Why Advertising agencies need Labs?
The world is changing so fast all around us, now advertsing agencies are creating labs!
It’s interesting:
http://www.psfk.com/2010/11/ed-cotton-why-agencies-need-labs.html
Change is here!
Yes! Hitler was a visionary!
We remember Hitler for all the wrong reasons, but here I came across an interesting fact:
One of the most respected auto brand volkswagen was Hitler’s vision!
Volswagen in german means: People’s car.
Important thing is, he did not just thought of creating a car for the masses, he also made it happen by creating a team and putting resources. He even had a plan about how common people will be able to buy a car!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkswagen
Here is your chance to create history!
The world is open and people are collaborating beyond boundaries.
Technology is bringing people together to share, to create and to realise the oneness of life here on our planet.
Here is another exciting initiative where you can also become an active part.
Life in a day is a film being created by people like you and me. Lead by none other than Ridley Scott.
look to this clip to know all about this initiative;
Life In A Day, Documenting A Single Day On Earth
Google has launched a new project “Life in a Day”, where they are inviting people to document their lives for 24 hours on July 24th. The best submissions will be edited into a feature length documentary directed by Kevin Macdonald and …
Publish Date: 07/19/2010 22:09
http://laughingsquid.com/life-in-a-day-documenting-a-single-day-on-earth/
Impact of technology on creativity.
Brain is a beatiful instrument which plays with the ideas and creates new concepts out of them.
In my view technology makes new frontiers available to the brain to play with. A lots of creative ideas comes to us because new technology makes them possible.
here is a nice article on the same subject:
Hot Essays: Essay on Technology is the Canvas of Creativity
The artistic legacy of humans throughout history shows how technology has brought about an increase in human creativity. The cave paintings discovered in Europe that were made about 30 000 years ago lacked the technology that was …Publish Date: 07/04/2010 5:58
http://hotessays.blogspot.com/2010/07/essay-on-technology-is-canvas-of.html
Also have a look at this blog post which conveys the relationship in a fresh way:
When asked to write an article on the role of technology in creativity for WHY! I instantly thought to myself “wow, I really have my work cut out for me here”. With a background in Technology, Engineering and Computer Science, …
Publish Date: 07/02/2010 22:26
http://why-create.com/technology-in-creativity/
Tactile Mind Book by Lisa J Murphy
Creative minds need no boundaries!
just to give you an example, here is the
Tactile Mind Book by Lisa J Murphy
Cannes Lions to honour Anglo-Dutch giant Unilever with Advertiser of the Year award – Campaign Brief
Here is a news which may surprise many in india.
At cannes Unilever is being honoured as the Advertiser of the year.
I have worked on Unilever brands in india and generally creative people shy away from Unilever accounts.
So from that perspective it seems like a paradox.
I hope this will create a new surge of creative spirit in Unilever India as well.
Cannes Lions to honour Anglo-Dutch giant Unilever with Advertiser of the Year award – Campaign Brief.
Why Creative people need discipline?
Creative people and discipline?
It seems like a paradox.
But when we look to it closely we will discover a concrete relation.
Creative minds are fertile minds. Truly creative artists and managers keep producing ideas on the go. As if there is an idea machine in their head which converts every stimulus into ideas.
As a result, they have more ideas spinning in their heads then they can execute.
Sometimes a new idea is so exciting that they keep ruminating about it and feel happy about it. The boundary between a concept and its actualisation is often blurred.
That’s why creative people need discipline. They need to prioritize the ideas they want to execute. And then they need to allocate time to bring forth those ideas in reality.
Execution of ideas is often not as exciting as creating new ideas. Many creatives think execution is not the same level of activity as ideation is. This mind block becomes a real barrier in producing results.
That’s why it becomes important to have a balance between the ideation and execution time.
A creative genius is known by the work he produces..
A novel, painting or a wonderful business model in our head doesn’t exist in the world.
It’s like a seed in a plastic pouch!
So let us monitor how we are consuming our time and energy on a day to day basis. That will help us realise our true potential as creative thinkers and doers.
How to Create an Effective Problem!
There are already so many problems in the world. Why create another problem?
Why not put our energies in finding out solutions you would ask me?
And my answer would be:
An answer can be only as good as your question.
If you describe your problem well and keep it focused,
it can trigger solutions, quick and fast.
Not only so, your solutions will be relevant and fresh.
How do we do that? Here are some tips:
EVERY PROLEM IS A FRESH PROBLEM:
When a situation is presented to us, we spontaneously relate it to some other problem
that we solved earlier. We label it: I know this problem; it’s like
what we had in the manufacturing department last month.
We can borrow the experience later on.
But resist this temptation at the problem defining stage.
Old questions will only lead to old answers. There could be many new angles
in the situation facing us and we will lose opportunities to create fresh solutions.
ASK DIFFERENTLY:
Even if you ask for a ‘different kind of chair,’ what you will get is a chair!
But if you ask for ‘something to sit on comfortably,’ you will get something new.
It may not be a chair. It may be a bean bag!
ASSUME DIFFERENT POINTS OF VIEWS:
Avoid pin pointing a problem without looking to it from different perspectives.
Take a situation where salesmen are not filling reporting forms.
The management could see it as a discipline problem, while from
the financial controller’s point of view; the problem might be insufficient documentation.
On the other hand, for the salesman, it is simply a question of wasting productive time.
If we approach it as an indiscipline problem, solutions will comprise
reprimanding the sales staff, punishing them and arresting their incentives.
The same problem defined as in-effective reporting formats will be solved differently.
A hundred brilliant ideas on indiscipline won’t help. A few solutions to improve
the reporting system might work wonders.
SHORT TERM OR LONG TERM:
Keep the time dimension in the problem statement. Are you looking for a short term,
midterm or a long term solution?
What will happen tomorrow, day after, a few years hence? Will the problem be different?
DEFINE BOUNDARIES:
Include the expectations of time and budget in the desired solution.
That will make the solutions feasible and relevant.
USE THE RIGHT BRAIN:
Yes, use the right brain to give the problem its final shape. Be imaginative.
Make a story, a news item or pictorially represent the problem.
In a nutshell make problem so attractive that people want to solve it.
Following these simple steps will make idea generation process
much more exciting, relevant and result oriented!
How to Create a Truckful of Ideas!
Ask any creativity expert and he will tell you “it helps to get a lot of ideas, more ideas you get, the better probability of hitting at a fresh solution.”
But the question that baffles everyone is: how?
Because in reality, forget a lot of ideas, people don’t even get a few ideas to start with.
Here are some tips to help you get ideas quickly:
Empty your mind:
Write everything that comes to your mind about that subject. These may not be ideas, just your thoughts and preconceived notions about the situation.
Write everything. Once these ideas are out you can think of some fresh ones.
Keywords:
Write all the key words associated with your opportunity at hand. These Keywords will become your gateways to ideas.
Phrase these keywords differently and see what happens.
For example in this article instead of “keywords” I can say “words which are important to understand the concept” or I can use the phrase “words that unlock the meaning” of a situation.
Now these phrases will give you cues to get more ideas.
Associations:
Start free-wheeling. Record all the associations that come to your mind about the opportunity and start creating ideas on those associations.
Write down all the jokes, all the anecdotes, all the lyrics that this situation reminds you.
Does it remind you of a movie scene? Write it down. It reminds you of a picnic where some funny thing happened? Record it.
Don’t judge. Play with whatever your mind gives you. Associations will present you with infinite possibilities.
For example “Mother” will take you to “love”
Mother > love >
Now love can lead to “romance” or “security” or ‘war” depending on your life experiences, context of the situation and mental state at the moment.
Keep writing as many ideas you can capture.
Write a book:
Pretend as if you are an expert author on the subject you want ideas for. Now think of possible book titles about the situation. Also add the subtitles to get a fresh angle.
For example:
How to think of a truckful of ideas under tight deadlines?
Idea mining: Where to dig to get good ideas.
Instant ideas: Whenever you want
Invite ideas: They are eager to come
The gang of Ideas: They never come alone
Now these titles will become a trigger for ideas.
All the ideas are a possible seed for the next idea. Like the book title above reads, Ideas have gangs, they never come alone!
Invite ideas:
Read a magazine or a newspaper. Invite the headlines in your situation. See what will happen if you write your keywords in those headlines!
It will spark new combinations and many more ideas.
Do the same with shopping catalogues. See how a fashionable handbag can help you get the best of your opportunity.
Or a lipstick can help you create ideas. For example I can say;
Try different shades of the idea you have generated. It will help you generate more ideas. What if I change the shades of verbs in my ideas?
Instead of, how to think of ideas quickly, what if I ask:
How to find ideas quickly?
Or, how to cook ideas quickly?
Or what about, how to spice up your ideas quickly?
Build on ideas:
Write down all the ideas on a big sheet where the ideas can gang up together.
Now let them cross over from one gang to another. This will generate even more possibility for ideas. New gangs will be created.
Keep on recording the ideas.
Fill in the blanks:
On your idea sheet write numbers:
1:………..
2:………………
…………………
60:………………
Do the same with associations. Create empty branches. And keep writing ideas on them.
Human brain has a tendency to fill in the blanks. When there will be an expectation for ideas, it will provide.
Reward yourself:
Give yourself a good treat when you crack a good number of ideas. Reward yourself for number of ideas as well as good ideas.
Give yourself idea targets:
Creating ideas is a skill. You get better at it with practice.
So give increasing targets to yourself regularly. Achieving these targets will encourage you and will convince you, creating so many ideas is possible.
Enterprising beggars
Sometimes inspiring news comes from unexpected corners.
In these tough times, when business people are thinking about getting out of recession, asking till when will it last, the beggars in Delhi are already creating and executing their future plans.
My friend Subbu from Oberoi Multimedia shared this news with me. To quote the Editorial in Dinakaran: a leading tamil publication, dated May 07, 09:
Beggars in Delhi are training themselves for Commonwealth Games, 2010!
“…Commonwealth Games spectators will be in for a real surprise: Indian Beggars asking for money in foreign languages! Beggar Children are training to speak (beg) in foreign languages in anticipation of the international tourist turnout.”
Why not apply this to our own businesses?
Even in these uncertain times some events will happen with certainty.
For example, the festival of Diwali is a certainty. We know it will happen in October.
What other events are certain to happen?
What can we do to get the most out of them?
If we start planning from these events from today, we will have an edge over others, when the real ‘opportunity’ arrives.
In fact the competition will be as surprised as the tourists at the Commonwealth Games!
