Gallup founded the American Institute of Public Opinion in 1935, the British Institute of Public Opinion in 1936, and the Audience Research Institute, Inc., in 1939. He published the first random sample opinion poll in 1935, in a newspaper called "America Speaks". Though he is more famous as a political pollster, he built a fortune telling manufacturers and filmmakers, as well as politicians, what people thought. Perhaps because he had been born in Jefferson, Iowa, a typical midwestern town, it seemed natural to him that the views of a small group might reflect those of all Americans.

      Gallup was the first to predict the victory of Franklin Roosevelt over Alf London. He developed the sampling techniques and the questions. He preserved an extraordinary integrity. He never voted for a political contender. He even refused to vote.

      Gallup wrote several books, including The Pulse of Democracy (1940) and The Sophisticated Poll Watcher's Guide (rev. ed 1976). He also founded the Quill and Scroll, an international honor society for high school journalists.

      Gallup influenced the lives of all-time advertising greats as David Ogilvy and Raymond Rubicam, of Young & Rubicam. Utilizing his research talents, Y&R was the first agency to measure national radio listening audiences by scientific telephone sampling. David Ogilvy joined Gallup at Princeton and for the next few years learned Gallup's polling methods and the value of consumer research. That experience instilled a profound respect for the value of research in Ogilvy, which as we see now has become deeply integrated into his advertising philosophy.