David Ogilvy's best advice for business.

David Ogilvy, arguably the most influential advertising man in history, died 10 years ago this month. Patricia Sellers of Fortune remembered Ogilvy in Postcards and talked about the seven bits of essential advice he offered to businesses, including the well-known Ogilvy-ism, “Bear in mind that the consumer is not a moron. She is your wife. Do not insult her intelligence.” That one is particularly significant because Ogilvy, a pioneer in many ways, realized early on the immense purchasing power of women and that advertisers who talked down to them, as many did back in the early days, did so at their own peril. He was a class act. If you haven't done so in a while, get up off your ass, go to the bookshelf and crack open Ogilvy On Advertising. You'll be glad you did. 

Ad CEOs say downturn's bottom appears at hand.

According to a couple of the ad industry's biggest biggies, we have nowhere to go but up. Spoken like a die-hard optimist, right? As reported by the Wall Street Journal, Global ad Omnicom Group Inc. and Publicis Groupe SA reported significant declines in revenue and profit, but indicated a bottom may be at hand in the global advertising downturn.

"We don't see a recovery, but we feel we've hit the troughs," said John Wren, chief executive of Omnicom. He added that it will take a couple of quarters to cycle through the current downturn, and a couple more before growth comes.

"We believe the worst is behind us," said Publicis Chief Executive Maurice Lévy. "

 

Twitter Explains how businesses can use it - finally.

Twitter has been talking about offering special paid services for businesses for quite a while. According to NY Time Bits Blog, on Thursday night, the start-up took one step closer. Twitter has unveiled Twitter 101, a series of Web pages and a downloadable slideshow that explains what Twitter is, and how businesses can use it, along with case studies of a few companies that use Twitter.

Maybe I’m crazy, but it seems to me if you want people to use your service, or invest in your company, publishing some kind of explanation about what the heck it is, and how it could benefit you, would be a good place to start. Why has it taken them so long to figure this out? Maybe I shouldn’t be surprised. The software companies have been releasing half-baked versions of their products and expecting the public to figure out how to use them for years!