Since a few of you asked … more David Ogilvy CORRECTION


I have very mixed feelings about this, to be honest. The reason is the man in the picture. More about him in a moment.

A week or so ago I mentioned the day I walked into our office in Bombay and suddenly heard David Ogilvy talking about me.

Quite a few of you wanted to see the clip, so I’ve put it up at www.draytonbirdcommonsense.com/davidogilvy

It’s a very brief extract from a training session he was conducting and I plan to put the whole lot up as part of the commonsense programme. It is highly entertaining – and FULL of practical advice about business, especially new business, which he believed was the lifeblood of success.

In the whole video – about an hour long, I think – he refers to two of the people I met in India, one of whom he admired greatly as did I. That man, Mani Ayer, died about 15 days ago. David said he was “the most outstanding individual in the Ogilvy network.”

Mani was a wonderful, inspiring leader – and also very funny, like all the best people (I think). When he ran the Indian agency it was called Ogilvy, Benson and Mather or OBM, which he told me stood for Other Buggers’ Money.

He and I had drinks a year or so ago in a London Wine Bar. A great loss, as is Ogilvy.

Anyhow, if you want to see one of these two great man in action, have a look at the clip – www.draytonbirdcommonsense.com/davidogilvy. It’s followed by a bit of salesmanship by me — but whether you want to listen to that is up to you.

About the Author

In 2003, the Chartered Institute of Marketing named Drayton one of 50 living individuals who have shaped today’s marketing.

He has worked in 55 countries with many of the world’s greatest brands. These include American Express, Audi, Bentley, British Airways, Cisco, Columbia Business School, Deutsche Post, Ford, IBM, McKinsey, Mercedes, Microsoft, Nestle, Philips, Procter & Gamble, Toyota, Unilever, Visa and Volkswagen.

Drayton has helped sell everything from Airbus planes to Peppa Pig. His book, Commonsense Direct and Digital Marketing, out in 17 languages, has been the UK’s best seller on the subject every year since 1982. He has also run his own businesses in the U.K., Portugal and Malaysia.

He was a main board member of the Ogilvy Group, a founding member of the Superbrands Organisation, one of the first eight Honorary Fellows of the Institute of Direct Marketing and one of the first three people named to the Hall of Fame of the Direct Marketing Association of India. He has also been given Lifetime Achievement Awards by the Caples Organisation in New York and Early To Rise in Florida.

3 Comments

  1. Since I get your blog via RSS and also Linkedin, I hadn't looked at your actual blog for awhile.

    Like the new design, much better than the old one. Better picture of you too, maybe it's the suit, very sharp.

  2. draytonbird

    It's the photograph, Mark (by a German photographer in Romania, I think – and unretouched, too!) selected by my partner Marta, who did the revamp.

  3. draytonbird

    By the way, that suit is over 20 years old. Turnbull & Asser, Jermyn Street.

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