The project I propose is to write a full length book for people who work in creative professions and who need to develop effective strategies to make their work more persuasive.
I have worked in ad agencies all my life, and for many years I owned one. "Strategy" is in my job title and it’s pretty much all I do. I’m also an adjunct professor of communications at Webster University and an adjunct professor of marketing at Saint Louis University, where I teach strategy and branding.
The idea for the book came from an unlikely place. I had been reading The Mental ABC’s of Pitching by H. A. Dorfman, one of those great baseball books that really isn’t just about baseball. Dorfman was a clinical psychologist who had advised the pitching staffs of a number of Major League ball clubs. His book is an almanac of short essays on single subjects, all with relevance to pitchers at any level who are looking to perfect their craft and improve their techniques. It’s not about the mechanics of pitching—it’s about its mental—and strategic—side.
When I read it, I felt that something like it was needed for the advertising and related creative professions, so that’s what this project is all about.
My purpose is to write something clear and useful for people who work in all kinds of different organizations: ad agencies, PR firms, media shops, digital companies, sales promotion firms, social media agencies, and—last but not least—in marketing and strategy-related departments on the client side.
I believe it could reach and help a lot of people —not just ad people —who grapple with issues that are "all variables and no constants" (which also happens to be the way Ted Williams described the challenge of hitting Major League pitching).
Strategy is a huge and unwieldy topic, and that’s the reason I want to write about it. It needs to be simplified. Strategic experts are everywhere. They’re on CNN, on Sunday morning talk shows, in every C-suite in America, and in very barroom, taproom, community center, and alongside every water cooler in every office park in America. We tend to have a warped view of the “strategist”—it’s a variation on Karl Rove or James Carville, or whoever is the latest and hottest CEO.
That’s the wrong way to think about strategists. Anyone who thinks about doing anything to get a specific result is a strategist. Most of the time, “strategist” won’t be in your job title. But understanding how strategy works might very well contribute to your career success.
Inside agencies and marketing departments strategy is even more confusing. It’s a subject of critical importance, yet there is little or no guidance in how to devise it, evaluate it, or manage it—at least not in a practical way.
People who work in creative professions need a simple guide that will help them with all kinds of strategic problems and situations. That’s what Dorfman did in his book, and that’s what I want to do with this project.
There is no grand design here. It’s an almanac—the subjects are in alphabetical order. You can read it in order or jump from subject to subject at will.
I plan to write it at book length—around 45,000 words. But with short, focused pieces, it will be something that anyone could pick up and enjoy, no matter where they start.
While my primary audience is the creative professional, I hope that what’s here might help anyone who is just interested in the idea of “strategy.” It’s not a self-help book, but if you are interested in setting out to accomplish something, it might help you.
Because when you really think about it, that’s all that strategy really is.