I was aware of the existence of this book (published in Dutch) even before Erik du Plessis’ company, Impact, became part of Millward Brown, and have since urged him to update it and get it published in English. The result is essentially a new book that expands on the original to provide new insight.

This book is unlike any other book about advertising previously published. Most previous books have considered advertising as a process, but given little attention to the processor of advertising: the human brain. And yet, over the past two decades, the human brain is arguably the area in which science has made its greatest discoveries. So much has been learnt that it now makes sense to consider the implications of those discoveries in the context of how advertising works.

Concurrently over the past two decades, our understanding of how advertising works has also progressed. New insights into the relationship between advertising spending and sales effects (both short and long term), are beginning to change the way advertisers think about the value of that investment. New insights into the factors that influence the success of advertising have allowed advertisers to place greater confidence in pre-testing (the discipline of judging an ad before it is broadcast, to determine if it is likely to achieve its objectives). For the most part these new insights are entirely compatible with the new learning on how the brain works.