Ahhhhh... The Summer MUST Reads from The AdGuy

What I love about the summer is the time I get away from the daily grind, not that I am ever faced with a "grind"... but I get the "ME" time I miss.

"ME" time usually consists of me spending a little more time with two sons and my wonderful wife, who still lets me be a big kid and get away with more then anybody should be able to. No I won't give details, but she will be considered for sainthood.

Reading is a must for anyone who has the dream or desire of working in this crazy business and this summer my "ME" time has been occupied with reading six (6) new books, but two of these titles have been nothing short of "outstanding" reads and will likely have a massive influence on what I will bring to mine and other program class lectures this fall.

My thoughts are not really reviews in as much points of interest that make both titles "MUST" for all students of advertising and those are running the wheels of communication who better catch-up quick.

BRAND NEW WORD by Max Lenderman

We live in a "brand" new world, where marketing is taking on incredible new forms. I simply reflect upon my 30 years off roaming around the "AdWorld" and I am amazed at the change.

To reach a "million" viewers for a specific spot you spent millions on placement.... today those millions can be reached in seconds and at the fraction of the cost, plus if you have something that's unique then those millions will get your message out even more people. That's what makes this book such a great read.

How is this business changing, and how do you need to adapt to that change? It's not a guide. It might be having you asking more questions then it will ever provide the answers. "Brand New World" looks at branding in a globalized world and where the next hot brands might originate from.

Drawing from over two years of extensive travel and research, award-inning creative director Max Lenderman has created an unique and easy read about groundbreaking marketing strategies and business models that every "adlander" or CMO needs to become familiar with or get left behind.

And this is especially true in the hyper-developing "BRIC" countries: Brazil, Russia, India and China. There has been unimaginable economic growth in these nations and this is revolutionizing marketing across the planet.

Max Lenderman is Executive Creative Director at GMR Marketing LLC. His clients include ING Direct, McDonald’s, Pepsi and VISA. A founding member of the International Experiential Marketing Association and this is his second business book. His first, "Experience The Message", was excellent (NOTE: it was shortlisted for the 2006 Canadian Business Book of the Year).

To review a some pages and samples of the book go to HarperCollins.

You can follow and learn more about Max Lenderman at experiencethemessage.com.


Free: The Future Of A Radical Price by Chris Anderson


Chris Anderson is a guru of the information age. At least that what ever Google hit explained.

He served as editor of, Wired, the voice of the digital world. Mr. Anderson has written about how digital technology and how it has made the world a better place.

Free is another examination of how digital technology is changing life and business, through the spread of what the book's subtitle describes as "a radical price" - zero.

Businesses based on offering free stuff aren't new - broadcast television and radio, for instance, entertain viewers and listeners for free in return for their attention - but there's certainly more free stuff around than there used to be.

“Free” stuff is spreading because of one fundamental difference between the bricks-and-mortar world (which Anderson calls the world of atoms) and the digital world (which Anderson calls the world of bits). In the world of atoms, each item is expensive to produce and distribute; in the world of bits, it costs close to nothing. This has all sorts of consequences.

Pricing models become more and more variable as the world has become increasingly digital. Copying costs almost nothing, so piracy mushrooms. People can create stories, songs and movies and distribute them to other people, gratis. The collapsing costs of production and distribution are both benefiting consumers and killing companies. Take Wikipedia, for instance, it offers the world, the universe and everything in detail to anybody with an internet connection, while destroying the encyclopedia business.

File-sharing has brought costless pleasure to millions while threatening the existence of record companies. Piracy has introduced millions of Chinese to the joys of Hollywood films while making it virtually impossible to sell music, software or recorded music in the country.

The costs associated with the growing online economy are trending toward zero at an incredible rate.

Never in the course of human history have the primary inputs to an industrial economy fallen in price so fast and for so long. Just think that in 1961, a single transistor cost $10; now Intel's latest chip has two billion transistors and sells for $300 (or 0.000015 cents per transistor--effectively too cheap to price). The traditional economics of scarcity just don't apply to bandwidth, processing power, and hard-drive storage.Ahhhhhh... The summer read, I have a few short weeks left before it's back to the pulpit (grind).

"Free", goes beyond a marketing gimmick or a cross-subsidy. Mr. Anderson also points to the growth of the reputation economy; explains different models for unleashing the power of "Free" and shows how to compete when your competitors are giving away what you're trying to sell.

Once again it's not a guide, simply a "you need to know before it's too late".

As I make my way through "Free", I find myself wondering where will the high cost of post secondary education fit into this future. Yes, I am a little frightened to Google "Free Creative Advertising Education". Then again...