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I
had no credentials, no clients, and only $6,000 in the bank. Today...Ogilvy & Mather has become one
of the five biggest advertising agencies in the world, with offices in
twenty-nine countries, a thousand clients, and billings of $800,000,000 a
year. If you want to follow my
example, here is the recipe: First,
make a reputation for being a creative genius. Second, surround yourself with partners who
are better than you are. Third, leave
them to get on with it. -David Ogilvy, Blood, Brains, and Beer, 125 In 1948, Ogilvy set out to open a decidedly
British advertising agency...in New York.
With the help of his brother, Francis, Ogilvy was able to convince the
London agency Mather & Crowther to invest in the new firm. He also received an investment from Bobby
Bevan of S.H. Benson Ltd. Together,
the agencies became 90% participants (Danzig). Recognizing the need for a bit of
“Americanism” in the firm, Ogilvy hired Anderson Hewitt from J. Walter
Thompson’s Chicago office to serve as president of the company. Ogilvy himself took the title of Senior
Vice President of Research, and handled all of the creative work for the new
firm. Over the coming years, Ogilvy’s
firm won many accounts, including those listed on the following pages, and
made the firm a huge success in a very short period of time. Five years later, Ogilvy and Hewitt found
themselves in disagreement over who should run the agency. The result was Ogilvy, Benson, &
Mather. During the ensuing years, Ogilvy
continued to make a name for himself and his agency. He continually won more accounts and the
agency grew at a record pace.
According to Ogilvy, “I had arrived.
Fortune published an article suggesting that I was
a genius. CBS made a television
program about me. I was invited to
functions at the White House. I won
the Parlin Award from the American Marketing Association” (Ogilvy, Blood…, 129). In 1960, the Benson agency sold back its
10% share in the firm. That same year,
Ogilvy hired John “Jock” Elliot from BBDO to serve as Senior Vice President
of the firm. Later, in October, 1964,
Mather & Crowther merged with Ogilvy forming Ogilvy & Mather. Ogilvy personally owned 17% of the company
(Danzig). At this point, however, Ogilvy came to the
realization that “if I were hit by a taxi, Ogilvy and Mather would vanish
into thin air. Clearly it was time to
stop behaving like a one-man band and to convert the agency into an
institution” (Ogilvy, Blood…, 130).
Ogilvy decided that it was time to turn his focus on the life of the
company to ensure its existence for future employees. He outlines the steps toward achieving this
goal as follows: First,
I developed an international network, figuring that manufacturers who though
Ogilvy & Mather were the cat’s whiskers in the United States might like
to use our services in other parts of the world. The next step was to make Ogilvy &
Mather a public company…When an advertising agency goes public, it commits
itself to a policy of perpetual growth… -David Ogilvy, Blood, Brains, and Beer, 137 These
steps made Ogilvy & Mather incredibly successful. The agency had become a world-renowned
powerhouse in the advertising industry.
When Ogilvy finally retired from the company, he cited the following
three reasons: 1. In
Jock Elliot we had a man whom my partners agreed would make an admirable
successor. 2. My
detachment from the daily rat race had made me a non-playing captain, and
this had disadvantages. 3. Because
I cannot fly in airplanes, I could not visit our offices in Australia, New
Zealand, Southeast Asia, India, Africa, or South America, and I was unknown
to the men and women who worked in these offices. Bad. -David Ogilvy, Blood, Brains, and Beer,
145-146 Ogilvy
retired happily to a castle in the south of France where he passed his time
gardening, bicycling, and keeping correspondence with his offices around the
world. He died at the age of 88 on
July 21, 1999. |