History of Advertising and Swiss Army Knives

For now I have read 3 books out of 5, listened to a few podcasts and done some research/been thinking for the video. 

I particularly wanted to reflect on the books I read, as I feel they helped me have a clearer vision of what has been and what will be in advertising. 

I started with How to do better creative work by Steve Harrison. Reading this felt reassuring in a way, as a pretty solid methodology on how to create impactful, relevant and interesting ads, is given here. At the same time, it had me reminiscing of moments where I felt stuck on certain briefs given at school these last years, where I was wondering why and how would such a precise methodology would be needed in a field such as advertising. 

Reading The Anatomy of Humbug by Paul Feldwick was a real breath of fresh air. I really had the feeling that doors were unlocked as I was discovering about the historical process that lead to the creation, developpement of the Big Idea and Unique Selling Proposition theories and how it was not the only process that was relevant to creating powerful campaigns. Reading about the several aspects intertwined in communication and brand building (emotions, social approval..) really helped me secure the mental view I had of the elements that make advertising.  

Then I went on with Hey Whipple, Squeeze this, by Luke Sullivan and Edward Boches. 

I found the emphasis it put on the importance of creating something that was entertaining but mostly useful, that was actually helping people (for instance being a source of information) was a powerful and meaningful way to keep a brand liked and bought. I found the chapters on digital particularly interesting. I definitely resonated with the idea of becoming a T-shape, even square shaped person, meaning having several fields of expertise. I like that idea of being a Swiss Army knife at work. It really comforted me in the idea I had on developing certain skills that I hadn’t had the opportunity to develop yet.

I also globally reflected on the question that is, are advertising and consumers completely changing ? The authors were also wondering the same thing. Even though they didn’t all answered yes or all said no, it still felt that they had noticed the same thing: people will always have those needs inherent to human nature (for approval, feeling like you belong, love, success, emotions), and that a shift is happening, but in a way that it puts those aspects at the center of the dialogue between consumers and brands. I felt that was the most important idea to keep in mind and really made me hope for an advertising landscape less cluttered, rather made with more meaningful, useful, emotional contents.