Roy H. Williams
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Roy Hollister Williams is a marketing consultant specializing in strategic advertising. Williams' greatest claim to fame is the Wizard of Ads book trilogy. The Wizard of Ads discusses the psychology and even the neuroscience of marketing and advertising from an anecdotal point of view. Williams makes use of a broad range of sources and illustrations, ranging from Dr. Suess to Andrew Jackson to Coco Chanel. Secret Formulas of The Wizard of Ads and Magical Worlds of The Wizard of Ads are more in-depth follow-ups, each detailing communication methodologies and displaced pedagogy respectively.
In all three books, each featured on the Wall Street Journal and New York Times bestsellers lists, Williams discusses at length the importance of marketing aimed at the end user of the message and how to "cut through the clutter" to reach the individual.
Williams has also written an allegorical trilogy titled Destinae, composed of Free the Beagle, Beagles of Destinae and Beagles Visit the Seven Sisters. Depending on your own background, these books are about successful entrepreneurship, left versus right brain tendencies, a quest for religious truth, or perhaps all of the above.
An audio dramatization of the books is available as a free download in mp3 format.
In May of 2000, Williams founded Wizard Academy in Buda, Texas for more in-depth teaching on the materials he covers in his books. He shares teaching duties there with several other instructors. The courses include ad writing, screenwriting, an inventors' workshop and several other topics. Williams publishes everything through Bard Press, and is personal friends with Ray Bard.
Wizard Academy is now an independent school with a board of directors. While Williams is still actively involved, he is no longer by any means in control. He did this in a deliberate effort to create something that will outlast him.
Williams is author of several other books, less profound than the Wizard of Ads trilogy, including the rare precursor to the first Wizard volume 'Does Your Ad Dog Bite? (or is it just a show dog?)', presently difficult to find and including the author's edited revision of A Message to Garcia, significantly less verbose than the original essay but otherwise largely unchanged.
Williams also publishes his weekly column, Roy's Monday Morning Memo, available freely at his web site (including archives), sometimes including very interactive promotions for the sake of readers' personal growth.
Significant ideas of Williams include his theory of Thought Particles (described in a book with that title), the 40 year pendulum swing and the theory of universal knowledge.
An avid fan of history, Williams frequently draws business and philosophical insight from the past, particularly post Civil War America but dating as far back as the ancient world.
Fans of Williams usually appreciate his obscure insights into historic figures not commonly known, i.e. Abraham Lincoln's aggressive business philosophies or Da Vinci's lurid family history and profound love of animals, and his incisive brevity, true to ad-man form, creating vivid imagery with a minimum of words.
Williams shamelessly confesses philosophical interest in the past and future (manifest in interests in history and science fiction), as well as a very close relationship to his wife Pennie.
