I'm reading a book by advertising legend, David Ogilvy, and I'm struck by how many little frameworks and rules of thumb he had to guide his work.
Such bite-sized pieces of wisdom are easy to remember and hard to forget. When I was a beef trader for my father's company back in the 1990s, he used to tell his traders "Buy the rumor and sell the fact." And: "When the market softens by more than X%, shorten your position -- Your first loss is your best loss." Or if a customer got behind on their invoices, he'd remind the trader handling the account to "Never make ultimatums when the other guy's got your money."
Anyway, David Ogilvy used to tell his staff that unless an ad contained a big idea, it would pass like a ship in the night. Here's how Mr. Ogilvy recognized a big idea:
- Did it make him gasp when he first saw it?
- Did he wish he had thought of it himself?
- Was it unique?
- Did it fit the client's strategy to perfection?
- Could it be used for thirty years?
Big ideas that fit this framework include Mr. Ogilvy's own Hathaway man with an eye patch (above), the Marlboro Man, and American Express' "Do you know me?" And according to Mr. Ogilvy, "If you are lucky enough to write a great advertisement, run it until it stops selling."
So: What's your big idea?
My big idea is the new MYSTERY LINK treasure chest -- which will contain a really cool, obscure, useful and free Adobe file that I dug up on the web. Click it right now! And look for the Mystery Link treasure chest on future posts.
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Q: Need the number of a recruiter who "gets it?"
A: Download Harry's contact info for future reference.
