• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, June 23, 2011

On the 100th anniversary of the birth of one of Madison Avenue's most inspiring figures – Ogilvy & Mather founder David Ogilvy – O&M released findings of a survey about the most inspiring places, people and things.

You probably don't have to be a genius to figure out who the most inspiring person is, but he is: Albert Einstein.

The most inspiring place is they Pyramids in Egypt.

The most inspirational brand is Disney, followed by Coca-Cola and Google.

The data, which was released as part of a presentation commemorating Ogilvy's centennial, featured author and creative "evangelist" Sir ken Robinson, who did one of the funniest riffs I've seen yet on stage at the Lions festival this week.

Some of the studies other findings include: • Brits rank Princess Diana as most inspirational person, the Pyramids, Egypt, as most inspirational place and Apple as the most inspirational brand; • Coca-Cola is perceived as an inspiring brand across Europe, especially in Spain with one in two claiming to feel inspired by the brand; • Disney also ranks in the top three inspirational brands in Europe, and appears to be slightly more inspiring amongst females; • Martin Luther King is also felt to be an inspiring person with at least one in four people claiming to have felt inspired by him in both Europe and the US; • in France, nearly one in two consumers claimed to feel inspired by Swedish furniture brand IKEA; • in Russia, one in two respondents claim to feel inspired by brands such as BMW and Microsoft; • gender divides were apparent: men found Albert Einstein more inspiring than women did, while more women found Disney to be an inspiring brand than men; and, • the most inspiring people, places and brands are shown to be quite consistent across Europe, whereas differences are apparent in Russia.