The Ogilvy’s Oracle

“Open with fire.”

“Open with fire.”

Sheila woke up with the open book still beside her.

“Aghh... I must have fallen asleep while reading last night,” she muttered to herself.

Sheila quickly went to the bathroom to bathe and perform ablution. After the morning prayer, she made a du’a:

“There is no power and no strength except with Allah. Almighty God, please help me get through this meeting well. Aamiin.”

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Traffic was a breeze that morning.

Sheila arrived at the TV station ten minutes early and waited.

Dap... dup... dap...

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They arrived. No smiles exchanged. Straight to business.

“I want to know why the SMS response for the voting campaign came in so late for Telco Y. We got so many complaints about that,” the Program Head barked.

“I don’t buy your reasons anymore. It must be your system’s problem. We are reaching the final already. Give me the contact number of the people in charge at Telco Y. I want to talk to them!” he shouted again.

Sheila felt cornered, but there was no way in the world she would disclose her Telco client’s contact information. After all, Sheila was the Head of the Mobile Division at her company and the project manager of this campaign.

She quietly repeated the morning’s du’a in her heart.

Suddenly, Ogilvy’s words came to her mind:

“Open with fire.”

Even though it was a tip for making a TV commercial that sells, Sheila decided to use Ogilvy’s wisdom as her arsenal this time.

“No, Mr. Frankenstein. I cannot do that. But if you want a solution, I have one,” Sheila boldly fired back.

Not a needle dropped. The room was super quiet.

“Okay, what is it? It had better work.”

Mr. Frankenstein’s voice suddenly softened, signaling a fair game ahead.

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Sheila was still deciding which solution to push when another Ogilvy's principle resurfaced in her mind:

“Big ideas are usually simple ideas.”

What is simple, doable and functional? Sheila racked her brain quickly.

“All right, this time, let’s get another service provider’s shortcode that is also linked to Telco Y. Double the voting channels. Give viewers two choices. If they’ve previously voted through our system and received late responses from Telco Y, they can explore the other shortcode and hopefully get a faster response and smoother experience.”

“That will reduce the complaints. And you’ll get two income streams from both voting systems,” Sheila added confidently.

The combo of no public complaints and money potential always worked wonders.

The TV station team agreed, and the meeting was adjourned.

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“Now, what else can I do to ensure a smooth voter experience this time?” Sheila’s mind wandered as she drove back home.

"Ogilvy said, 'People don’t buy from clowns.'"

“Huhu... how not to be a clown?” Sheila mulled.

As she stopped at a red traffic light, another Ogilvy phrase appeared in her mind:

“Don’t bunt. Aim out of the ballpark.”

“Yeah, we must do our best!” thought Sheila.

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The next day, Sheila went to Telco Y, alerting them to expect a bigger voting volume for the finale and requesting more bandwidth to handle the traffic to avoid bottlenecks and delays.

Alhamdulillah, they agreed to support her company.

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The program’s final day arrived.

Sheila and her team simultaneously monitored the TV show and the web service linked to the server. Huge incoming and outgoing SMS traffic, just as expected. Everything looked normal—no delays in outgoing responses. At least from her system’s end.

Alhamdulillah, all was well!

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The day after the successful closure of the voting campaign, Sheila was entering her office room when the CEO’s secretary stopped her.

“Great job on the campaign, Sheila! And Boss asked you to join the hiring meeting to choose our new PR Manager,” the secretary informed her.

Sheila entered the big boardroom. A few other department heads were already there. Some gave her thumbs up and flexed their arms, signaling a job well done, while others chatted among themselves, waiting for the CEO to arrive.

The candidate in a black blazer sat outside the meeting room, looking a bit nervous.

“Just like me many years ago,” Sheila nostalgically remembered her own interview. She had read so many du’as to calm herself and ace the process.

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With a quiet whisper of Bismillah and ready to evaluate, Sheila accepted the candidate’s resume from the Human Resource Head.

An image of Matryoshka dolls from page 46 of Ogilvy’s book suddenly popped into her mind:

“If each of us hires people who are smaller than we are, we shall become a company of dwarfs.

But if each of us hires people who are bigger than we are, we shall become a company of giants.”

Sheila scanned the candidate’s resume and smiled.

Has Ogilvy's oracle struck again?💡

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P/S

Thank you for reading my first attempt at fiction in a professional setting.

I hope you enjoyed it! 😊

All quotes and wisdom are credited to David Ogilvy and his books: Ogilvy on Advertising and Confessions of an Advertising Man.