Dave is approaching one of those legendary ‘ad men’ statuses, perhaps. The tales he recalls and weaves on his blogs entertain, educate and provide decades of insight into the complex business of advertising, marketing and client relations. I wouldn’t be surprised if in 20 years time he’ll be recalled amongst the Ogilvys and Ardens of this world.

In a recent article, he talks about how you should sell the client what they want to hear, as opposed to telling them what to do. At least with regards to winning pitches.

This ties in a little with an article I wrote a while back on designing with empathy. My point is that although we, as design/marketing/advertising professionals, think we know best as this is our business. We don’t. Not all the time.

Jimi Hendrix (I believe) once said “Knowledge speaks, Wisdom listens”.

There’s the key.

Listening.

Jon Steel’s brilliant book Perfect Pitch opens with a chapter on presentation crimes; a fundamental overview of mistakes made when pitching or presenting. In this chapter he looks at how so many agencies, even the top dogs, sometimes fail to understand the needs of the audience.

The objective is not to impress clients with your intelligence, to make them feel stupid or belittle their business strategies.

The aim of the game is to get inside their heads and prove that you can provide them with what they need, with what they want.

This requires 3 things above all else.

The ability to listen. The ability to empathise. The ability to communicate your ideas effectively.

Personally, if you can’t do the above, you’re in the wrong business.

From Perfect Pitch:

Your every word, your every action, will pass through the filter of their [the client] experience, expectations, prejudices, hopes and fears. It’s thus not what you say that is important. It’s how they will receive it. And how they will process it.

We consider ourselves a creative agency. We get a real buzz out of coming up with ideas and crafting infectious visuals. And we have short attention spans.

Clients don’t always care about creative, or new, or original.

Sometimes they want safety, or affordability, speed or just want to look like the competition.

They don’t care what we like or what we want to do.

But it’s our job to care what they want.

Otherwise we don’t get paid. And that’s no fun for anyone.

Amongst the ramble, several tricky and often avoided questions emerged:

• Can you train your mind to be more creative and have better ideas?
• Are there any exercises to develop creative thought processes?
• Is creativity really ’99% perspiration and 1% inspiration’?
• Is creativity a teachable/learn-able skill of coming up with good ideas consistently and on demand?

Some of the remarks in the comments section addressed these questions from several different viewpoints, all putting up very good arguments. I’ll look at a few excerpts shortly, but first I think it’s important to consider what creativity really is.

What is creativity?

I’ve always believed creativity to be far more than just ‘coming up with ideas’. Although this is often seen as a genuine starting point; the big bang, the light bulb, the ‘Eureka!’ moment – I’m sure there’s far more to it than that.

I believe creativity is an amalgamation of many traits that when honed, revised, expanded and fused together can create dramatic results.

Problem solving, empathy, social awareness, imagination, inspiration and taste, passion, logic, technical understanding, critical thinking, general knowledge, research and an open mind.

I feel that real creativity, the stuff stories are made of, requires fear, and the ability to overcome that fear.

That may be fear of failure, fear of competition, fear of loosing your job, fear of displeasing someone.

Taking all of this and much more into consideration; creativity’s a little more than ‘having good ideas’. In environments such as the ones we work in, it’s often the case that we’re required to solve a problem, sometimes without even realising it exists.

The big idea

We need to perform research, share thoughts and ideas with others, put pencil to paper and put ourselves in the position of those we’re designing or building for. Ideas may come and go, some may seem brilliant first but are later pulled apart either by ourselves or others. Perhaps there is never a ‘big idea’ moment but a bunch of smaller ideas can be fused together to form fantastic solutions.

On occasion, there is a ‘Eureka!’ moment. I’ve been in meetings with some fantastic creatives and have truly been blown away by some of the ideas that appear to have popped out of thin air. I’ve even felt jealous and angry at myself – “Dammit, why didn’t I think of that!” and in circumstances have been afraid of failing to come up with ideas, of failing to ‘do my job’.

This fear will only hold creativity back, but the desire to overcome this fear can motivate us to come up with even greater ideas.

Can creativity be taught?

Honestly, I don’t think it can. But it can be learned. I believe many of the various facets of creativity can be taught and trained, such as general knowledge, social awareness, problem solving etc. But the other elements are what I believe are generally considered as ‘creative traits’. The ability to honestly empathise, a keen imagination, passion for what you do and an open mind are qualities attributed to our personalities.

They are in some respects part of our nature, but also the product our of lives, the people we interact with and the media and literature we consume.

So in some respects they can be learned, but only if we choose to, and work hard at it.

So 99% perspiration, 1% inspiration? I don’t quite agree with that. I believe that a lot of work is involved and that ideas don’t simply appear from nowhere, but inspiration also plays a much larger role.

A few other thoughts

It’s worth noting that I’m still very young to this industry and in a few years, or even months, my views may change radically. That’s why I’d love to hear your thoughts.

However here are a few excerpts from comments on the original post that inspired the inspiration for this article:

“It’s the abstract connections in *your* brain that do the creativity bit. The more things you stuff inside your brain to connect to other stuff, the better your creative leaps. And no one but you can teach you that.”
Jonny

“In general terms, I would say creativity derives from curiosity.”
John W

“Having ideas shouldn’t be a problem. The real genius is in spotting them.”
Ben Kay

“Encourage fearlessness of being wrong. When it comes to being creative, some people can barely put pen to paper due to an innate fear of doing something ‘wrong’.”
Paul F

“The brain is lazy. It will also take the quickest route. Go the long way. Get lost. Try routes other people would take. You may find you really enjoy it. That’s when the ideas will start to happen.”
Deborah Khan

“Being creative to me is about seeing abstract patterns in human behaviour and identifying, absorbing and learning from them.”
Sunitha

“Creativity is nothing less than a mystery. It’s as profound and complex as life itself. So enigmatic, in fact, that the great artists themselves cannot agree on what it is. Still, the artists seem to fall into eight categories:

The tormented. The courageous. The lovers. The dreamers. The mad. The spiritual. The stumblers. And the juvenile.”
Per Robert Öhlin

What are your views on this? What do you think defines ‘creativity’? Is it something that can be taught, learned and trained, or is it a natural talent? Have your say below.

Yep, that just about sums it up. Everyone knows that your company logo encompasses everything you stand for, your past, present and future, your ethos and vision. That’s why it’s so essential that your logo commands as much real estate as possible on your website and every facet of print advertising you generate.

Unfortunately this pretty much sums up what many people still consider as ‘a brand’. For those of us working in the creative industries, whether it be advertising, logo design, graphic design, online and especially those specialising in branding; this frustrating notion plagues us on a regular basis. I don’t need to even bother linking to the ‘Make the logo bigger’ sites, videos and memes that have floated around the web for years – we’ve all seen them, we’re all aware of the issue.

Branding, however, can be difficult to define. Explaining to clients that their brand is far more than a logo, colour scheme and slogan can be daunting and a trifle difficult, not because the concept itself is that hard to understand, but because the misconception has been drilled in for years. Although I’ve personally only encountered a few instances where I’ve had to struggle to convince clients that their logo does not need to dominate half the browser window, I tremble with fear at the thought of the day I’ll have to stand in front of a boardroom of ignorant corporate bigwigs and explain why their logo doesn’t need to be enlarged further.

Defining a ‘brand’

I’d love to craft a beautiful definition of what a brand is, but I’ve already been beaten to it by, among many other great minds, Eric Karjaluouto of ideasonideas. In his new book, Speak Human (which is proving to be a fascinating read by the way), he effectively addresses the question of what a brand is and how immensely important a solid, focused brand is to businesses.

I think what sums it up for me is the idea that “a brand is all aspects of the organisation; it’s the body, mind, spirit, character, sounds, smells, and feelings we have for them”.

It is the complete experience.

It may indeed seem that the term ‘brand’ is then a catch-all for anything to do with your company; a loose term thrown around odds and ends in some attempt to classify their relevance to the business. It couldn’t be further from this.

For example, when you’re dealing with your phone network provider – every interaction you have with them forms an imprint on your mind of who they are. Their logo, TV adverts, billboards, radio ads, magazine spreads and pricing schemes are only a tiny portion of the equation. What about every time you visit their website, log in to your account to check your statement, every email, SMS and print correspondence, their customer support when you phone up. Do they go out of their way to provide an enjoyable experience – do you feel like you’re appreciated as a customer. Do they listen to you?

The experience – your audience is part of your brand

Every possible channel through which you communicate with a company or even individual provides you with a impression of their brand experience. And in these days of mass social, connected lifestyles, it can take only one poor experience, one ruffled customer and word can spread across the web in a matter of minutes – “you suck”.

There’s absolutely no way to combat this. You can’t, you’d be a fool to try. You can’t put a ‘spin’ on negative news and feedback, you can’t cover it up – you have to embrace it and use such feedback to improve your product – improve your customer’s experience.

We’re moving very rapidly into an age where companies can no longer talk at their customers, but must engage in a dialogue with them. In fact, we’re not moving there – we’re already here, and we’ve been talking about this for quite a while now. The massive implementation of social media and networking tools on a near constant basis means that your customers are very probably talking about you whether you like it or not. Word-of-mouth is the new(old) marketing, people are talking and people are listening.

So it’s your job as business to ensure that your product is so brilliant that people want to talk about it and it’s your job as a designer, advertiser, marketer etc to ensure that the part of the brand experience you’re crafting for your clients, whether it be their website, mobile app, TV adverts, brochures, customer services, product design and development etc is equally brilliant and compelling; because it is indeed part of that product, part of the experience, part of that brand. So try not to screw it up!

How do you percieve a brand?

I could rant on for ages, but unfortunately I have work to do. I think Eric sums up what a brand is nicely with the following analogy:

“My perception of the Coca-Cola brand isn’t limited to a wordmark, Pantone colour, or ad campaign. It’s also not their tagline, the crisp “snap” upon cracking a can open, the bubbly carbonated dance on my tongue, or the caramel aftertaste. It’s all of these things and more. It’s an idea, a belief, and a feeling. It is organic and transforms daily. It is a part of our individual personal histories whether we like it or not.”

Agree, disagree? Feel free to discuss below!

This isn’t another waffling rant about clients getting board with social media – it looks at the entire process of how creative digital agencies work with clients and their clients’ clients to develop irresistable, functional experiences, and what skills and structures companies need to face up to the undoubted challenges the rapidly changing communications landscape will bring.

Further reading:

• In The Mode – Dom’s blog
• Twitter – @domrodwell
• North ‘Rule of Thirds‘ event

Regular readers may have noticed that Redswish has taken a slight turn in topic style over the past few months. This is largely because it’s a one-man mission and I tend to blog about what I’m interested in or learning about at the time. Recently I’ve been focusing a lot on new marketing, building up more personal and effective relationships with clients, the demise of mass media and commoditisation, the evolution of experience design and authenticity and the psychology behind how we, as marketers and advertisers can influence and connect with  people and craft stories that spread.

Hence the reason it’s been a while since a design post, which as a web design blog I truly feel I owe you. But I must admit there’s been a wealth of great design articles blanketing the web at the moment so feel free to hit up Smashing Magazine, Web Designer Depot etc and you’ll find lots of great material. BUT NOT RIGHT NOW! Because I have other stuff to sell.

This article may not seem beautifully crafted and may come across as thought spilled onto paper (or a computer screen). Well, that’s exactly what it is. I want to hear what people think about this, I’m merely dipping my toes in the vast lake of this subject and I’m totally cool with holding hands!

Advertising is dead

Advertising will never die. But it sure as hell is transforming massively. And we’ve known this for a long time, but are still slow to respond. Investing stacks of cash in big, bold, flashy, in-your-face ads isn’t enough anymore. Breaking through the noise is too difficult. How often do you notice the Google AdWords or daft banner ads on a site? Most certainly less and less as we subconsciously train ourselves to tune out the distractions. I’m not saying billboards, TV, radio etc are completely useless, but yeah unless you’ve got a silly marketing budget and creative license to bang your head against a brick wall, then yeah.. go home.

Creating ideas that spread

It’s the way forward folks. Viral is still in it’s infancy. In old marketing the marketers jump in at the end and try to bridge the gap between product and consumer, now flip it upside down. Authenticity is essential. Great products and services that people talk about is what will drive you forwards. Your customers are your marketers.

Following the herd

Another element in the spectrum I want to look at is that of social influence. This is a huge factor in the psychology of marketing and when harnessed properly, and respectfully, can provide us with power to ‘nudge’ people in a better direction, based on a concept called Libertarian Paternalism proposed in the book Nudge by Thaler & Sunstein.

Social influences can easily be broken down into 2 categories:

• Information – the simple passing on of relevant information that may or may not influence our opinions.
• Peer pressure – often subconscious, but can be more targeted, more personal and can in certain cases be extremely effective – although quite often for negative purposes.

Peer pressure may conjure up ideas of teenagers forced into smoking, drinking or sex. But it really stems to all walks of life, in even the slightest of situations. Quite often it’s subconscious or easily dismissed, but the truth is that a massive part of everything we do, every day is influenced by others. A few examples off the top of my head:

• In the office: “Anybody fancy a brew?” – did you really want a brew before that question was asked? “Well, if everyone else is…”
• People often read the same newspapers, support the same political parties, football teams, listen to the same music, wear similar clothes, can even look the same as their peers.
• When eating together, there’s more likelihood you’ll finish your food if your peers do, even if you’re full.
• People smile when people on screen smile, even when there’s nothing funny. Yawns are contagious.
• Everyone faces the same way in a lift.
• Do you ever read on the train in the morning even when you can’t be bothered, simply because everyone else is?

These examples may not apply to everyone but there’s certainly some basis of fact in them. Decades of scientific research supports it, seriously.

Conforming

The fact is most people are either conscious about what people think of them, or even ignorant as to what others really think. The 2 sides of the see-saw are labeled with the clever terms collective conservatism and pluralistic ignorance.

• Collective conservatism refers to when groups stick to established patterns or practices, afraid to challenge the status-quo or other people’s perceptions of them. Or perhaps in some cases there’s simply no better alternative. Examples may include Google users, Playstation gamers, smokers, coffee drinkers, heavy-metal enthusiasts etc.
• Pluralistic ignorance, on the other hand, refers to an ignorance about what other people really think. Even when people hate doing something, they maintain it because they believe it’s correct, not realising that others disagree or have trended differently. In a marketing sense this most likely lends itself to people stuck to trends that have gone out of fashion, but in some extreme cases it can relate to politics and has been linked with the cause of Soviet Socialism and Nazism… sheesh!

Marketing to groups of this nature can be nearly impossible. Sometimes being the next, or the new, or the improved isn’t merely good enough. Challenging group perceptions can be a serious task, one that was once dominated by high-budget advertising. But new media and marketing provides us with infinitely more channels through which to communicate with people and help spread the word, build and nurture conversations that flow from person to person.

Where once marketers had to collide head-on and try desperately to force messages across with the hope that enough people would listen – we now have the ability to align ourselves with customers and engage on a more personal level with people, not demographics and statistics and names in a database.

Harnessing the power of influence

Marketing starts as soon as that idea pops into your head. Through internal stages of selling an idea or product to management and colleagues, through testing, development and launch. More open work processes are becomming more popular – this confirms authenticity and builds trust.

Make a great product. Make it for people, not for profit.

Once it’s out there, get people talking. Find out what people really think – social networking is your greatest asset here. Companies like Threadless, thesixtyone, ASOS etc have fantastic relations with people on sites like Twitter and Facebook. Offer customers prizes, offers and discounts and freebies in return for their feedback. Then don’t ignore it! Test and retest – constantly evolve your product, service, approach. Immerse yourself in every element of what you do and constantly consider how you can be providing a better experience.

It’s really not that difficult. iPhone apps can reach millions of downloads in weeks, Youtube videos gather hundreds of thousands of views in days! People rapidly find themselves in niches and soon even tribes. Their influence can spread like wildfire. People tend to follow others on Twitter because they’re interested in their opinions and findings. One person with 500 followers can influence a huge percentage of people and invoke interest in something very quickly.

Sometimes people feel they have to keep up so they don’t feel left out, this is collective conservatism in action. The difference between good and bad marketing depends upon how you adopt the power of social influence. Embracing it and using it to ‘nudge’ people in the right direction, to a solution that mutually benefits everyone is a goal we should be looking to. However abusing it, spamming people, spreading lies instead of authentic stories is not only evil, but is beginning to fail.

People are getting wiser and better at distinguishing truth from bullshit. So it’s simple. Tell the truth and don’t bullshit. There you go, that big sprawling article above led me to that conclusion.

Your views

I really want to know what people think about this. It’s still quite new to me and as a designer I almost feel out of my depth rambling about this. But I think I can learn, and surely many others can, a lot from this.

Voice your opinions below, I’m looking to keep this active for a while.

Thanks for reading!

Nathan

So what’s wrong with making people smile?