David Ogilvy Quotes

Great marketing is all about telling your story in such a way that it compels people to buy what you are selling.

People don’t pay much attention to anything unless you give them reason to

There is no sale without the story; no knockout without the setup.

The whole point is to hook people and keep them interested.

Marketing is designed to bring people into something.

Marketing is a contest for people's attention.

If you look at a magazine and something catches your eye, are you not going to open it up to see what's inside?

Other than things like toothpaste, I don't buy anything that isn't sold to me.

Enchantment is the purest form of sales

Marketing, when done well, is about story telling.

The greatest story ever told is, in fact, the greatest story ever sold

Attention to a subject depends upon our interest in it.

Marketing is what gets you noticed.

Learn to sell and you'll never starve

It's hard to get people to focus on one idea.

Selling to people who actually want to hear from you is more effective than interrupting strangers who don't.

I try to get people to see what I have. . . . When you run a computer company, you have to get people to buy into your dreams.

Selling is nothing more than asking questions and waiting for an answer.

Stand your ground!" Stheno yelled. "I've got free samples!

I do voiceovers, but being on-camera and selling something? I wasn't really interested. And then I thought, well, wait a minute. Everybody's selling something. When you turn on the tube... And then if you go to Europe or Asia, everyone is selling something. All the guys that don't want to be seen selling something here are selling something there. So I thought what the hell?

Advertising becomes a dialogue that becomes an invitation to a relationship.

It's a sin to bore people.

In general, a little controversy isn't harmful: if anything, it gets people interested.

It's in our nature to be intrigued. We're putting the bread crumb not in your mouth but close to your mouth. You reach a little bit, and that's why it works.

The faults of advertising are only those common to all human institutions. If advertising speaks to a thousand in order to influence one, so does the church. And if it encourages people to live beyond their means, so does matrimony. Good times, bad times, there will always be advertising. In good times, people want to advertise; in bad times they have to.