5 must read books on advertising - the classics

This article lists The True Advertising Classics. As you might assume the list isn't my bright pick but David Ogilvy's. I added his Confessions to that list as it is still a groundbreaking book on advertising. Even after 40 years. I admit having only read 1 of them so far. But, as the mailman snails his way to our offices, my hunger grows.

Scientific Advertising - by Claude Hopkins (1866-1932)
"Copywriters must acquire detailed knowledge of client products and produce brief, dry, reason-why copy. A good campaign is fueled with couponing, premiums, free samples, mail order and copy test test testing."
- Find it on Amazon

Tested Advertising Methods - by John Caples (1900-1990)
"The average American is, mentally, 13 years old. Therefor every copywriter should use words expected to find in a fifth-grade reader. Next to that I strongly oppose humor."
- Find it on Amazon

Reality in Advertising - by Rosser Reeves
"Practically every product has a number of benefits that might be claimed. Commonly one of the benefits is more popular than the others, even more popular than the others combined. Therefore, it's imperative to do everything to make people understand the most important benefit, to achieve credibility and to avoid distractions. The aim is to have as high a percentage of people as possible take out of an advertisement what the advertiser intends to put into it. This is most likely to be achieved if a claim is articulated and proven with credible evidence—in a brief commercial, some kind of dramatic demonstration."
- Find it on Amazon

The Hidden Persuaders - by Vance Packard
"What Makes Us Buy, Believe — And Even Vote — The Way We Do. An Introduction to the New World of Symbol Manipulation and Motivational Research."
- Find it on Amazon

Confession of an Advertising Man - by David Ogilvy
"If it doesn't sell, it isn't creative."
- Find it on Amazon

Proximity BBDO opens a new agency called The Farm

The Farm is an exclusive summercamp for graduates.

Talented and ambitious starters will be challenged to start a new agency. Proximity BBDO will train 12 graduates and take them through the world of digital and interactive marketing.


Last Wednesday we screened 56 graduates and selected 12 to form two teams this summer. 1 team contains 6 profiles: an Account Executive, a Strategic Planner, an Art Director Online and one Offline, a Copywriter and a Web/Graphic Designer. This summer our 12 recruits are: Laura Verstraeten, Olivier Berger, Helen Bogaerts, Sofie De Clercq, Tom Vingerhoets, Nicolas Moerman, Kasper Vandenbussche, Sven Augusteynes, Jolijn Gijssels, Sven Thierie, Maarten Lauwaert and Bram Ceuppens.

In 3 weeks, the 'intensive program' will cover interactive workshops about social media, viral marketing en brand building. Amongst the tutors are many celebrated leaders of the Direct & Interactive divisions of Proximity BBDO, one of Belgium's largest full service agencies.

The Farm is a professional intensive training program, offered free of charge. Attendees will be housed in a supplied mansion just outside Brussels - http://www.villakortenberg.be

The 'best of class' will be send out to one of the networks' best agencies abroad.

Nike chalks your message on the tracks of the Tour

Supporting cyclers is a common sight at the Tour de France: people stand besides the track cheering and chalk messages on the road to encourage the cyclists. Now Nike takes it to next level with the Chalkbot. This year, supporters in the U.S. and France can text or tweet inspirational messages for bicyclists that will be displayed in yellow chalk by Chalkbot on the roads of the Tour de France.

The Chalkbot is part of Nike’s LIVESTRONG campaign for the 2009 Tour de France and was created by Nike, Deeplocal and StandardRobot. At Nike LIVESTRONG Nike invites people to own a piece of the road and send their 40 character message of hope and inspiration and join the fight against cancer.

The campaign shows that you don’t need to advertising in order to get people to talk about your brand, as Nike UK Marketing director Simon Pestridge says: “We don’t do advertising any more. (….) We need to become part of people’s lives and digital allows us to do that.”. With this campaign, Nike successfully integrates on and offline, commercial and charity purposes and getting people to interact with the brand.

via: Blogging Me Blogging You

Video of the month

... No time to post, merely time breathe, luckily lots of time for a smile, the kiddo and checking out some nifty movies during lunchbreak. The Cannes report and interviews from Typo Berlin will be posted soon. Meanwhile I'm working on a huge recruiting and talent-scouting project for Proximity BBDO. And yes, I'll share all the details very soon. Stay tuned!


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