Marketers ignore history while architects study Le Corbusier and Gaudí. The speaker argues that learning from past creative successes, not chasing new tactics, is what actually improves campaigns and moves the needle.
Chapters
As the saying goes, those who fail to learn from the past are doomed to repeat it. Marketing today seems to be overly interested in what's new and usually unproven. There doesn't seem to be much interest in examining successes of the past to inspire and optimise the effectiveness of the present. I don't know any other industry containing a creative component that operates in this way. For example, if you speak to any architect, they'll tell you all about the work of Le Corbusier, Gaudí, or Frank Lloyd Wright. Art students know why the work of Picasso, Henry Moore, or Man Ray remains important to this day. Yet so many people with marketing in their job title seem to have zero understanding of what's gone before. It's as if they believe it has no relevance to their work today. Perhaps it's one of the reasons why the majority of marketing is so poorly executed and fails to move the needle.