This mentality that advertising is a business for the young is bothersome. When it comes to creatives, some think that only some young kid can connect with an audience with thinking that's fresh and different. Young pups, you can still learn a few things from some of those old dogs that still have a seat at the table.

Now I'm not calling author Jon Spoelstra an "old dog," but he has years of experience that still apply to business today. In his book, Marketing Outrageously Redux: How to Increase Your Revenue by Staggering Amounts, he takes his knowledge of sports marketing and shows us how to up the ante on creativity and fresh thinking to market virtually anything. His book is a series of tales and examples of creative problem solving.

The one message that stands out is the push to market more "outrageously" during tough times – when everyone is looking to scale back. It's not about recklessly spending up your ad budget, just a drive for bigger and better thinking and dealing with the haters and naysayers who stand in your way.

Listening to his stories and solutions remind me of times with senior staff talking about the good old days. Many of these ad men where people who made the legendary beer and car ads that we still admire today. I learned a lot from them. The only thing had issue with the book were the quizzes at the end of some chapters. Most of them were just reinforcing points that I felt he already made pretty clear.

The purpose of Marketing Outrageously is to motivate you to take risks. Many of our biggest marketing success stories were born from people who did something... outrageous. Let's learn from them.

Grade: B+ (only because I hate quizzes- enjoy)

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