Trends come and go but good advertising lasts forever. We read a great article yesterday on the benefits of standing out from the crowd in the ad business or any business. We couldn’t agree more that it’s easy to go with the flow and just be like everyone else. The hard thing to do is be different and creativity should be wary of consensus. So, as humans how do we step into our uniqueness and let that shine through in a world that attempts to stifle it? Here are some steps you can take to embrace your one-of-a-kind self.
Digital Age: Effects on Creativity
We heard someone say the other day that their friends’ children were told to go play outside. They then saw the kids have absolutely no idea what to do when technology wasn’t present. They sat there. Doing nothing. Kicking rocks around. This made us start to think about what it was like for our generation growing up without IT. We had to get creative and think of things to do. We made up games, we hunted for critters, we rode bikes or other fun things with wheels. We then started to think, “what if this digital age is going to negatively affect creativity for that younger generation when they enter the work force.”
Tips for Teamwork
While some groups put in teams may just hit it off and have a smooth work flow, others may not. While we wish the first scenario for you, it’s important to have ways to help your company teams be successful if they are having difficulties. Research shows that having a collaborative team leads to better outcomes, the team members are more likely to take calculated risks leading to innovative ideas, and finally, increased job satisfaction with reduced work stress. Teamwork really does make the dream work!
Expanding Creativity Through UGC
Advertising is creativity at its core. Those who think otherwise probably shouldn’t be in this business. Think about it, ads are a creation of creativity that extract an emotional response from the viewers. It’s that emotional response that makes UGC ads stand out from the rest. Their authenticity has the power to provoke stronger emotional connections to the content that real people made that is now being shown in the ad. We are here to argue that using UGC in your campaigns can actually increase your creative power.
Creativity & Working from Home
We read an interesting article in Adage yesterday about how remote work may be hurting creativity in the workplace so we decided to delve into this idea a little deeper. Creative collaboration can push projects to the next level, but does it matter if these collaborations are in person or digital? Some say that those stating creativity is suffering from at home work is just a cop out for the uncreatively bad work they’ve produced, but could it actually be true? Well, a study was done on this and the results are very convincing. According to this article from CNN, results showed that digital meetings can actually drain creativity and that it is actually easier to come up with creative ideas in person. This is how it was determined.
Psychology of Creativity
Neurology is intertwined with creativity and how it works within the brain. There is research to show that those who are creative use the three brain systems of neural networks: the default/imagination network, the salience network and the executive network. The salience network is a large-scale neuro network located deep within the brain. It is in charge of complex functions, such as social behavior, communication and self-awareness. This system plays a role in motivation and readiness to act to stimuli. The default mode is one that works when we are in our resting state.
Creative Leadership: Characteristics
Creative leadership is often complimented by cognitive leadership. Now that we know that there are different types of creativity, we can see how this might be so. According to a scientific article, A Propulsion Model of Creative Leadership, there are eight different types of creative leadership. These are all broken down into categories. 1. Leadership that accepts current paradigms and attempt to extend. 2. Those that reject current paradigms and attempt to replace them and 3. Those that integrate existing paradigms to create new ones. This is interesting, but we won’t divulge too much as this can be a whole other article all together. No matter which creative style a creative leader has, their ability to solve problems with divergent thinking and cooperative encouragement remains the same.
Feel Good Friday: Sparking Creative Inspiration
It’s time to spice things up again here at Locomotive. Every Friday for the next few weeks (maybe months) we will be focusing on topics that will inspire you. Today, our first topic will be ways to spark inspiration for all our creatives out there. Let’s face it, we all suffer from lack of inspiration here and there so it’s always nice to have something you can fall back on when these creative blocks hit and the deadlines are creeping in. What in the world is inspiration anyhow? Let’s define it. It has been defined by psychologists as a motivation from external sources that cause someone to have an idea and/or creatively produce something. We’ve done some digging on ways to spark creativity when you’re in a rut.
Creative Ways to Advertise
Did you know that it typically takes 5-7 brand interactions before a consumer remember the brand? (Start Up Bonsai) We’ve written articles in the past on how to make your advertisements stand out from the crowd with the use of Interactive Advertising. We’ve also talked about what contributes to the effectiveness of an advertisement. Creativity will always win in advertising campaigns so why should the way that you advertise be any different? Not only should the advertisements themselves stand out, the way that you advertise should as well.
