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“The JWT Planning Guide” By Stephen King Stephen King is the godfather of modern strategic planning, or ‘account planning’ as it was referred to then. This guide was created to help others in ’70s JWT understand the process of marketing and brand building. The document was typed out and photocopied, and has resurfaced in the last few years. It’s eerily accurate and still incredibly applicable to the modern problems brands face. (O’leary, 2018) “In any competitive market, people’s choice between brands normally depends on the total impression they have of each brand. There are many elements that can impact this and each brand has a blend of motivating and discriminating factors.”

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“The Choice Factory” By Richard Shotton Summary: People are not great decision makers. We can easily be unconsciously influenced — often by irrelevant things. The book reviews 25 biases and then suggests how they can be applied to Marketing/Advertising. From what I've heard through conversations with other planners/marketers it explained how quite a few behavioural principles can be applied in marketing and advertising. From what they've said though I don't think it goes into the depth that Barden's book does. I particularly love the simplicity of his explanation of brand and product as framing.

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“Lemon” By Orlando Woods Written by Orlando Wood, Chief Innovation Officer, System1, ‘Lemon’ argues that a golden age for advertising technology has been far from a golden age for advertising creativity. He shows how today's analytical culture has sent the industry's admired reputation for creativity into reverse. In place of a creative Renaissance, he maintains, we are now witnessing nothing less than a creative Reformation, a 'stripping of the altars'. Reducing what was once dazzling art form to dreary science. So how should agencies and clients correct the wrong turn we have taken? ‘Lemon’ details chronicles the decline in creative effectiveness, identifies why it has happened and provides tangible solutions to reverse it.

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“The Book of Gossage” by Howard Gossage, Jeff Gooby and Bruce Bendinger An accumulation of thought provoking writings from Howard Gossage, widely referred to ‘The Socrates of San Francisco’ who changed advertising for good. Gossage was a copywriter in the 50s and 60s who eventually started his own agency and office in San Francisco. This book is both by and about him, detailing ---- "Nobody reads ads. They read what interests them and sometimes it's an ad."

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“The Anatomy of Humbug” by Paul Feldwick ‘The Anatomy of Humbug’ is a thought provoking book about the driving forces behind the last ~150 years of advertising. It chronicles the movers and shakers and the beliefs they pioneered for their time and place. We go full circle from lots of facts and copy to precious little facts but more feel good factor. Book Summary by Jes Oliphant What you will learn from reading ‘The Anatomy of Humbug’: ● Different schools of thought in advertising. ● How to think differently about advertising’s purpose and how it works. ● The 6 core narratives of what advertising is.

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“Truth, Lies & Advertising” by Jon Steel The original manual. The bible. Written over twenty years ago, his book is just as relevant today. It advocates a return to the basics, and sets out how you go about doing so. Good research, tight briefs, and creative execution. The final line is a quote from a Nobel Prize winner. "Discovery consists of looking at the same thing as everyone else and seeing something different." That is the art of account planning.

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“Good Strategy, Bad Strategy” by Richard Rumelt Strategy is designing a way to deal with a challenge. A good strategy, therefore, must identify the challenge to be overcome, and design a way to overcome it. To do that, the kernel of a good strategy contains three elements: a diagnosis, a guiding policy, and coherent action. There are four major hallmarks of bad strategy; fluff, failure to face the challenge, mistaking goals for strategy, bad strategic objectives.

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“Thinking Fast and Slow” by Daniel Kahneman ‘Thinking fast and slow’ - by Daniel Kahneman Keep in mind all the biases that rule and flaw our decisions. Keep in mind that our brains like to take shortcuts. Keep in mind this even happens to people who are trained decision makers, such ad judges whose decision on early release depends more on blood sugar levels than the case at hand. We are all rational, emotional and biased at the same time. Bernard Kelz ‘Thinking Fast and Slow’ is a wonderful book but anyone reading it should also be aware of the replication crisis that engulfed much of the research in it. Kahneman himself says he put too much faith in small studies which subsequently couldn’t be replicated.

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“How Brands Grow” by Byron Sharp Today marketing managers operate a bit like nineteenth-century doctors; they are affected by the scientific revolution but are not yet governed by it. Even "best practice" is still dominated by impressions and untested assumptions. Texts still contain untested, ungrounded theories, and myths. And serious experimentation is rare. You are reading a book about real-world facts and law-like relationships that challenge the fundamental tenets of modern marketing theory; the widespread beliefs that affect not just the decisions of marketing managers, but also how marketers see the world.

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‘How Not to Plan’ by Les Binet & Sarah Carter "Think in terms of high and low-interest mood states. Not high and low-interest categories. Understand when people are interested in your brand and category, and when they're more interested in other things. Talk to people long before they start thinking about buying. Brand building is a slow process. Use creativity to influence people who’re not interested in your brand, or what you have to say. Be interested in what people do find interesting: what are they doing? Watching? Listening? Reading? Searching for?" ("How not to plan", page 62)

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Ep. 1: What is Radical Candor? - Radical Candor

Our first podcast episode is available now! This week Kim and Russ introduce the ideas behind Radical Candor, tell how they learned these lessons the hard way, and share practical tips for better relationships at work.

Yes this is the same Radical Candor you’ve heard Geoff go on about loads - it’s worth the hype. This series of 20 minute podcasts provide a ton of massively insightful and helpful tips on how to be an effective manager, but generally how to interact with people in the workplace through tricky situations. Highly, highly recommend it

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A book I picked up in Cannes in 2017, not because I went looking for it but because some very kind person working there that day put it in my hands. A month after attending the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity I read this book while on holiday in Portugal with my family and wow did I wish I had read this book in advance of attending the world renowned festival!

It is not a difficult read or a long read by any means but for me anyway an essential read. Perhaps it is because for years I had been beating the drum between inter-agencies and our clients that we need to stop acting as silo’d agencies and work together for the common good which was delivering on the brand request/ brief. There was no need to ‘mind your space’ that we needed to leverage each others expertise be they media, PR, Creative, XP in order for the brand to win. If the brand wins, we all win.... That was my view and still remains and this book gave me many, many tools to help support that position and tools from the creative side that I had not expected to see. I most certainly had a more rounded view of our industry after reading this book.

Fantastic read everyone should try review it and if we ever had the chance to invite James Hurman into our business for an inspiration session I would jump at it... although I am pretty sure he costs a small fortune to hire :)

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TBC - Not quite finished this yet. Review to follow......

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‘Single most influential book of our time’...well I think so anyway.

Honestly don’t even know where to start on this one for those that have yet to read. It should almost be on an essential reading guide for anyone thinking about a career in Business, Commerce, Marketing, economics... actually pretty much any career really... Nor is this book solely for the ladies as some might suspect. I gave a copy of this to my husband who said it wasn’t just an eye opener for him, it provided him with the stepping stones he needed to push through in his line of work. It speaks to everyone who needs it

Full review to follow shortly......just trying to find the right words!

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Review to be added shortly....

[starcombookclub]

Review coming soon!

[starcombookclub]

Review to be uploaded shortly!