Staying inside the box

We are fortunate at our company to have Ernie Schenck as an outside member of our board of directors.  For those of you who don't know Ernie, he is one of those advertising guru types.  He would appreciate the use of the word types.

I had the opportunity to spend some quality time with Ernie earlier this year driving to an off site board meeting.  He had just finished a book that is about to be published called The Houdini Solution.  In it, Ernie takes the long held notion of thinking outside the box and turns it on its head.  Hence the title of the book. 

You might recall one of Houdini's most famous escapes involved being chained, roped and otherwise tied up inside a big chest and heaved into a deep body of water.  (I can't remember if it was a lake, river or ocean.  Anyone?)

The point of Ernie's book is incredibly interesting.  Instead of always "pushing the envelope" or "thinking outside the box" - what if we take an idea and go inward with it and work it so hard and drill down so deep that we find just as many, if not more, insights and opportunities to move a brand forward.  That was my take away from our conversation anyway.  I'm anxious to read the book.

Ernie has a great blog called Ernie Schenck Calls This Advertising.  He recently posted one of his book's chapters.  Also, here is another great post he did that tells us why the chaos theory can teach us much about the marketing environment today.

Enjoy.  And here is a shameless plug for Ernie's book.  Go buy it starting September 15.

Comments

[panasianbiz]

Ernie Schenck's approach sounds absolutely fascinating! I'll definitely look for his book during my next time to the bookstore. And, by the way, I think Houdini was just suspended in a large tank of water so his audience could see him the whole time.