Cutting Edge Advertising: How to Create the World’s Best Print for Brands in the 21st Century, Third Edition

Book description

Now revised and updated, this classic book is still the definitive step-by-step guide to creating cutting edge print ads. It covers everything from how advertising works, how brand-building methodologies are changing, how to get an idea, and how copy and art should be crafted. It demystifies the advertising creative process, with page after page of practical, inspiring and often controversial advice from such masters as David Abbott, Bob Barrie, Tim Delaney, David Droga, Neil French, Marcello Serpa, and dozens more. Over 200 print ads and case histories reveal the creative processes at work in world-famous agencies in the US, UK, Asia and Australia. This new edition also includes an exclusive section featuring winning ads from the World Press Awards. No other book takes you on such a journey through the minds of advertising¿s creative leaders.

Table of contents

  1. Title Page
  2. Copyright Page
  3. Praise for Cutting Edge Advertising III
    1. Also in This Series
    2. Praise for Cutting Edge Radio
    3. Praise for Cutting Edge Commercials
  4. Contents
  5. The Cast
  6. Foreword
  7. With Special Thanks
  8. Acknowledgements
  9. Dedication Page
  10. 1. Unconventional Wisdom
    1. Dimension
    2. Passive or Active? Public or Private?
    3. Control
    4. Great Print: What Is It?
    5. New Rules?
    6. Why Be Creative?
    7. Why Buy Creative?
    8. The Cutting Edge. Sometimes, It Can Hurt.
  11. 2. How To Find Your Voice
    1. Changing Consumer Attitudes Won’t Change Consumer Behaviour
    2. Awareness: A Warning
    3. And Let’s Not Forget Recall
    4. How Advertising Doesn’t Work
    5. How Advertising Does Work
    6. Research: Friend or Foe?
    7. Concept Testing
    8. A Different Drummer
    9. Risk and Responsibility
    10. Cutting Edge Voices
    11. Preparing to Leave the Comfort Zone
  12. 3. The Eight Greatest Lies You’ll Ever Be Told
    1. Lie No. 1: You Must Have a Unique Selling Proposition
    2. Lie No. 2: You Must Offer a Rational Benefit
    3. Lie No. 3: Humour Doesn’t Sell
    4. Lie No. 4: You Must Have a Memorable Slogan
    5. Lie No. 5: You Must Have a Logo in the Ad
    6. Lie No. 6: You Must Show the Product in the Ad
    7. Lie No. 7: Every Ad in a Campaign Must Look the Same
    8. Lie No. 8: Creative Ads Don’t Sell
    9. The One Creative Truth: Every Ad Must Have an Idea in It
  13. 4. The Creative Work Before The Creative Work
    1. Strategies and Briefs
    2. Brand Building
    3. The Disruption Theory
    4. The Unthought Known
    5. Strategic Insights
    6. Yes, Virginia, There Are Retail Strategies, Too
    7. Defying Convention
  14. 5. How To Get An Idea
    1. Is There an Idea in the Product Name or Logo?
    2. Is There an Idea in the Packaging?
    3. Is There an Idea in How the Product Is Made?
    4. Is There an Idea in Where the Product is Made?
    5. Is There an Idea in the Product’s History?
    6. Is There an Idea in the Product’s Old Advertising?
    7. Is There an Idea in Something That’s Happening Around You?
    8. Is There an Idea in Showing What Happens With the Product?
    9. Is There an Idea in Showing What Happens Without the Product?
    10. Is There an Idea in Showing What Happens With and Without the Product in the Same Ad?
    11. Is There even an Idea in Where the Ad will run?
    12. How to Get Better Ideas
    13. How to Know When Your Ideas Are Great
  15. 6. The Five Critical Choices
    1. Will You Send a Postcard or a Letter?
    2. Will You Have a Bent Headline With a Straight Picture? Or a Straight Headline With a Bent Picture?
    3. Or Will You Use Typography Instead?
  16. 7. How To Craft Visuals
    1. What Does Art Direction Have to Do?
    2. When to keep it simple
    3. When to add another layer
    4. When to keep layering
    5. Is Less More?
    6. When Should You Stop Art Directing an Ad?
    7. Typography: A Question of Controversy
    8. SHOULD HEADLINES BE SET IN CAPS or should they be set in lower case?
    9. Illustration: When Should You Use It?
    10. Out With Incest
  17. 8. How To Creaft Copy
    1. Should Copywriters Develop Their Own Styles?
    2. How Shouldn’t Copy Be Written?
    3. What Should You Know About Writing?
    4. How Should Headlines Be Written?
    5. How Should the Copy Begin?
    6. How Should the Copy Continue?
    7. How Long Should the Copy Be?
    8. Should the Last Line Reprise the Headline?
    9. Should Copywriters Be Involved in the Art Direction?
    10. Has Copywriting Ceased to Evolve?
  18. 9. The Global View
    1. Can the Same Idea Work Universally?
    2. What Sort of Ideas Work Universally?
    3. How the Cutting Edge Cuts Through
    4. The Universal Truths
    5. Global Print Perspectives
    6. Has Creativity Become Too Homogenised?
  19. 10. The Cutting Edge Agenda
    1. Heroes and Heresies
    2. How Others See Us
    3. Over to You
  20. World Press Awards
  21. Bibliography
  22. Index
  23. About the Author

Product information

  • Title: Cutting Edge Advertising: How to Create the World’s Best Print for Brands in the 21st Century, Third Edition
  • Author(s): Jim Aitchison
  • Release date: December 2012
  • Publisher(s): Pearson
  • ISBN: 9780133412369