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.