The King Of Madison Avenue – David Ogilvy

Anybody who is interested or active in the marketing industry, particularly in promotion, will find this book a fascinating read. Kenneth Roman tells the story of how David Ogilvy took an English Agency to America and built a fresh thinking, innovative advertising agency from scratch on Madison Avenue.

The book is rich with insights, first into how David Ogilvy used research and customer insights to build compelling and innovative advertising. Many of Ogilvy’s big ideas are still around today! The book goes on to explore how he managed the agencies rapid growth, developed its corporate culture, changed the billing structure for an entire industry, and dealt with mergers and acquisitions as his once small business became a worldwide organisation.

The King Of Madison Avenue shows how an agency works from the inside. It demonstrates one approach to the central issue of nurturing creativity, and discusses the often difficult relationship between talented creative’s and a client’s requirement to sell more products.

David Ogilvy didn’t just do advertising, he pioneered consumer research within advertising, he was a strong promoter of direct marketing as a specific discipline, he encouraged account executives to use management accounting techniques to appraise campaigns, and he built the first “boutique” agency. He understood that he was selling brands, not products, before brands were called brands.

Kenneth Roman uses David Ogilvy’s career and the development of Ogilvy & Mather to discuss many of today’s hotly debated marketing topics, and highlights David Ogilvy’s approach to leadership, management, and a fast changing operating environment.

As a Norwich Marketing Consultant who has worked with agencies in Boston, Seattle, London, Leeds, Manchester, Sheffield, and Bristol across many specialisms on many different projects this was a fascinating read!