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Why Interestingness is The Missing Link Between Creative and Effectiveness
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About the Book
Advertising doesn't work because people see it. It doesn't even work because they feel something from it. It works because people return to it mentally. They think about it again. And again.
That quality (the quality of being worth thinking about) is Interestingness. And it's the missing link in how effective advertising actually gets built.
Most conversations about effectiveness focus on attention and emotion. But thinking was omitted from most effectiveness models, not disproven. That's Interesting! puts it back where it belongs, at the centre of what it means to make great advertising.
Drawing on twenty years of research across cognitive science, neuroscience, and advertising effectiveness, including interviews with senior creative leaders and a large-scale nationally representative study grounded in Effie-winning work. David Nottoli and Jeffre Jackson introduce the ISMAD framework: five qualities that predict whether creative work will generate the later thought that builds memory, mental availability, and brand choice.
The ISMAD Framework
What You'll Learn
Creativity is treated as a black box. Without a clear standard, agencies and clients can't agree on what good looks like, and great work gets killed. Interestingness provides the standard.
Memory is the residue of thought. Advertising builds memory not through repetition alone, but by earning mental revisitation. The causal chain from interesting creative to brand choice runs through later thought.
ISMAD is a practical tool, not a retrospective label. Use it as a creative guide during development, a diagnostic lens for evaluating work, and a rationale for defending unconventional choices.
The primary task of advertising agencies is to generate outstanding creative ideas that viewers will notice and will be willing to process over and over.
How often do you have to read a book, a news story, or see a movie or play? If it is interesting, once is enough; if it is dull, once is plenty.
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