by alex bogusky and john windsor

If advertising is not your chosen profession in life, why the heck would you want to read a book written by two of the top leaders in the advertising world? (alex bogusky, @bogusky , longtime creative director at crispin porter + bogusky; and John Winsor, @jtwinsor , former head of product innovation & cognitive research at cp+b)

Because I believe the authors are on to something. And it’s not advertising. I want to say it’s way past advertising, but it’s actually pre advertsing.

What?? Sound confusing? Let’s jump into the meat of the book.

Though I passionately disagree with both authors on the value and practice of crowdsourcing, here are a few of their points from @bakedin that stuck with me:

+ Let’s cut the crap of lying and false promises about products, and instead design a useful & beautiful product / experience that meets the users exact needs & wants.

+ Stop spending 3,4, or 8 years in r & d, and instead prototype and test early, and revise what works and throw away the rest.

+ Listen to and know your audience, and make a product that fits, instead making a mediocre product and then trying to advertise the crap out of it.

+ Incrementally changing a mediocre product each year to be (slightly) new & improved is a flawed business plan. Let’s innovate! Let’s create something new! Let’s create something beautiful! Let’s create something useful!!

So if you have any interest in providing a useful / beautiful / wow product or service, do your future self a favor and pick this book up!

Also, a big thanks to @jtwinsor for sending me a copy of the book to review!

I remember the first time I saw a video of @garyvee giving a keynote talk ( if you haven’t watched one, you should, right now! here ), and I really didn’t know what to think.

1st – is this guy on crack?

2nd – whoa, I’ve never thought about ______ that way. Or that. Or that…

3rd – this might be half way insane, but he’s passionate, driven, and genuine.

So naturally when I heard he was writing a book, I was eager to check it out, although I was skeptical that it would be engaging all the way to the end.

I’m happy to say I read the whole thing, and enjoyed all of it! Know that it was a nice and brief weighing in under 140 pages!

The content was a really good mix of gary’s personal story, a motivational punch in the mouth ( the good kind of course, that get you riled up and in arms ), and practical real life advice on how to use specific tools like Twitter and facebook to share your passion.

Although I enjoyed hearing his story most, running a close second was the honesty with which Gary approaches advice on using social media tools. Instead of claiming to be a “social media expert”, he starts with the fundamentals of one knowing your passion & your DNA, and then offers some take them or leave them tips / best practices on specific tools.

Though I don’t agree with Gary on a number of finer points, I could not agree more with his core message:

Find your passion. Craft your presentation medium. And never forget that content is king.