Book Review : Creativity: A Short and Cheerful Guide by John Cleese. Many people in business still believe that creativity is only for designers, writers, musicians, and those with especially colourful socks. John Cleese challenges that idea in less than 150 pages. Creativity: A Short and Cheerful Guide is not about turning you into an…
Book Review : Confessions of an Advertising Man by David Ogilvy. In marketing, it’s easy to think that any book written before social media, smartphones, or AI is outdated and belongs on a shelf somewhere. Confessions of an Advertising Man politely suggests otherwise. Published in 1963, David Ogilvy’s classic is still one of the most…
Book Review : TED Talks: The Official TED Guide to Public Speaking by Chris Anderson. There’s a particular type of presentation that begins with thirty-seven bullet points, continues with an unreadable chart, and ends with everyone checking their phones while quietly questioning their life choices. TED Talks: The Official TED Guide to Public Speaking is…
Book Review : Unreasonable Hospitality: The Remarkable Power of Giving People More Than They Expect by Will Guidara There’s a peculiar tendency in business to treat customer experience as something that happens after the important work is done. Build the product. Deliver the service. Send the invoice. Job done. Unreasonable Hospitality by Will Guidara makes…
Book Review : The Illusion of Choice by Richard Shotton. Many of us like to think our buying choices are thoughtful, logical, and completely our own. Richard Shotton’s The Illusion of Choice shows us that this belief is a bit too optimistic. It turns out that many of our choices are influenced less by logic…
Book Review : Using Behavioral Science in Marketing by Nancy Harhut. There’s a comforting illusion in marketing that customers are calmly weighing up product features, comparing prices rationally, and making thoughtful purchasing decisions based entirely on logic. Nancy Harhut’s Using Behavioral Science in Marketing makes it clear that this idea is mostly a myth. Honestly,…
Book Review : The Choice Factory by Richard Shotton. Many people in marketing like to think customers carefully compare products, look at features, consider value, and then make logical choices. The Choice Factory by Richard Shotton spends about 200 pages showing why this belief is a bit too hopeful. Luckily, the book explains this in…
Book Review : Storytelling Exhibitions by Philip Hughes. Many people assume exhibitions are just quiet rooms filled with objects, while visitors stroll through and try to make sense of them. Philip Hughes’s book, Storytelling Exhibitions, shows that today’s exhibitions aim for much more than that. Exhibitions now try to create real feelings for visitors, and…
Book Review : Human First Marketing by Phil Treagus-Evans. There’s a strange trend in modern marketing where brands spend enormous amounts of time trying to sound human while simultaneously removing every actual human element from the process. More automation. More AI-generated content. More so-called personalised experiences, but no real person behind the words. Phil Treagus-Evans’s…
Book Review : Brains On Fire by Robbin Phillips, Greg Cordell, Geno Church & Spike Jones. There’s a particular kind of optimism in modern marketing that suggests if we automate enough emails, optimise enough funnels, and post enough short-form video content, customers will eventually fall lovingly into our sales pipeline. Brains on Fire offers a…