The year was 1962.

David Ogilvy was away on holiday, taking his summer vacation somewhere in France.

It had been fourteen years since he first arrived in New York City, where he began his agency, Ogilvy & Mather.

In his own words…

“Americans thought I was crazy. What could a Scotsman know about advertising?”

In the decade that followed, it went on to become an “immediate” and “meteoric” success.

He was at an inflection point in his career and wrote a book during his summer hiatus titled, Confessions of an Advertising Man.

As a birthday gift to his son, he gave him the copyright to the book, thinking it would optimistically sell 4,000 copies.

(Let’s place a pin in that 4,000 number.)

The book, in and of itself, is a brilliant business maneuver worth studying…

Ogilvy claims he wrote it for three reasons:

1. To attract new clients to his advertising agency.
2. To condition the market for a public offering of his agency’s shares.
3. To make himself better known in the business world.

The book went on to accomplish all three.

It sold a million copies.

It’s been translated into fourteen different languages.

And, it functioned as a catalyst for Ogilvy & Mather as it blossomed from a single shop serving nineteen clients to a juggernaut with 257 offices in 44 countries serving three thousand clients.

It is, quite possibly, the single greatest book on advertising ever written and required reading for anyone looking to make a name for themselves in the industry.

It was also one hell of a birthday present.

But, I digress.

By Cole Schafer.