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BOOK REVIEW Watch This, Listen Up, Click Here: Inside the 300 Billion Dollar Business Behind the Media You Constantly Consume by David Verklin and Bernice Kanner Wiley - April 2007
Reviewed by Dr. Jonathan Dolhenty Who would believe that a book about marketing and advertising, subjects usually considered rather academic, mundane, and dull, could be exciting and very informative, as well as interesting to read. Well, here is one and I can recommend it without hesitation. Now, there is one thing I can say with absolute certainty: the marketing and advertising of goods and services are changing rapidly. And this remarkable book, Watch This, Listen Up, Click Here by David Verklin and Bernice Kanner, proves it beyond all doubt. This is not a book just for the marketing and advertising professional; it is a book that will be enjoyed by all readers because virtually all of you out there are consumers of goods and services and most of you are joined, in some way or other and to some extent, to the electronic media matrix that is pervasive in our world today. If you watch television or listen to radio, if you're connected to the Internet, if you own a cellphone or other communication device, and even if you read print publications, you are affected by the world of modern marketing and advertising. There is no escaping it short of becoming a hermit in some unknown, faraway retreat, outside of the normal channels of the human community. There is good reason that the subtitle of this book is "Inside the 300 Billion Dollar Business Behind the Media You Constantly Consume." I do have a personal interest in what Verklin and Kanner explore in their book. First, way back in the 1980s and for two years, I was the director of advertising for one of the largest destination resorts in the southwestern part of the United States. I worked directly with the marketing department, was privy to all of their selling techniques, and was required to design advertising and deal personally with all the media. Back then, of course, the advertising game was much simpler than today's since our attention was directed mainly to television, radio, and print publications. There was no Internet as it exists today, no cell phones, no IPods, no BlackBerrys, and "globalization" was a term sometimes heard in political discourse but it had not yet evolved into the economic buzzword that captivates the world market as it now does. Secondly, I have managed a website for ten years that depends almost exclusively on advertising in order to survive -- hence, I want to know what the future holds for marketing and advertising. Now that you have my caveats, let's briefly visit some things that Verklin and Kanner have to say. From the very start, in the Preface in fact, Verklin offers the reader a tempting bit of text that's hard to resist. "Thanks for glancing," he begins. "That's really all I need from you. Guys like me will pay you for your glance. What I'm really after, however, is something more -- something we call 'engagement.' I'll reward you bigtime for that...." Glancing? That's all he wants me to do? Well, yes, but not quite. There's a lot more. First, the "glance." Then, of course, the "engagement." What does all this mean? That is what's explained throughout the book, along with an insider view of the multibillion dollar business that confronts most of us each and every day. The book is divided into three sections: (1) The Lay of Medialand; (2) A Whole New Ball Game; and (3) Tomorrow. This last section contains only one chapter, something I mention now because the title of the chapter is a real teaser: "What's Really Sexy about Porn? (A Peek at What's to Come)." Now I have to confess that after perusing the table of contents, and taking note of that chapter's title, I immediately opened the book to page 201 and began reading (it's amazing how the words "sexy" and "porn" catch someone's attention!). I always suspected that pornography was first in line when it came to utilizing a new medium (e.g., very soon after photography was invented in the 19th century, it was put to use in the sex industry), and the authors confirm this for me. As they say: "If you want to know what media will look like tomorrow, look at what the sex industry is up to today. Even before the get-rich-quick schemers jump in, porn has landed, almost always the first application a new medium gets." This may be a sad commentary on human nature; nevertheless, pornography has been around for millennia and will probably be around forever. This last chapter, however, does look into the future of media and provides some informative speculation. Now that the last chapter has been noted, let's get back to the book itself. I must congratulate the authors for the very clever chapter titles, most of them beginning with the word "Why," which is always a suggestive "teaser." The titles, in spite of the words used, are merely indicators and do not necessarily reflect the entire subject covered. Let me give you just a few that I thought were particularly provocative: "Why Newspapers Hate Craig and His Infamous 'List'" - Chapter 5; "Why Outdoor Companies Pray for Traffic Jams" - Chapter 6; "Why Wikipedia Ticks Off the Other Media" - Chapter 9; "Why Honda Hates the Internet...and Those Who Haunt It" - Chapter 15. One of my favorites was "Data Mining: Why Your TV May Think You're Gay" - Chapter 13. (I think I actually read this latter chapter right after I read the chapter on porn -- amazing what a teaser-term can do. Fortunately, this book can be read out of sequence.) Suffice to say there is something in this book that will appeal to most readers. There's a discussion about why TV ratings are overrated, why Legoland is visited by grown men, why the Army's best new recruitment tool is a video game, and "Why the Smart Money Moved Its Chips from Poker to Bulls" - Chapter 22. All of the companies and trade names mentioned by the authors will be familiar to you and you'll learn some of the little "secrets" behind their marketing campaigns. And, finally, both authors are eminently qualified to write about this subject. Verklin is CEO of one of the world's largest ad-buying companies and Kanner (who unfortunately passed away shortly after completion of the manuscript) was a marketing expert and author of several books on advertising. All in all, Watch This, Listen Up, Click Here provides a fascinating look into a world that most of us are not intimate with except on the consumer side. I would venture to say that, once you've finished this book, you'll never look at the TV, cell phone, IPod, Internet, or other media experience quite the same again. Highly recommended! 
Read an Excerpt from this Book Order at Amazon.com Order at Powell's Books |
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Enrich your life with a book about politics and current events... |
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