deliver it.
• Most advertising promises nothing. That is why it fails.

Go the whole hog. Most campaigns try to say too many things. They reflect too many executives, too many objectives. Boil the strategy down to one promise and deliver it completely. Attempting too many things achieves nothing.

3. Brand Image

Every ad contributes to the brand's cumulative identity. 95% of advertising is created ad hoc, with no consistent image from year to year. That is waste.

The manufacturer who builds a sharply defined brand personality over time gets the largest market share.

Quality signals quality. If the advertising looks ugly, consumers conclude the product is shoddy.

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The Big Idea

Unless the advertising is built on a big idea, it will pass like a ship in the night.

A big idea jolts the consumer out of indifference. It makes them notice, remember, and act.

Big ideas are almost always simple. Charles Kettering (General Motors): "This problem, when solved, will be simple."

Big ideas are not easy. They require research, preparation, and time. A truly strong one can run for 20 years — Ogilvy's eye patch for Hathaway shirts ran unchanged for decades.

How to find the big idea:

1. Do the homework. The more you know the product, the more likely a big idea surfaces.
2. Study what has worked and failed for similar products.
3. Study consumer research — what do they actually think, want, fear?
4. The promise should be important and unique. Use research to identify which promise is most persuasive.

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Copywriting Rules: Print and Digital

Headlines

Five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy. Waste the headline and you waste 80% of the money.

Rules:

• Include the brand name and the promise in the headline. Most Ogilvy & Mather headlines do both.
• Promise a benefit. Headlines that promise benefits outperform those that don't.
• Inject news. Consumers are always hunting for something new — new products, improvements, new uses. Informative headlines outperform clever ones.
• Keep language simple. Readers do not stop to decode obscure headlines. Telegraph the message in plain language.
• Longer headlines outperform short ones in direct response. Headlines of 8-10 words are most effective for recall. Headlines of 6-12 words pull the most responses in mail-order. Long headlines like "At 60 miles an hour, the loudest noise in this new Rolls-Royce comes from the electric clock" outsell short, clever ones.
• Flag your audience. If the product is for a specific group, name them in the headline. "Going to Europe?" "For mothers of toddlers." "Attention: bedwetters."
• Avoid negatives in headlines. Research shows they are dangerous.
• Headlines that arouse curiosity earn more readership — but only if the body copy delivers.

Body Copy

• The more you tell, the more you sell. Readership drops fast up to 50 words, then drops very little between 50 and 500 words. Long copy works for interested buyers.
• Treat the reader as intelligent. Ogilvy: "The consumer isn't a moron. She is your wife."
• Facts sell. Load copy with specific, pertinent facts. An advertisement's success increases as the number of relevant facts increases.
• Show, don't tell. Praise adjectives ("great," "amazing," "revolutionary") add nothing. Specific facts prove the claim.
• Helpful copy hooks more readers. Include advice, service, or information useful to the buyer beyond the pitch. This increases engagement by roughly 75%.

Photography and Visuals

• Photographs outperform illustrations consistently. They attract more readers, are more believable, better remembered, and sell more.
• Use captions. Twice as many people read photo captions as read body copy. Every caption should function as a miniature ad — brand name and promise included.
• "Story appeal" in photographs increases readership. A photo that makes the reader ask "what's going on here?" pulls them into the copy.
• Before-and-after formats work. Any visualized contrast earns above-average attention.

Layout

• Editorial layouts (resembling editorial content) consistently outperform "ad-looking" ads. Higher readership, less resistance.
• Never use a photograph without a caption.
• Ugly advertising signals a shoddy product.

Repetition

• Great ads are discarded before they pay off. Readership can increase with repetition — up to five exposures.
• Repeat winners. Don't discard something that works just because the team is bored with it.

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Television and Video Rules

These apply to video ads, social video, and promotional content.

• Exciting opening. Commercials with a strong opening hold audience attention at higher levels than those that begin quietly.
• Testimonials work. Almost always effective when credible. Real people or relevant celebrities both work. Irrelevant celebrities steal attention from the product.
• Problem-solution works. Show a problem the viewer recognizes. Show the product solving it. Prove the solution. Never cheat — viewers notice.
• Visual demonstrations work. Show the promise in action. Drives the claim home, saves time, aids memory.
• On-camera voice outperforms voiceover in effectiveness scores.
• Music backgrounds reduce recall. Most creative people resist this finding. It is still true.
• Create a mnemonic. With 20,000 ads per year, most slide off. Build in a distinctive burr — a symbol, sound, image, or phrase that sticks.
• Avoid animation for adults. Cartoons are less persuasive with adults. Viewers cannot identify with cartoon characters. Animation works for children.
• Logorrhea kills. Don't drown the viewer in words. What is shown matters more than what is said. Let the visual carry the story.

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Behaviors to Avoid

Awards

There is no correlation between creative awards and sales. The pursuit of awards pulls creative attention away from the goal. Successful advertising sells the product without drawing attention to itself. The product is the hero — not the ad.

Imitation

Advertising that follows fashionable fads or imitates competitors is rarely successful. Innovate. Start trends rather than following them. But pre-test innovation before committing.

Boredom

Nobody has ever been bored into buying anything. Detached, cold, impersonal advertising fails. Involve the consumer. Talk like a human. Make them feel something.

Burying news

New products deserve loud launches. Many copywriters instinctively bury news in the body copy or hedge the announcement. The moment of newness is the single easiest moment to generate interest. Use it.

Over-complication

One strategy. One promise. One idea. Complexity is how committees dilute advertising into nothing.

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Ogilvy's Diagnostic Questions

Before writing, answer these:

1. What is the positioning? (What does it do, who is it for?)
2. What is the single promise? (One benefit, competitive, deliverable)
3. What is the big idea? (Simple, memorable, built to last)
4. Who is the reader/viewer? (Demographic + psychological profile)
5. What does the headline do? (Brand name + promise + news?)
6. What proof exists? (Facts, demos, testimonials, before/after?)
7. What does the image say? (Does it support the promise? Does it have story appeal?)
8. Does the caption work as a standalone ad?
9. Is this boring? (Would this make someone lean forward or away?)
10. Is the product the hero? (Or is the clever idea the hero?)

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Quick Reference: What Works

Element	What wins
Positioning	Psychological over demographic
Promise	Specific benefit, not a slogan
Headline length	8-12 words for recall; 6-12 for response
Headline content	Brand + promise + news
Copy length	Long beats short for interested buyers
Visuals	Photos over illustrations
Layout	Editorial over "addy"
Video opening	Strong/exciting, not quiet
Video narration	On-camera over voiceover
Testimonials	Credible and relevant
Music	Reduces recall — use sparingly
Repetition	Run winners longer than feels comfortable
Tone	Human, specific, intelligent
Complexity	One promise, executed completely

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Source Material

Adapted from:

• "How to Create Advertising That Sells" — David Ogilvy, 1972 (38-point newspaper ad placed by Ogilvy & Mather)
• "Ogilvy on Advertising" — David Ogilvy, 1983
• "Confessions of an Advertising Man" — David Ogilvy, 1963