Rory Sutherland, Vice Chairman at Ogilvy, said the following about ‘Brands, Bandwagons & Bullshit’: –

“I noticed that this book ingeniously starts with a glossary – which was recommendation enough. But it gets even better from there on. I’m really enjoying it”.

In marketing, it’s easy to get caught up in the hype – the latest channel, brand, agency or media outlet. Cutting the useful from the useless is a constant battle.

Marketing, Advertising, PR and Media are all designed to sound awesome, but how can you possibly know which path is right for you without getting stuck in? You won’t know the facts until it’s too late – so the best thing to do is research what’s out there and make the most informed choices possible.

‘Brands, Bandwagons & Bullshit’ was written for two main audiences:- First, Students, Graduates and young marketing professionals looking to find their first job in marketing, advertising, media or PR . Second, it’s useful for an older demographic of those people who use marketing within their businesses but have no idea how it works (and are, by now, too afraid to ask).

Marketing is never perfect. How could it be? Every second of every day, everything that helps inform your decisions changes. Trends disperse, media pivots, demographics shift, geographies imbalance, economies peak and trough, products fail, creative is subjective, Pandemics arrive and strategy’s a Rubik’s Cube of a conundrum.

‘Brands, Bandwagons & Bullshit’ was written using notes, hints and tips I’ve found valuable myself and it also contains snippets from several articles I’ve written for Marketing Week, Campaign and other magazines. The topics are wide ranging, broaching marketing strategy, brand strategy, campaign tactics and some of the pitfalls you may/ will encounter on your own journey.

Part 1: Getting Started’ covers the things you might want to consider before you get your first job whilst ‘Part 2 – The Marketing Bit’ branches out into the strategy, tactics and campaigns that brands employ to give them an edge (or sometimes get it very, very wrong).

This isn’t a ‘self-help’ book, nor does it profess to hold all the answers. Think of it less as a Sat Nav directing you to your ideal marketing career or a bible for perfect marketing and more like a shopping list to browse, extracting useful snippets at will.

The baking of the cake is totally up to you, but hopefully you’ll pick up some useful directions and suggested ingredients over the coming pages to help you steer between the bullshit and the bandwagons.

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“The ad industry is in an unprecedented state of confusion. While the assertions and pomposity grow majestically, the advertising itself diminishes rapidly. Sadly there is no button we can push that will erase all the arrogance and self-delusion. Fortunately we have this book. It might be just the reset button we all need.” Bob Hoffman

Something is rotten in the state of advertising. CEOs and marketers tell us that working with agencies is painful and laborious. Agency people tell us they feel undervalued, overworked and stifled by poor processes. And the poor old punter is left faced with advertising that is at best forgettable, and at worst insulting to the intelligence. Surely Advertising can be better than this?

“This book is full of common sense. Which is rare, so it’s actually full of uncommon sense.” Dave Trott

How as a businessperson or marketer can you get the most out of your advertising budget?
What to look for in an agency or the people you choose to work with?
What can help your advertising rise above the mass of messages out there?
What can advertising agencies do to improve the quality and effectiveness of their output?

We were having a cup of tea and a chat one morning when we had the idea for this book. In our opinion, the quality and effectiveness of advertising in general is not good enough. We think the way businesses work with agencies and the way that agencies organise themselves and develop advertising needs to be improved. It’s time the advertising industry had a much-needed kick up the proverbial. So we thought it would be helpful to collect the ideas and approaches that have helped us to make better advertising for our clients over the last ten years.

Whether you’re a business owner, chief executive, marketer or brand director who works with ad agencies, or an agency chief, planner, ad exec or creative, we hope you find this book thought-provoking and challenging. Most of all, we hope it helps you make better advertising. Put the kettle on…

“Vic and Andy have come up with a foolproof way to help you discover if you are a good agency. Ask yourself: ‘Dare I give this book to all my clients?’” Steve Harrison

“Get it, read it. You’ll feel better for it. More importantly you’ll do better as a result of it.” Brian Jacobs, The Cog Blog

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Rarely has a book about advertising created such a commotion as this brilliant account of the principles of successful advertising. Published in 1961, Reality in Advertising was listed for weeks on the general best-seller lists, and is today acknowledged to be advertising’s greatest classic. It has been translated into twelve languages-French, Japanese, Spanish, Dutch, German, Italian, Portuguese, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish, Hebrew-and has been published in twenty-one separate editions in fifteen countries. Leading business executives, and the advertising cognoscenti, hail it as “the best book for professionals that has ever come out of Madison Avenue.” (For typical comments see back of jacket.) Rosser Reeves says: “The book attempts to formulate certain theories of advertising, many quite new, and all based on 30 years of intensive research.” These theories, whose value has been proved in the marketplace, all revolve around the central concept that success in selling a product is the key criterion of advertising. In the course of explaining his own hard-headed approach, Mr. Reeves shows why the ad campaigns for many products are just so much money poured down the drain. He has some devastating things to say about advertising’s misguided men: the “aesthetes” and the “puffers” who put art and technique ahead of the client’s sales; and he punctures many of the misguided philosophies which lower the efficiency of advertising, rather than raising it. But even more important is the thoroughness and clarity with which he explains many of the mysteries of how to write advertising that produces these sales. Here, in short, is a concise, forcefully written guide that has been called “a ‘Rosetta Stone’ for the advertising business”- an essential book for anyone who works in advertising, or uses advertising extensively. It is today required reading in hundreds of great corporations and many of the world’s leading business schools.

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AT LAST! GUINNESS ADS BROUGHT TO BOOK!
Celebrating over fifty-five years of amusing and entertaining Guinness advertisements, with such memorable characters as the toucan (‘Just think what toucan do’) and the ostrich who swallowed his keeper’s Guinness glass and all!
This book tells the fascinating story of how and why Guinness advertising first began in 1928, and looks at the ways in which it has changed and developed over the years and around the world.
Recalled in these pages are the famous Guinness strong-man carrying his girder, the lumberjack who felled a tree at a stroke, the pelican who carried a week’s supply of Guinness in his bill and the little girl called Alice who had many strange adventures in a Guinness wonderland.
Almost every aspect of Guinness advertising is recorded here, from immortal poster slogans like ‘My Goodness My Guinness!’ and ‘I’ve. never tried it because I don’t like it’ to witty television commercials featuring the talking toucan and the Friends of the Guinnless.
Illustrated throughout with hundreds of pictures (in colour and black & white) including many examples of original artwork and unused designs. Among the famous artists and illustrators whose work is pictured are Ronald Searle, Rex Whistler, Edward Ardizzone, H.M. Bateman, Antony Groves-Raines, Eric Fraser, Emett, Thelwell, Erte, Hoffnung, Giles and the man who, for over twenty years, epitomized Guinness advertising John Gilroy.

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Discover timeless advertising and business principles THAT WILL help you make more money, grow your business, and make a bigger impact.

How to quickly turn strangers into DREAM customers, and customers into loyal raving fans that will pay, stay, refer, and stand in line to buy anything you have to sell.

How to go from a nobody to completely dominating your industry and outselling your competition without being salesy, feeling like a fraud, or using outdated high-pressure sales tactics…even if you are in a highly competitive market and have a tiny budget.

How to create attention-grabbing advertising that stands out, gets customers excited, motivated, and eager to buy from you…and only YOU. It is the fastest way to make someone want what you’re selling.

How to use psychology techniques to persuade almost anyone to do anything, influence customers’ behavior, “hack” their minds, and make them actually want to open their wallets to BUY. Warning: What you are about to discover can be used for the forces of good or the forces of evil.

If you are struggling right now to grow your business and want more sales, more customers, more revenue or make a bigger impact – you owe it to yourself and your business to read this book.

This is probably one of the most complete, secretive, smart, and most powerful books ever written on how to make literally ANYONE to want to buy from YOU.

“This book should be a required reading for anyone who runs a business, or thinking about starting one. No matter where you live, what you sell, or who you sell it to. It doesn’t even matter how “weird” or “uncommon” your business, market, niche, or industry is.”

ABOUT MAX IVANIY

Max is a successful business strategist, advertising expert, entrepreneur, and author. He has helped hundreds of companies, from Fortune 500 to small local businesses, create profitable sales systems that attract paying customers on demand. In his book “The Art of Advertising”, Max reveals unconventional lessons he has learned, tested, and refined during his career so that you too can achieve incredible results from your advertising, exponentially grow your business and make more money.

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