Booh Reuieuj What Sticks: Why Most Advertising Faiis
and How to Guarantee Yours Succeeds
by Rex Briggs and Greg Stuart
Kaplan Business, September 1, 2006, ISBN: 1419584332. $25.00, 304 pp.
JOSEPH T. PLUMMER
GOOD TIMING OFTEN GOES a long way toward
Co-Editor
ensuring success of a new venture. This is often
joe@thearf.org
true with new-product launches. I have to assume
the success of new books as well.
What Sticks by Rex Briggs, the founder of Mar-
keting Evolution, and Greg Stuart, the president
of Interactive Advertising Bureau, has arrived in
the market with wonderful timing.
The ANA (Association of National Advertisers)
found in a member survey this year that "account-
ability" is the number one issue on the mind of
advertisers. Consultants and market media re-
search firms are offering old and new analytic
models to confirm the relationship between ad-
vertising spending and marketplace results at a
dizzying pace, and "C-level" managers are asking
tough questions about return on their increasing
investment in marketing. So a book offering "to
guarantee your advertising will succeed" has a
wonderful sense of timing.
If you care about accountability, you should
read this book. It won't guarantee success, but it
will force you to think harder about the need for
and best ways to measure advertising perfor-
mance. The strength of the book is that it is based
upon research—smart, systematic, and focused re-
search in the market with consumers. There is, of
course, with any book, a heavy dose of opinions
particularly in defining the overall problem of
waste in the early chapters, and its dramatic dis-
cussion in the failure of others to know empiri-
cally how effective or ineffective their spending
levels, choice of media, and brand strategies are
performing. The authors feel that, in general, mar-
keters are hiding behind an "advertising is part
art and part science" philosophy.
The great strength of this book is the 36 market
studies supported by IAB members and con-
ducted by Marketing Evolution over a 4-year pe-
riod for 30 Fortune 200 companies. The research
uses an in-market experimentation framework and
DOI: 10.250VS0021849906000511
rigorous methodology to try and identify via sur-
vey measurement the key factors in advertising
spending, rrtedia mix, and timing that correlate
with marketplace results.
Overall, the authors found that 47% of the cam-
paigns studied did not work to advertiser expec-
tations. While this is a discouraging average, the
majority of the book covers ways to improve
effectiveness and point-out critical errors in go-to-
market spending allocation.
One of the helpful aspects to What Sticks is that
it extols the virtues of learning from mistakes—
not trying tO cover them up.
"When the Japanese find a defect in the man-
ufacturing process, they call it a treasure. Find-
ing it, dissecting it, and figuring out how to
eliminate it is the path to improved productiv-
ity." (p. 31)
The majority of this useful book is built around
a process framework the authors developed based
upon the studies conducted for 30 different mar-
keters. They call the framework COP with com-
ponents of scenario planning + measurement +
action. Briggs and Stuart demonstrate that by using
this framework and being disciplined in research,
you can get better results with the same budget.
This is what marketers are looking for today as
increasing media and marketing costs do have
elasticities around them.
The factors discussed as critical in the scenario
planning and measurement components of COP
are segmentation based upon motivation, the brand
message, media allocation, and intra media opti-
mization. On this latter point, the research often
shows that television allocation is overused and
the internet and print are underutilized.
Throughout this well-written book are gems
from the 36 studies that in some way reflect the
December 2 0 0 6 JOORIIIIL DFflDyEBTISinGRESEHRCH 4 6 9
BOOK REVIEW
gap in "common knowledge, but not com-
mon practice." My favorite example is:
For McDonalds we found that its ad-
vertising created much more impact
during the four hour period around
lunchtime, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. In fact,
they found they could increase perfor-
mance by more then 50% just by buy-
ing the lunch time period. Psychologists
explain this: when consumers are hun-
gry (around lunch time) they are much
more receptive to the meaning Mc-
Donalds is trying to convey, (p. 183)
These and many other gems come from
the in-market experimental design ap-
proach practiced by Briggs and his re-
search teams at Marketing Evolution.
(For a full review of the method, please
read The ARF Research Review at www.
thearf.org.)
470 DF RDDERTISIRG RESERRCH December 2 0 0 6
Finally, the book also challenges some
widespread media planning practices
based upon the research they conducted—
impressions and reach.
One not so small point about media
planning is that not all impressions are
created equal.... The McDonalds ad
works significantly better at certain
times and on certain websites, so reach
isn't the same as effectiveness.
The fact that reach isn't effective
should not be a shocker. But the fact
that reach isn't really reach should raise
eyebrows among anyone who has ever
spent a single dollar on media. Reach
is a slippery media term. (p. 172)
I urge everyone connected to market-
ing and advertising to read What Sticks. It
is timely, useful, and empirically based.
There is just one flaw in my view—the
title. A title more reflective of the content
and value to marketers would be Reduc-
ing Waste. What Sticks suggests equal treat-
ment of the power of brand strategy,
engagement in the advertising, and bud-
get allocation/media mix. (At least to me
before reading.) The majority of the book,
however, and the research findings are
on budget allocation/media mix as they
relate to brand performance metrics. Don't
get me wrong, this is incredibly valuable
stuff and during this period of massive
technological and media innovation spend-
ing mix and allocation are critical for
success. But don't expect to learn that
much about winning brand strategies or
to read about highly engaging campaign
insights.
Thank you. Rex and Greg, for publish-
ing this much needed book that should
open our minds to new approaches and
smarter media investment and strengthen
our practices for improving advertising
effectiveness in the 21st century,