Creativity is a strange thing! It’s elusive and daunting but at the same time it is so easy to find senior creatives living with a false sense of greatness, believing that every piece of work they create is God’s gift to the planet. Yet when you see creative brilliance the end product seems so simple nevertheless. As a strategist, there is a parallel between what a planner would do and what a creative does. Both need to take a leap – one takes a strategic leap the other a creative leap. The question is how?
There are obviously many ways, tools, thinking frameworks, stimuli, processes, disciplines etc. that the best creative minds in the world have devised which can at least enable creative brilliance if not ensure it. One thinking framework is a media-neutral mindset. Before the digital era came upon us there was a time when “Integrated” and “360 degrees” were the buzz word in marketing communications. That time was not too long ago but it was an era when the worst form of integration was simply adapting a single idea, mostly led by the TV commercial, and pasting it across media, usually in the form of static media like print, outdoor, retail and your occasional web banner ad. On the other hand 360 thinking at it’s best was to come up with a “Big Idea”, a media neutral thought that can be scaled to any level where each media would play it’s unique role to carry the message forward both independently and as part of the larger story.
Somewhere in between these big ideas are those one-off brilliant (dare I say small) ideas. I often wonder what was the starting point for such creative brilliance. Have a look at these two examples:
IKEA “Curtains” – Cinema Ad
3M’s Post-it Super Sticky Notes ”Train”
The question is! What are these ideas a product off? Is it simply great media-neutral thinking focusing on the key message and coming up with the best media to communicate the idea? Or is it a creative leap on a media decision that was already made? Why the doubt? Well for one on an everyday basis client briefs tend to have already taken a media decision. For example, in the case of IKEA the brief could have been to do a cinema ad. The creative team in this case took the leap and came up with the idea of using the right moment before the movie when the curtains are drawn to place their message.
Similarly, what about the 3M Post-it Super Sticky Notes on a train? Was the starting point media neutral? Suppose on the one hand the brief was to communicate the strength of these Super Sticky Notes most probably through a conventional media campaign but the creative team believing in media neutral ideas came up with a live demonstration of the product strength “What if they can be stuck on a high speed train and if none of them come off by the end of the journey then this is an undeniable proof of the product benefit?” Or the brief itself required a non-conventional media solution to demonstrate the product benefit and the creative were put in that mindset to think out of the box from the word go and so they did. I would like to believe this is truly great media neutral thinking at least in retrospect. But then again perhaps not! What do you think? Have your say in the comments section below.
It’s amazing how a powerful story can be told in just under 60 seconds. In fact sometimes it can be done in as little as 30 seconds. This is truly a masterful achievement. This is when advertising transcends from blatant commercialism to a higher art form. The way a poet manages to say so much while saying so little. The best advertising aspires and in some cases achieves to do the same. Anyone can throw an endless tirade to make a point but only a genius can make a point in the fewest of words.
The beauty of this is further magnified when what is created also delivers on what it was commissioned to do. In the end all advertising is paid for by a client to achieve and enable a business result and therefore there is an ethical obligation for it to deliver on the objective and not be an art form that is an end in itself. The challenge therefore is double. Not only has advertising to deliver on it’s commercial purpose but it has to be done in a way that exhibits all the passion and effort of an artist who creates his subject purely for the love of what he is doing. That indeed is a tall order since an artist chooses to create as he pleases when he pleases. An advertising creative has to deliver on whatever they are assigned in a preset time and both are not always their choosing. They usually would have very little control on what they can work on and by when.
When I come across this advert (I will not reveal the name and let you find out for yourself) I felt this was another case of beautiful storytelling. When a simple product message gets delivered in a way that is memorable and central to the story and at the same time captures the magic of what makes movies and films great then that is indeed something worth celebrating. See you for yourself!
The simplicity and surprise is outstanding. A simple product truth gets delivered through a powerful and captivating story. Kudos to the creative genius behind this and to the client for approving such a simple and bold piece of communication. Great work!
Each medium offers a unique opportunity to engage consumers. Some of this new media is enabling ideas unlike anything that could have been done before. Social media provides a great opportunity to create real-time engagement like what we saw for KLM surprises. Similarly digital also allows combining online with the real world. Swedish post has done something similar by combining our auditory sense with the simple principle of interactivity. The objective was to communicate that the green parcels from Swedish Post can be deliver anything overnight. What could be better than actually creating an experience that literally lets people receive anything overnight. Easier said than done I would say. Building on the human insight to shake a gift box to listen and figure out what’s inside, the idea of ‘Sound of Green’ was born. The idea makes good use of digital by allowing a user to select one of eighty boxes, shake it and listen. It makes good use of social media by allowing a user to share the audio clip with their friends and get their help in guessing what’s inside. If the user guesses correctly then he wins the contents of the package which are then delivered overnight completing the experience and integrating perfectly with the brand promise. Simply brilliant I think! Check out the case video. It’s a must-watch!
In the digital world of today using technology for the purpose of marketing a product or service is becoming a norm. From QR codes, Augmented Reality, 3D Projection Mapping, to mobile apps and more – use of technology in marketing is proliferating at a mind-bogging pace. Even the good old web banner which used to be less than a 100k animated GIF file is now being reinvented. A key driver for this innovation has been the increase in broadband adoption boosted by low cost of connectivity. This is making it easier to experiment with such high bandwidth dependent banners. The following is one such example of how a digital agency brought interactivity and innovation to a banner for Gran Turismo 5, a Sony Playstation 3 game, by combining it with Google Street View.
What was the context? To take three racing tracks from the game which were actual panoramic views of real-life roads and to re-create the same three tracks on a banner using Google Street View. The viewer got a true sneak preview of the tracks and the ability to control the car using the keyboard and mouse just like the real game. Quite an interesting way to do a game demo on a flash banner. The video below does a quick capture of the idea and the rationale. Check it out!
You can try out a demo of the banner here as well. Thanks to adsoftheworld for the links!
Planned Spontaneity - a term coined by trendwatching.com in their report from December 2003. When I first came across it I truly believed that it was an idea based on a powerful human truth that had the potential to deliver a compelling brand experience. In fact it was only last month I was thinking along those lines for an airline new business pitch. Coincidentally when I saw KLM deliver surprise the way they did I was…pleasantly surprised.
So what is ‘Planned Spontaneity’ anyway? If we look back at our lives I think all of us would recall some happy moment that occurred rather unexpectedly. It was either one that was completely unplanned, a random act of spontaneity or the product of a dear ones labor of love to give us a surprise and carve out an unforgettable memory. In other words – ‘Planned Spontaneity’. Applied to branding and marketing a surprise is a great way to create an emotional and an engaging brand experience.
Why the KLM Surprise inspires me is the “real time” factor. With the kind of technology and tools available today the time between research and execution has sharply narrowed down to real time events. Not so long ago research would take months to execute and analyze. The translation of an insight to ideas would be a long tedious process. After many rounds of presentations the idea would be approved and sent for execution in the form of some mass media. In the real-time era things are happening at lightning speed and on the go! The KLM team was tracking Twitter feeds and Foursquare check-ins in real time to see who was travelling KLM and is around at the airport waiting to board. Using the tweets or a check-in as a starting point the team would quickly scan the users social profile and come up with a surprise gift idea which would then be bought and delivered instantly to the passenger at their likely gate of departure! Amazing stuff. Check out the video below.
This is another great example of how to use social media. I think the key lesson for marketers is to to track social media conversations in real time and create a system to deliver an instantaneous response. We saw this happen with Old Spice and we are seeing it here again! Have you come across other acts of ‘Planned Spontaneity’ using social media from other brands? Feel free to share you thoughts in the comments below.
