From the beer tap on the bar to your glass, you can’t hurry the pour of a Guinness.

While rival beers are served up in a trice and raced onto the beer mat in front of you, you have to wait … and wait for a Guinness.

Blame it on a leisurely two-part pour, plus an extended time-out below the rim for a rest. 

As you may know, this describes the Guinness journey to your glass – but only partially. 

Because it becomes lengthier still as the creamy head is eased on with time-consuming care.

What’s the thinking behind all this palaver?

It’s meant to ensure your pint is presented at its best.

And to do so it comes with a brewery-recommended pour of 119.5 seconds. 

119.5 Seconds? 

It’s often thought of as an inconvenience, a disadvantage that results in an awkward wait.

Nice one, Guinness, but is that any way to treat a pub brimming over with thirsty customers?

Well, as you might know, the Guinness creative team address this with the ‘Good Things Come to Those That Wait’ ad campaign.

Have a look at the the following spot.

It turns cooling your heels, literally waiting forever, into the No.1 selling point for the brand. 

More to waiting, we’re pleased you’ve held on to hear about another brand famous for selling a perceived inconvenience: high cost.

That’s Stella Artois with their ‘Reassuringly Expensive’ campaign.

Sure, it’s pricey beer, but you’re charmed with a film showcasing ice skating priests and a disaster that more than justifies Stella’s value.

Now over to you.

How about the inconveniences of the brand you’re working on?

Could there be an opportunity to turn a nuisance into something edgy?

Trot out the drawbacks, shortcomings and annoyances and explore.

Who knows, you might just come up with something that outshines Guinness and Stella.

Back in the year dot we hiked along the east coast of Tasmania.

Untamed and strikingly beautiful, craggy bushland is fronted by the sea.

Being special and then some, it’s known for the cleanest air in the world and the home of the Palawa people.

The Palawa fascinated early explorers like Captain Cook for the fact they lived by the sea but never entered it.

They didn’t swim, they had no boats, they didn’t eat fish.

Incurious describes their relationship to the water.

But then you can’t help noticing marketers are a bit the same when it comes to creative work.

Many are brilliant in areas like strategy, data and technology but less than inquisitive in understanding what ads work and what don’t.

So the public pays the price. Too often they’re faced with messaging that has all the attraction of a dried-up waterfall.

Sorry for the cheap shot in that last thought, but it also has a bright side. 

In an environment where ads are iffy, the best work stands out with the power to engage people. 

More to that, if you’re a past-master with everything else in marketing, why labor as a troubled soul when faced with briefing and judging creative work.

Especially when so much is at stake.

Because powerful ads make it easier for you to compete and convert one very important customer.

The one who belongs to your competition.

The good news is that help is at hand to make gutsier ads. All it takes is cracking a book.

The Howard Gossage Show by Steve Harrison and Dave Dye. Here you’re rewarded with the opposite of dreary, joyless ads … ads that are like a well-meaning bore who corners you at a drinks party.

Instead you’re educated by Howard Gossage, a quick-witted ad genius whose thinking is on the page for one reason. 

To advance you as an intelligent and confident decision maker responsible for approving warm, intense and uplifting ads.

That should elevate your career and lengthen it.

Books by Dave Trott (start with One Plus One = Three: A Master-Class in Creative Thinking) will make you more valuable to yourself and your company. You’ll learn how to motivate your agency to create ads that are anything but low-wattage and emotionally flat.

Here you’re introduced to thinking with wit, charm and reasoned persuasion. We’re talking relentlessly energetic ads that give you the best chance to stop people and create the moment someone buys.

Well, you want to sell, don’t you?

If it makes sense to wade into the waters of new determination, lively intelligence and more effective creative skills, order these books. 

But the trick is to order them before your competitors do.