David Ogilvy was born on June 23, 1911 in East Horsley, an agricultural village in Surrey, England, as the fourth of five children, and later immigrated to America. Ogilvy, who has three sisters and a brother, only mentions his sister Mary and brother Francis in his books.
Ogilvy, who had little to no knowledge of advertising until the age of 38, worked in many jobs that led him to advertising until he was thrown into the advertising industry. These; cooking, farming, spying on behalf of British intelligence and bakery sales, which he said gained his skills in advertising. After these professions In 1948, three years after the end of World War II, he established his advertising agency on Madison Avenue. Madison is to advertising what Silicon Valley is to technology.
In the first years, he was not taken into account by his competitors. However, ten years after the establishment of the agency, in 1958, he was mentioned by the prominent magazine of the industry, Printer's Ink, with the following words: "In the last fifty years, there has not been a single person who has created the sensational impact of the mischievous Englishman David Ogilvy in his forties, within the borders of American advertising. This colorful personality, which can be described as the character of Dickens, who has only been in the business for nine years, is the most talked about and advertised advertiser of a generation…” Time magazine declared, “The most sought after magician in the advertising industry.”
He used the phrase for Ogilvy and Ogilvy soon made a name for himself in the industry and business world for his intelligence and advertising talent. Considered the industry's bible, Adversiting Age, for Ogilvy, "is as close as a mortal can get to being baptized as King of the Advertising World." it wrote. Over time, Ogilvy has become the most widely recognized advertiser not only in the United States, but also in Asia, Europe, Canada and South Africa. Princess Diana and Pope II in 1982. Along with John Paul, he entered the list of names with the most news in the country.
Throughout his life, Ogilvy has always worked for what he aimed for, never left any work unfinished, was constantly on the move and never stopped wondering.
He was not only good at advertising, but also advanced the age of advertising, laid the foundation of today's advertising and directed advertising. He advocated the concept of brand image, research-based advertising, and the discipline of direct marketing, both in theory and in practice. He had a deep aversion to laziness, procrastination, in short anything that could be seen as lethargy, he was always very agile and even so swift that he could be misunderstood all his life. For example, interns and staff new to the agency were frightened by the interestingness of Ogilvy's sudden visits and his sudden departure and departure after learning the answer to a question he asked, until they realized Ogilvy's personal style and thought they had given the wrong answer or done something wrong. This is not Ogilvy's only misbehavior, never wearing a standard business suit, once wearing a cape, ordering cereal at a restaurant for the main course. In fact, Kenneth Roman, who was the head of his agency for four years, referred to Ogilvy as "eccentric" in his book "David Ogilvy, King of the Advertising World". “If you can't advertise yourself, do you think you can advertise other things?” also used the phrase. At the same time, he was afraid of airplanes and preferred to make long-term trips by train.
Ogilvy Agency merged with the agency founded in 1850 by Edmund Mather in 1964 and continued its business life as Ogilvy & Mather. Some of the clients of Ogilvy & Mather Agency are as follows; Schweppes, Rolls Royce, DHL, Coca Cola, IBM, The New York Times and Adidas.
Ogilvy stated that he has read all the books on advertising, and it has been confirmed by his environment that advertising is not his only interest. Ogilvy once showered a 15-year-old boy in the school choir with questions about flutes and listened attentively to every detail. Ogilvy, who is knowledgeable in many subjects, has used this knowledge very effectively to be a bridge when communicating with people.
Ogilvy has also taken a very democratic stance on recruitment. For him, the only criterion for recruitment is that the person to be hired is doing his/her job in the best possible way. His kindness to people and his politeness combined with his Oxford accent have been praised by his surroundings.
According to David Ogilvy, in order for an advertiser to be successful, he must have qualities such as leadership skills, analytical mindset, and creativity. Ogilvy has shown that nothing is impossible as long as you stick to the goals and strive for them, with the advertising agency he founded at the age of 38 and his outstanding success in the industry. He died on 21 July 1999 in France, where he retired at the age of 88.