What Sticks

What Sticks is a book about advertising in the current environment. John Moore at Brand Autopsy grabbed some quotes from the book that were quite impressive:

”The problem [advertising ineffectiveness] isn’t lack of brain power or diligence (marketers and agencies have very bright people who work very hard to do the best job possible). The problem is a rapidly changing marketing landscape that has made the old approaches and research tools obsolete.” (p. 5)

“Many people use [advertising] research the way a drunkard uses a lamppost; more for support than illumination.” (p. 21)

"There’s high stakes in admitting that a marketing campaign is wrong. Think about this for a moment: If you were measuring your marketing’s program, would you be happy to learn a campaign or an aspect of the campaign failed?" (p. 31)

”A problem discovered in marketing is not a treasure—quite the opposite is true. It’s the f-word: failure. And one f-word can lead to another f-word: fired. The f-word fired leads to another pernicious f-word: fear. The greatest fear of the advertising agency and perhaps the marketer too is failure." (p. 31)

”Advertising agencies want their clients to succeed, on that point there is no doubt. But success is often ill-defined, and measurement is and reporting are either nonexistent or lag behind the actual campaign in such a way that they simply aren’t useful. This lack of measurement causes the focus to shift from objective data to whether the agency has pleased the client." (p. 36)