Ogilvy Copywriting

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.