Advertising’s Ages
Part 2
 The Creative Revolution
 Bernbach, Burnett, & Ogilvy
 The Marketing Revolution
 Positioning
The Creative Revolution:
 1960-1969 - Cultural Forces
 Countercultural movements
“Break the rules”
 1950-1969 - Business Forces
 A New Breed of Agencies
 A New communication style
 Three Influential individuals...
Three Key Individuals
 Bill
Bernbach,
Doyle Dane
Bernbach
(DDB)
Three Key Individuals
 Leo Burnett,
Chicago, IL
“If you reach for
the stars, you might
not get one, but you
won’t come up with
a handful of mud,
either.”
Three Key Individuals
 David Ogilvy
 Came from UK
to start agency –
Ogilvy & Mather
 Wrote books
about advertising
Know Who This Is?
 He’s Paul Rand
 Very Influential
Graphic Designer
 The key - surprising
combinations of
words & visuals
 Paul Rand worked with Bill Bernbach
Bill Bernbach
 Started as writer for
head of World’s Fair
 Meets Paul Rand at
small ad agency
 Moves to Grey becomes Copy Chief
 1949 - Starts “DDB” Doyle Dane Bernbach
The DDB Style:
 Ohrbach’s their first account.
The DDB Style:
 Ohrbach’s their first account.
The DDB Style:
 Ohrbach’s their first account.
The DDB Style:
 Ohrbach’s their first account.
 Levy’s - diversity w.
“effective surprise”
The DDB Style:
 Ohrbach’s their first account.
 Levy’s - diversity w.
“effective surprise”
 Polaroid - dramatic
visual demonstration
The DDB Style:
 Ohrbach’s their first account.
 Levy’s - diversity w.
“effective surprise”
 Polaroid - dramatic
visual demonstration
 Jamaica - one word
and a visual...
The DDB Style (cont):
 3 Key Campaigns:
 Mobil - “We Want
You to Live”
The DDB Style (cont):
 3 Key Campaigns:
 Avis - Helped
inspire “Positioning”
The DDB Style (cont):
 3 Key Campaigns:
 VW - Campaign of
The Century
The DDB Influence:
 A New Way of Creating Ads
 Writer/Art Director Team
 “The Concept”
 A New Industry Standard in every award show
 “Ad Age” chose Bernbach as
their “Ad Man of the Century”
The Burnett Style
 “Inherent Drama”
 Red meat on a
red background
 Leo believed you
could find it in
almost anything.
After all, it was
“inherent”
The Burnett Style
 “Inherent Drama”
 Here’s how Leo’s
agency captured
the wholesome
personality of a
Kellogg’s
breakfast
The Burnett Style
 “Inherent Drama”
 Powerful,
instinctive, and
instinctive
long-lasting
imagery
The Burnett Style
 “Inherent Drama”
 The Lonely Maytag
Repairman - a
dramatic and
engagingly human
personification of
reliability
The Burnett Style
 “Inherent Drama”
 So, how do you give
personality to a can
of refrigerated
dough?
The Burnett Style
 “Inherent Drama”
 OK, how about cans
of peas and corn?
 OK then, how
about new frozen
vegetables?
The Burnett Style
 “Inherent Drama”
 Tuna fish?
 Sorry, Charlie,
we just want tuna
that tastes good.
The Burnett Style
 “Inherent Drama”
 Cat food?
 There’s a little bit of
Morris in just about
every cat owner’s
cat.
The Burnett Style
 “Inherent Drama”
 Cookies?
 Made by
elves who
live in a
hollow tree, and
we almost believe
it.
The Burnett Style
 “Inherent Drama”
 It made Leo’s agency’s campaigns
long-lasting and part of our culture
 “The glacier-like power
of friendly familiarity.”
 Time Magazine chose
Leo Burnett as their
“Ad Man of the Century”
The Ogilvy Approach
 Now, let’s look at some early work by
David Ogilvy.
 He took classic lessons on copywriting
and added his own wit and style
 The result was advertising that added an
extra value for the brand…
image
The Ogilvy Approach
 Craftsmanship
 Research - headline
was from a British car
magazine
 Editing - all copy is
tight and bright
 Wit - upscale w/o
being a snob
Rolls-Royce
The Ogilvy Approach
 Story Value
 Imagery - one small
device - the eye patch adds interest
Hathaway Shirts
The Ogilvy Approach
 Story Value
 Imagery - one small
device - the eye patch adds interest
 Repetition - Ogilvy
knew advertising takes
time to build - this one
device let him tell his
story over and over.
Hathaway Shirts
The Ogilvy Approach
 “Rules”
 Here, a similar but
different approach for
Schweppes - why?
 Because Ogilvy
believed you should
 Find out what works
- and repeat it.
Schweppes
The Ogilvy Approach
 Ogilvy grew his agency into a worldclass organization, with
 New generations of capable management
 World-class clients
 Long-term relationships
 Over time, his agency
was the most successful.
Marketing Revolution:
 1970-1979
 Tougher economic times
 New, more “scientific” tools:
 Brand Management
 Market Research
 Segmentation
 “Positioning”
The Marketing Revolution
 Brand Management
 Neil McElroy’s “Big Idea”
 At P&G (1931)
 The Idea - manage competitive
brands within a company
 Brand Management becomes
standard for marketing organization
 McElroy becomes head of P&G…
 Eisenhower’s Secretary of Defense!
The Marketing Revolution
Marketing Research
 The Result - companies understand
their consumers more accurately
 The Result - a shift to a marketingdriven perspective from a product or
production-driven perspective
 The Result - manufacturers begin to
evolve into marketers
The Marketing Revolution
Segmentation
 Product differentiation in response
to consumers’ differing needs
 Maximize potential market share
The Marketing Revolution
Positioning:
 Positioning was a new
perspective on the new
marketplace.
 Popularized by Jack Trout & Al Ries, former
GE Brand Managers
 There were too many products, and
too many messages.
 Marketers had to deal with this new reality.
Positioning:
 The Positioning authors
said advertising had to
evolve from hard-sell
“reason why” ads...
 Through image ads... to
advertising based on “the
mind of the consumer”
 What was that mind?
Positioning:
 Though the mind
of the consumer
was overloaded
with messages...
 in most product
categories, there
were very simple
heirarchies...
The
product
ladder
Positioning:
 Within each
category, there are
four basic types of
positions…
 The Best Position
 The Against Position
 The “Niche” Position
 The New Category
The Best Position
 In most categories,
there is a #1 in the
consumer’s mind
 The “Best” Position
leverages this
 Example: Crest
The Against Position
 The “Against”
Position defines
itself vs. #1.
 It’s an aggressive
and competitive
position
 Example: Avis
“We’re only #2.
We try harder.”
The Against Position
 The “Against”
Position defines
itself vs. #1.
 It’s an aggressive
and competitive
position
 Example: 7Up
“The UnCola”
The Against Position
 The “Against”
Position defines
itself vs. #1.
 It’s an aggressive
and competitive
position
 Example: Take The
Pepsi Challenge!
The Against Position
 The “Against”
Position defines
itself vs. #1.
 It’s an aggressive
and competitive
position
 Example: Take The
Pepsi Challenge!
The Niche Position
 The “Niche”
Position promotes
the product along
one dimension of
superiority
 Example: AllTemperature Cheer
The New Category
 The New Category is
just that. It defines a
category that didn’t
exist before and then
positions the (new)
product as the best in
that new category.
Competition follows.
 Example: PDAs
Positioning Variations:
 Position by Problem
 Position by Competitor
 Then, agencies get bigger
 Competition toughens
 The tempo increases...
Ad Evolution: 80s & 90s
 Bernbach’s influence grows…
 Client mergers continue…
 Agency mergers begin…
 Computers and cable…
 And the tempo increases
even more...
Discussion Questions
 In your opinion, who was the
most important ad person?
 In your opinion, what were the
most important new ideas?
 What were your favorite ads?