Where have all the Readers gone?

This may sound like a follow up to my previous post on the lack of good writing (and writers) in advertising today. It is not.

This post is about knowledge. And how we seek it. If, we actually seek it.

Most people I see around me today, are content with just withdrawing from their bank balance of knowledge built up early in their careers. Or built up daily in their ‘i know it all’ minds. A lot of advertising folk also just draw from their own lives and beliefs… and what they think is ‘learning’.

The question is, how many of us actively draw from the knowledge of others. Learn from the experiences of others. How many of us actually take the time out to read what great minds and great experience have put together? And I don’t mean Lurzers Archive, Shots, The One Show and the odd book by David Ogilvy. Not even AXN or the Saas Bahu melodramas.

I mean books. Real books. About trends, about insights, about building value, about consumers, about new media, about case studies, about whatever… About formulae that have worked and those that haven’t.

And the fact is the above knowledge is available only in books, and for those reading them. Which brings me to the age old saying ‘knowledge is power’!

The more we read, the more we know, the more power we wield – over our strategies, over our campaigns, over our consumers, over our own lives!

The less we learn and know, the lesser is the value we add to our profession and the money our clients spend. And that’s the last word. Do you read me?

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Current ‘Must Read’: Long Tail | The Undercover Economist | Red Carpet