---
title: Dave Trott — who he is | RGM® Glossary
url: https://realgrowthmatters.com/glossary/dave-trott/
updated: 2026-06-10
source_html: https://realgrowthmatters.com/glossary/dave-trott/
---

# Dave Trott

/deɪv tɹɑt/proper noun

89% of advertising goes unnoticed — his life's work is the war on that number.

Name
:   Dave Trott

Agencies
:   BMP, GGT, BST

Key work
:   Predatory Thinking (2013)

Column
:   Campaign magazine

## Forms & parts of speech

Trott · proper noun

Creative; shorthand for impact-first thinking.

"Apply the **Trott** test — would anyone actually notice this ad?"

## Who he is, in plain terms

Dave Trott is the East London adman who trained at New York's Pratt Institute, came home to Boase Massimi Pollitt, and co-founded the agencies (Gordon Gold Trott, then BST) behind some of British advertising's most-remembered work — the Toshiba 'Hello Tosh' campaign and Holsten Pils among them. His books — *Predatory Thinking* (2013), *One Plus One Equals Three*, *Crossover Creativity* — and Campaign column distilled four decades into parables that fit on a page.

## The key ideas

His famous arithmetic — roughly 4% of advertising is remembered positively, 7% negatively, and 89% isn't noticed at all — so impact is the entry fee, before persuasion gets a turn; predatory thinking — reframe the problem so the competition is fighting the wrong war; creativity is problem-solving for people who don't care about your product, in language a London cabbie would use; and the brief's discipline — one thought, said memorably, beats five said adequately.

## Why he still matters

In feeds where average scroll-past time is measured in fractions of a second, his 89% problem got worse, and his cure — be impossible to ignore first, communicate second — got more valuable. His parable style also quietly reformed marketing writing itself: concrete stories, short sentences, one lesson. The best practitioners' newsletters are Trott homages whether they know it or not.

**Worked example.** A challenger insurance brand briefs 'trust and reliability' — the same brief as every incumbent. The Trott reframe: nobody notices trust claims, so find the fight worth picking. The campaign instead dramatizes the category's dirty secret (claim denials) with the brand's public promise stamped on every ad. Complaints from rivals confirm the hit; recall scores triple the category norm. The ad got noticed first — the persuasion finally had an audience.

**Failure modes to watch.** Polishing messaging for an audience that will never notice the ad exists; mistaking creativity awards for impact on people who don't care; and briefing five messages where one would be remembered.

## Synonyms & antonyms

### Synonyms

Dave TrottTrott

## Origin & history

Born 1947 in Barking, East London, a docker's son; a Rockefeller scholarship took him to Pratt in New York, and Carl Ally's agency philosophy — advertising should hit like a punch — came home with him to BMP in 1971 and the agencies he co-founded after.

Etymology: [source](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Trott_(advertising)).

## Usage trends

Search interest for this term over the last five years:

[View interest-over-time on Google Trends →](https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?q=dave%20trott&date=today%205-y)

## Common questions

Who is Dave Trott?
:   British creative director who co-founded GGT and BST, wrote Predatory Thinking, and championed impact as advertising's first job.

What is Trott's 89% rule?
:   His estimate that only about 4% of ads are remembered positively and 7% negatively — roughly 89% go entirely unnoticed.

What is predatory thinking?
:   Reframing the problem so you fight a war you can win — outthinking the competition before outspending them.

## Related tools & calculators

- tool[Experiment planner](/tools/experiment-planner/)
- tool[Funnel drop-off analyzer](/tools/funnel-drop-off-analyzer/)

## Resources & people to follow

- book*Predatory Thinking* — Dave Trott
- book*One Plus One Equals Three* — Dave Trott
- referenceCampaign — his column archive

Curated, non-competitor resources verified per term.

## Related training

- module[Content marketing](/training/content-marketing/)

## Disciplines

Areas of marketing where dave trott is a core concern:

[Content strategy](/training/content-marketing/)[Brand strategy](/training/growth-marketing-foundations/)

## Read next

## Related terms

[Bob Hoffman](/glossary/bob-hoffman/)[David Ogilvy](/glossary/david-ogilvy/)[Distinctive brand assets](/glossary/distinctive-brand-assets/)[Brand positioning](/glossary/brand-positioning/)[Thought leadership](/glossary/thought-leadership/)

## Sources

1. trends[Google Trends — "dave trott"](https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?q=dave%20trott&date=today%205-y)