I have a copy of What Sticks, but have not yet read it yet (too busy reading a bunch of other books - but I need to really read this one - esp since I asked to interview Rex Briggs before Emetics Summit next month for Webmetricsguru.com).  Fortunately, I can get a review of the book from Blog Business World, which did review What Sticks.

"The book is a challenging read as it demands that the reader unlearn much of what was considered to be standard marketing and advertising practice. As a result, many advertising and marketing professionals will toss the book away, rather than admit their accepted wisdom is failing their companies. Failing to read and apply the techniques provided would be a huge and very costly mistake. Instead of simple theorizing, the authors offer hard data from real life marketing campaigns. The proof is in the actual results."

This rings a bell with me.  One of my clients has classified their pages into various categories and tried to use Web Metrics to find out which types of pages are more effective because of type- it turns out, the type which they thought was more effective was really not -  it’s more likely the positioning, not what’s on the pages or the design and it’s a difficult truth for them to absorb.

In fact, it’s more likely that Web Analytics needs to be merged with Web Design - in the beginning stages of page creation - rather than later, after the pages are built, as is more commonly done.  To determine "engagement" we need a sequential approach to content access which is not possible if the page is already created once it’s presented to the web analyst to track.

It’s clear I need to read What Sticks - I’ll get to it as soon as finish BrandSimple - another great book that I’m halfway though right now.

‘With What Sticks: Why Most Advertising Fails And How to Guarantee Yours Succeeds, authors Rex Briggs and Greg Stuart have written an essential guide book to advertising and marketing success. Any marketing and advertising professionals who fail to read this landmark work are leaving uncounted dollars on the table for themselves and their business. They can be sure their competitors are reading and applying the profitable concepts presented in the book."