Timeless Marketing & Advertising

Josh Chambers, Former Viget

Article Category: #Strategy

Posted on

I just read an awesome post by Paul Isakson entitled "Stuck in the Now." Here are a few great quotes:

I have a growing concern that much of our always-connected culture has become so caught up in the now that we're losing valuable lessons from the past and forgetting the importance of having a vision to work towards in the future.

...the rise of social media has spawned new businesses with such a narrow focus on launching and "iterating" that they have no clue where the business is going nor how to make money from it if it takes off.

This quote in particular resonated with me:

Then there is the "I said/thought/wrote about it first" mentality of so many in social media. People are so focused on being the first to say something about the last five minutes that they aren't looking to history to apply the wisdom of the past to today's problems.

CMOs have become focused on what they can do in the two to three years they'll be in their jobs instead of what makes the most sense for the long haul of the company that they're creating mediocre marketing at best.

Check out the entire post, there are some solid links and interesting comments. In some ways, this post sums up why we started the Middle School Marketing meetups.

So, I was inspired to commit to reading a timeless, older marketing/advertising book. Isakson recommends a David Ogilvy and Howard Gossage book (which I will be searching libraries for, because those are way too expensive...). What are a few books you would recommend? Of course, comments are open for general feedback as well!

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