Creative Thinking

One of the things that everyone, everywhere has to do on a regular basis is solve problems. It might be something small in your personal life, or it could be a multimillion dollar question that you need to answer. I thought it’d be worth jotting down a few of the different ways I go about solving problems from a planners point of view (but I think that this applies to anyone in business - creative or otherwise).

I’ve always believed and still do that planners aren’t smarter than anyone else. In fact I know they’re not. I certainly didn’t achieve the grades that some of my colleagues and clients did at school. However, what we tend to be good at it thinking about things in a different way (I often deliberately think the opposiste to whatever the accepted wisdom is). Partly this is because good planners need to be a bit awkward. Asking questions is one of the key parts of the job and asking questions can often feel a bit tricky, but it’s surprising how quickly strategies, business plans and ideas can be vastly improved by asking a few well thought through queries.

So the first part of solving any problem is to question. The time honoured Who? What? Why? When? How? Is a great place to start. In advertising this could be are we talking to the right people? What are we trying to achieve? Why do we want to do this? When do we want to do this? How are we going to achieve it?

Each one of these questions can trigger a whole load of new questions that help to understand what it is your trying to achieve and the best way to achieve it.

Which takes us nicely on to arguably the most important part of solving any problem, working out what the problem or objective actually is. Often the problem you’re given isn’t the real problem. Dave Trott gives this example of how every year advertisiers try to stop people from drink driving by showing the shocking results. The trouble is this is very persuasive when you’re stone cold sober but no one steps into the driving seat thinking that they’ve had one too many. The real problem is persuading your friends that they shouldn’t let you drive after a drink.

The more specific the problem the better. It’s much easier to work out the answer to a problem when it’s absolutely clear in your mind. So rather than trying to solve “increase brand affinity by 10%” how about “help people to fall in love with Cadbury’s again”?

It’s often easier to solve a problem if you can break it down into more manageable chunks. For example, Sainsbury’s famously reframed their problem from “add £4 billion of sales annually” to a far more comprehensable “Increase the average basket size by £3.32″.

Now you know what your problem is you need to read as much as you can on the subject. James Webb Young, one of the greatest advertising men of all time, had a specific technique for generating ideas was:

1. Gather the raw materials - the immediate problem & your general knowledge
2. Work these over in your mind (To this I’d add: Write your first thoughts down, no matter how bad they might be. Keep on writing more stuff. Give it time. Write more stuff down.)
3. Do something else/sleep on it
4. Have the idea
5. Shape the idea to make it useful and practical.

He also believed that “ideas are new combinations”. So when trying to create that little bit of inspiration try combining two unexpected elements e.g. big but personal (HSBC The World’s Local Bank) or small but tough (VW Polo).

Another technique is to think of great ideas in other sectors and categories and apply them to your problem. So if there’s an idea that always works in fashion retailing you might want to think about whether it’ll work in publishing.

Once you’ve got your solution, remember to keep the explanation as simple as possible so that anyone can understand it and pass it on.

There are tonnes of other ways to solve problems but these are the ones that I’ve ingrained so that it’s automatic.

This fun little campaign from The Natural Confectionery Company has recently broken. Starring Matt Berry’s voice, of The IT Crowd and Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace fame, the ads have a certain, bizarre charm to them.

Via Faris

PSFK is proud to announce that on Friday October 10 2008, we will host our next event - in Singapore. PSFK Conference Asia will celebrate creativity and ideas that make change.

This event will be PSFK’s 6th conference following successful installments in London, Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco. In Singapore we aim to inspire an audience of creative thinkers with some of the world’s leading visionaries in a variety of fields.

The day will consist of panel discussions and engaging presentations from representatives from Flamingo International, Wieden Kennedy, MTV, Panasonic, Profero and many more. Our audience will be made up of senior professionals from the advertising, design, digital, entertainment, media and marketing industries.

If you’re in the region - why not come for a passionate dose of inspiration?

www.psfkconferenceasia.com

If a Latino advertising agency or consultant begins to address the Hispanic insight of a pepperoni pizza (a bar of soap, toothpaste, shampoo, a hamburger, a Phillips screwdriver, a pencil sharpener… you get the picture), RUN away from them as fast as you can.

There are certainly some products or services for which you will need to fully understand how these interact, relate, fit, with the reality or frame of mind of the Latino consumer and your success in reaching out to them will heavily depend on it. Exhaustive, primary and secondary research will prove invaluable to reach your goals.

Now, let’s go back to the pizza. If your ad agency begins to build an intricate dissertation on how the dough reminds Hispanics of the fresh flour tortillas they ate back in Mexico, how the tomato sauce brings back memories of the days working the farm and picking fresh produce to make some salsa, how the cheese is such a bastion of their ethnic cuisine, and how the sliced pepperoni looks exactly like the chorizo they enjoy so much eating; all leading to the climactic conclusion that Latinos will love pizza because it reminds them of their home and their culture… you are most certainly dealing with the wrong group of people. It is very likely they will love it because it tastes good; they get a good value for their buck, it’s convenient, the kids will eat it without complaining, etc…

Please do take into consideration that if you are the client demanding a Hispanic insight for a Pepperoni Pizza from your agency, you are doing a BIG disservice to yourself, paying good money to (potentially) talented advertising people so they just put a good dog and pony show to present you some nonsense that delivers your so awaited insight. Please keep in mind that such insight will probably come from the agency squeezing numbers as hard as possible in order to make them say what they believed you wanted to listen, or simply using their imagination to make it sound believable.

Might as well save the money you are paying them and do the advertising yourself. It won’t be effective anyway.

My point is that for certain products, such as Pepperoni Pizza, and others similar to the ones mentioned above, you don’t need a Latino insight. You do need to keep in mind certain aspects or idiosyncrasies of the Hispanic Culture in all your ads (General Market as well as Latino – Remember they are now the largest minority in America) AND create persuasive, relevant, attention-grabbing ads in English as well Spanish with the general insight and knowledge you and your agency (or agencies) have gathered.

Many Hispanic ad agencies hire creatives from all parts of Latin America. They are not hired because they understand the Hispanic Market which, as I maintain, is different from the Latin American Market (where by the way, each country is a market all by itself). They come to the U.S. because they are great creatives who have been generating kick-ass ads in Spanish! No mysterious Latino insight, just raw advertising talent that happens to be most comfortable writing in Spanish, their mother tongue! They are master wordsmiths in their language.

Remember that when we are talking about Hispanic Advertising we are NOT exclusively talking about Spanish Advertising. Yes, there will always be a need to reach a percentage of the Latino Market in Spanish, but also a big chunk of it will be reached with your General Market budget. Here is where really understanding the Latino Market begins to pay off… more to come.

Stay tuned.

Contributed by Juan Guillermo Tornoe

In order to do its bit for charity, Talk Talk, the UK phone and broadband company, are trying to create the world’s longest collectively written story.

With contributions from Nick Hornby, Robert Harris, Tom Stoppard and Richard Curtis, members of the great unwashed are also invited to participate. The idea is that every time someone adds 50 words to the story Talk Talk will donate £1 to Treehouse; a charity that helps to educate people about autism.

theforeverstory.com

Topshop fans in London, Manchester and Dublin can now create their own magazine-cover looks in-store, at the Helmut Newton Photo Machines which have been installed in Topshop stores in these cities. Helmut Newton was one of the most famous fashion photographers of all time. The Helmut Newton Estate has partnered with Topshop to recreate this ’70’s photographic concept that gives customers the chance to create their own fabulous photo by walking in, posing, and pressing a button.

Photographic history can now be yours.

Mike Sharpe & Barney Steele from Found Collective create this striking music video for Ladytron’s Runaway.

Over on his Digital Influence Mapping Project, John Bell interviews David Fowler, a senior creative from Ogilvy. In the video Fowler says:

To be successful going forward, I think a creative director today needs a global sense… the ability to interact with people from different cultures and with clients from other areas - and have an understanding how the world really works and how the world looks from other points of view.

(Hehe - nice to see that the ad industry still doesn’t see clients as people…

More: DIMP

The Mashable blog has a list of 35 companies who are experimenting with social media. They say that companies like GM, HO and Best Western are playing in a number of different ways. Here’s one example:

Nike started a social community on Loopd to connect athletes interested in surfing, BMX bike racing and similar activities with the brand.

Mashable