One Great Insight Is Worth a Thousand Good Ideas: An Advertising Hall-of-Famer Reveals the Most Powerful Secret in Business

by Phil Dusenberry

"We Bring Good Things to Life""It’s Not TV, It’s HBO"" It’s Everywhere You Want to Be" These aren’t just advertising slogans; they’re game-changing insights. And according to ad industry legend Phil Dusenberry, who with his team at BBDO created these and many other brilliant campaigns, one big insight is worth a thousand good ideas. An idea can lead to one clever commercial. But a true insight can define a brand for years to come and turn an entire industry upside down.

300 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 3, 2006

Reviews

[Brian Sachetta · Rating 5 out of 5]

My mother bought me this book when I was in my first year or two of high school. That was in 2006 (I think) — a long time ago. Somehow, it’s been sitting on my shelf, unread, until today.

Now that I’ve finally finished it, I’m very glad to have given it a shot. It’s honestly a fascinating read. It centers around Dusenberry’s career at the ad agency BBDO. It’s filled with interesting stories of BBDO winning big, corporate accounts and the ads they produced for said clients.

It details how BBDO gleaned key insights that led to some of the most iconic advertisements in history at companies across the board — Pepsi, Pizza Hut, FedEx, HBO, you name it. All the stories are quite enthralling. At times, it even feels slightly Gladwell-esque with its conclusions and insights.

I do wish I had read it sooner, but also admit that I probably wouldn’t have appreciated it as much at the age of fifteen as I did today. It’s a very fun book, and I definitely recommend giving it a spin.

-Brian Sachetta
Author of “Get Out of Your Head: A Toolkit for Living with and Overcoming Anxiety”

[Thomas Collins · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is exactly what I needed for this stage in my career as a creative director. It contains so much useful information that I’ve started applying in my day to day. I gave it four starts instead of five only because I feel that some of the heavy handed leadership principles are outdated and will marginalise more sensitive creatives… it feels like things may have shifted to people first and work second in the last decade or two. But hey, if I’m proven wrong I’ll be back to update this to a five. Great read though, and I highly recommend it to anyone working in creative industries.

[Sonya Dutta Choudhury · Rating 5 out of 5]

The title of the book had me hooked . It caught me at a time when I'm looking for insights myself- on careers, why people choose what they do, and how they should choose better.
Ad man Phil Dusenberry of ad agency BBDO tells his favorite insight stories
Robert Fulghum - All I really need to know I learned in kindergarden
Druckers insights - Socratic questions - " If you didn't own this business now and had a chance to buy it, would you ?'
Warren Buffett story of rivals CBS and Cap Cities - expressed as them being two cargo ships( instead of broadcasting stations ) An insight isn't worth a damn if you can't express it in a way that people get it ( true that- which is why I love Raghuram Rajan and his buying dosas in inflationary times insight on inflation)
Great reading and def recommended.

[Jason · Rating 4 out of 5]

I re-read many of the chapters in this book. Phil Dusenberry's experiences in working with "challenger brands" are valuable lessons for my work and my classes.

Well-written, with a slight hint of back-pats - but deservedly so, I think. Good read for literally anyone who needs an insight now and then.

Addendum (2023):
The title, as a core idea, still rings true. It's even more overt today that anyone and everyone has an idea - but only a few have true, a-ha moment, wide-eyed surprise insights. We must be consciously interrogating if an idea is "merely" an idea, or if it's an insight that inspires and "births" even more ideas.

Note: This was from my 2017 reading list, and the words are from my thoughts back then. Minor grammatical edits may have been applied.

[Mitch · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay..so Mark Reitman was involved in this book, so I thought I better read it soon! So far, its really well done, so smart, and to the point...it becomes a little about "then we did this campaign, then this campaign....Pepsi, Gillette, Pepsi, Dominos, Pepsi, Pepsi, Doritos, Pepsi, etc...but all in, it does make his POV on advertising, and it's interesting, and smart.

[Ree · Rating 5 out of 5]

A true insight inspires ideas you can act on. An insight also has the capacity to take something that you know in your head and make you feel it in your gut.This is must-read book for those who'd like to create good ads!