Saturday, February 12, 2011

Can You Learn Creativity?

I've always surrounded myself with creative people. I'm a sucker for a guy who can play an instrument. I hung out in the art wing in high school. My only extra-curricular activity was with the creative writing magazine. But I've never been able to really direct my creativity.

But man, I love selling stuff. It helps if I believe in the product or service, but I've learned that half the battle is tricking myself into believing that I believe in the product.

So what's the other half? Creative selling! I've been flipping through this great book, Creative Advertising by Mario Pricken, and he has a few ideas about directing your creativity to help sell things. The following are few examples of creative tactics that can serve as a springboard for diving into the creative process.

Playing with Time:



OK, I'll stop getting so angry when my daughter ruins stuff. "Oh, I know she seems unruly, but she's just innovating. I would discipline her, but I'm hoping she'll put me up in a nice retirement village in So-Cal when I'm senile. I'm too good for Florida."

Changed my behavior: check. This ad works. But why?

Playing with Time can be a powerful creative tool. That little boy could be your son, or he could be you when you were younger. I know you're trying to remember all the reasons that you got in trouble. Go ahead, do it--and then give me a bunch of stock in your company for showing you this ad.

So what am I working on... bike helmets. hmmm, maybe I'll put one on and jump out of tree, or go streaking down the snow-covered road with only the helmet on. What would my daughter do? She would probably pretend it's a princess crown and dance around. I should probably just buy this magazine, because I'm sure it can help innovate some creative solution.

Provocation and Shock Tactics



Yes! Breast Cancer Awareness ads have been growing this cause by leaps and bounds, but with all that growth, the ads can get really monotonous. This ad is provocative, to say the least.

I know most of my classmates haven't known the joy of having a child. When parents say that their children are miracles, it doesn't really strike home until you feel something so real growing inside of you. It doesn't really make sense until you see your eyes on another person's face, or experience your own bad (and good) habits being thrown back at you.

And when you match that tiny miracle against this horrendous disease, it really pisses you off. As a mother, I would do anything to protect her from feeling anything bad.

Now look at me, getting all deep on you. That's provocation for you.

That last one extremely effective because not only was it provocative, but added a dash of...

Paradoxes and Optical Illusions:



This ad for a reality series on Channel 4 (Great Britain) is intriguing. I've been staring at little thumbnail pictures for about a half an hour, and this one broke through all of the noise and made me say, "what is this..."

I love how the pretty blonde is contrast with the guy with the tear drop tattoos. It's cut apart, but they chose to highlight that feature, so you know that he's probably in a gang or spent time in prison, or both.

Even the tag line is a little paradoxical: "A New Reality." There is nothing new about the diversity that we all encounter everyday, but many of us choose to ignore it. That is, we ignore it until someone throws in our face, point-blank, like this ad does. I kind of wish that we had Channel 4 here in the States.

1 comment:

  1. it's really great to have a point of view such as yours. thanks for posting!

    ReplyDelete