Listening to Ad Man Terry O'Reilly in Person

O'Reilly (left) with moderator Kathryn Gretsinger

This afternoon went to Granville Island again -- and had a nightmare of a time trying to find parking -- to get to another Vancouver Writers Festival event. I managed to find a spot in a nook by the water front, where a car was just pulling out to leave. What luck, though where I parked my car was at the opposite end of where I needed to go... can't have everything!

I got to Waterfront Theatre as the line was forming outside and was luckily sheltered from the rain. About 10 minutes later we were invited inside before the start of listening to Terry O'Reilly, who has written a new book called Against the Grain.

O'Reilly is well known among CBC listeners who have been tuning in every week for the past 20 years to his various iterations of his show that basically talks about marketing and advertising. It was first called O'Reilly on Advertising, then The Age of Persuasion, and now Under the Influence. 

His book is about mavericks

Each episode has a theme and in half an hour the professional ad man tells several stories around the topic, taking listeners behind the scenes of how campaigns are crafted.

It is quite ironic that a show about advertising is on the non-advertising station of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, but O'Reilly has a massive and loyal following for two decades, and archives that have been downloaded some 70 million times.

He told the sold-out audience how the show is produced, that while choosing the theme is easy, making them into reality is difficult. He has three researchers who are each assigned a show to work on, finding out more information on various campaigns. 

O'Reilly says they compile about 100 pages in notes, which he then writes into a script, records it and then he listens back, gives suggestions on corrections, then they listen again a few more times before it is sent to the CBC.

His whole family is involved in the business, his wife is his executive producer, and each of his three daughters work on the show too, though he didn't explain what they did, only that they have their own talents.

O'Reilly's fourth book talks about mavericks who forge their own paths to success. He talked about NHL hockey coach Roger Neilson, describing him as a devout Christian who never swore professionally, but was an avid reader of the rules of hockey and would "skate" around them. 

One example is that when he would take his goalie out, Neilson instructed him to leave their stick behind lying on the ice in front of the net so that opposing players would have a harder time flicking the puck into the net because there was no rule about that. But after Neilson did that, the rules changed.

O'Reilly also talked about his popular radio show

Another person he raves about is Taylor Swift, who he points out re-recorded all her albums -- usually a performer will only re-record a few hits. She produced a film about The Eras Tour and had it in the theatres while her tour was on simultaneously. 

Critics thought it would lead to weaker ticket sales for her concerts, but the result was the exact opposite. O'Reilly said he had to revise this chapter many times because Swift was doing something new every few weeks.

He also talked about former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's campaign in 2015, how the Liberals only had 36 seats, and managed to not only sweep the Liberals back to power, but with a massive majority at 184 seats -- with hardly any professional political experience. 

O'Reilly says he had done a lot of political advertising and it's usually negative attack ads on the opposition. O'Reilly wasn't involved in the campaign, but heard Trudeau insisted that his ads would be positive, which was completely unheard of at the time, and that helped propel him into power.

In 90 minutes it was great to get insight into how he produces his show every week, and learn more about his book, which I will definitely read at some point!