Rating: 
Summary: Crisp, funny and informative.
Review: As a strategic consultant to global consumer products companies, I was encouraged to review Steel's book. After reading it, I came to this conclusion: Any advertising firm that does not offer account planning is missing the boat. If you do not get deep into the heart and soul of the targeted consumer - how they live, their goals and aspirations, how they interact with the brand, how they interact with the brand's category, etc. - how could you possibly produce good creative? While good advertising is still sometimes produced without it (by those incredible intuitive thinkers out there), instilling account planning into all research will certainly help reduce risk and provide more confidence that you're doing the right thing. I think all senior executives should read it, if for only this reason: A couple of years back, I consulted to a Fortune 100 consumer products company. When talk of advertising strategy arose, someone mentioned that it should take on a Seinfeld like approach. Without blinking, the President of this $billion division said, "what's Seinfeld?" Since this person had final approval on all creative, it became clear to me how out of touch some executives are with their consumers. Steel's book is an easy and worthwhile read and I recommmend it to anyone who has any influence on advertising strategy.
Rating:
Summary: Got planning?
Review: Awesome. Inspiring. Awe-inspiring. Got planning?
Rating:
Summary: Account planning well-explained by a proven expert
Review: Goodby-Berlin may well be the best advertising agency in world at this time. Jon Steele's introduction of account planning there may well be the main reason. The proven formula: original consumer insights help create more powerful ads for greater results. Steele's work has consistently produced successes like the "Got Milk?" campaign. Steele's approach is rare in the advertising world for several reasons: it shows humility and common sense, honors listening to the consumer with imagination, acknowledges the importance of creative quality, is mercifully free of self-promotion, and states the limits of account planning (sometimes there are simply no insights to be found). While this is not a "how-to" book, I particularly enjoyed some of the tools and tactics: asking focus group participants to go weeks without milk and report back on what they had missed; asking drivers to fill in a thought balloon when they see the driver of a particular brand of car. When I was done reading the book I felt as if I had just had a witty and interesting conversation with an intelligent and insightful person. I have been sharing the book with my advertising partners ever since.
Rating:
Summary: Crucial for ANYONE working in advertising
Review: Great book - well written and fun. Lived up to the hype. I learned so much it was silly.
Rating:
Summary: Super advice for agency AND client
Review: I teach advertising to MBAs at a business school, but I used to be an agency account executive. I have been looking for something for my students to read that gives them a real appreciation for the creative side of the business. Jon Steel's book is so outstanding that I am considering making it required reading in my classes. Three parts of his message are especially valuable to "client side" (i.e. marketing) people: first, he is very articulate about the importance of doing qualitative, consumer-centered research....but not over-interpreting it. Second, he makes a convincing argument for the use of judgment over data: clients sometimes imagine "hard numbers" will prove to them whether they are doing the right kind of advertising, but agency folks see this as a kind of cowardice. Steel will help you understand the difference between useful, diagnostic, research that inspires great creative-- and research that results in boring, average advertising. Finally, his chapter on creative briefs - what they are for and how to write them - is superb. This is definitely going to be on the syllabus for next year. Whether you are a client marketer, or an agency person who would like to inspire a client to more creative work, this is a must read.
Rating:
Summary: Super advice for agency AND client
Review: I teach advertising to MBAs at a business school, but I used to be an agency account executive. I have been looking for something for my students to read that gives them a real appreciation for the creative side of the business. Jon Steel's book is so outstanding that I am considering making it required reading in my classes. Three parts of his message are especially valuable to "client side" (i.e. marketing) people: first, he is very articulate about the importance of doing qualitative, consumer-centered research....but not over-interpreting it. Second, he makes a convincing argument for the use of judgment over data: clients sometimes imagine "hard numbers" will prove to them whether they are doing the right kind of advertising, but agency folks see this as a kind of cowardice. Steel will help you understand the difference between useful, diagnostic, research that inspires great creative-- and research that results in boring, average advertising. Finally, his chapter on creative briefs - what they are for and how to write them - is superb. This is definitely going to be on the syllabus for next year. Whether you are a client marketer, or an agency person who would like to inspire a client to more creative work, this is a must read.
Rating:
Summary: Perfect for those who rely on the consumer's point of view!
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. Not only because of the information gleaned, but also because of the way it was written. The case studies alone make this book a must read!
Rating: 
Summary: Creating relationships through advertising.
Review: I've always believed that the first task of advertising is to create a relationship betwe en a company and a person who might buy that company's products. In the same way that a stranger at a party needs to engage your attention before they can persuade you of a point of view (or ask for a date), advertising needs to strike a chord with its target before it can begin the job of persuading. "Truth, Lies & Advertising" explores the ways in which advertising campaigns can make tho se connections and, conversely, why so much advertising fails to do so. The focus of the book is the discipline of account planning, only recently adopted by American agencies, but arguably creating the most profound change in the way that agencies work since Bill Bernbach first created teams of copywriters and art directors. It explores the way in which planners, using a combination of research, common sense and creativity, gain access to c onsumers' hearts and minds, develop ongoing relationships with them, and embrace them as partners in the process of developing advertising. Although this book is centered on account planning, it is really a book about advertising. How it works. Why it doesn't. And how it could be less irritating, invasive and ineffective, if only more clients and agencies could abandon their outdated, mechanistic processes that, far from creating relationships, drive a wedge between them and the people they aim to persuade. I wrote this book for people in advertising who want to know what planning is, and how it could work in their agencies (and who might also want to know how things work at Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, many of whose campaigns - "got milk?", Polaroid, Isuzu, Porsche and Norwegian Cruise Line, to name a few - are featured as examples); for clients who would like to produce better, more effective advertising; for students seeking insight into the advertising industry; and for my mother, so she will finally understand what I do for a living.
Rating:
Summary: A great return on investment!
Review: In a time when all the pundits are crying about the "end of advertising" or the "rise of P/R", Steel's book is one of the very best books on advertising that's ever been written and it's the definitive book on account planning. While many books decry the effectiveness of advertising, they are truly only pointing out that bad advertising is a waste of money. Anyone can write about that. But, the trick is knowing how to create great advertising that sells a product and generates a profitable return on the money invested in the marketing effort!
Everyone who's ever practiced advertising makes claims to being a "strategist", but Steel takes marketing strategy to new levels. To start with, he exposes many of the lies, myths and platitudes than run rampant through this discipline. In particular, he shows how well-intentioned "research" can actually mislead the advertising practitioner if the research isn't properly conceived, conducted and analyzed. In the end, it takes listening, insight, awareness and talent to see through these "true lies". But fear not, the book lays out a clear and understandable methodology about how to look at a company, it's products, services, benefits, competitors and markets. It gives straight forward advice on how to create a no-nonsense plan that will actually work! And it illustrates these points with anecdotes and stories that are entertaining and enlightening. In the end, it does not matter how "creative" an ad may be. What matters is the return you get on your marketing investment! If you read this book, you'll be well on your way.
Rating:
Summary: A great return on investment!
Review: In a time when all the pundits are crying about the "end of advertising" or the "rise of P/R", Steel's book is one of the very best books on advertising that's ever been written and it's the definitive book on account planning. While many books decry the effectiveness of advertising, they are truly only pointing out that bad advertising is a waste of money. Anyone can write about that. But, the trick is knowing how to create great advertising that sells a product and generates a profitable return on the money invested in the marketing effort! Everyone who's ever practiced advertising makes claims to being a "strategist", but Steel takes marketing strategy to new levels. To start with, he exposes many of the lies, myths and platitudes than run rampant through this discipline. In particular, he shows how well-intentioned "research" can actually mislead the advertising practitioner if the research isn't properly conceived, conducted and analyzed. In the end, it takes listening, insight, awareness and talent to see through these "true lies". But fear not, the book lays out a clear and understandable methodology about how to look at a company, it's products, services, benefits, competitors and markets. It gives straight forward advice on how to create a no-nonsense plan that will actually work! And it illustrates these points with anecdotes and stories that are entertaining and enlightening. In the end, it does not matter how "creative" an ad may be. What matters is the return you get on your marketing investment! If you read this book, you'll be well on your way.
| 
