Happy Birthday To The Marketer's Marketer

108 years ago today, David Ogilvy was born in West Horsley, a village in Surrey 28 miles southwest of London. In 1999, he passed away at his chateau in Bonnes France, just as digital marketing was starting to crawl with some confidence through its energetic infancy.

Ogilvy was more than an icon of 20th century advertising and a convenient representative of the Mad Men era.  Ogilvy followed in the footsteps of advertising agency legends such as John Caples, James Webb Young, and Bruce Barton.

He brought substance, grace, and new levels of performance to a business often guided by charlatans mired in mediocrity.  His work was nonstop proof that selling could be charming and respectful.

Ogilvy's principles and practices remain as relevant today as they were a half-century ago. Combing through his writings we’re left with an unparalleled primer on the business of marketing and advertising.

Because of his love of testing, and the intelligent analysis of data, it’s not a stretch to believe that Ogilvy would have been an enthusiastic advocate and practitioner of today’s digital marketing.

I suspect he would be less enthusiastic about marketing people eating lunch at their desks, clients taking their business in-house, shrinking attention spans, and an increasingly shrill tone of language.

Source: Forbes.com

Powered by NewsAPI.org

Keywords:

David Ogilvy (businessman) • West Horsley • Surrey • London • France • Digital marketing • Cultural icon • Mad Men • Advertising agency • James Webb Young • Bruce Fairchild Barton • The Charlatans (UK band) • Ogilvy's • Value (ethics) • Religious education • Textbook • Business • Marketing • Advertising • Data • Digital marketing •