A creative brief is a document that defines the scope and goals of a project. In our world of user-generated content, this means defining the specific content you want for your project or campaign. Each project will be different, of course, but the creative brief outline and structure should always remain the same. Here are some tips from our team on ways to make your creative brief and effective and efficient.
Fostering Employee Growth: Bangerang for Boomerangs
“More than one of four people who quit their job regret their decision and 42% who quit said the new job didn’t live up to their expectations” (2022 report from employment search platform Joblist). We’ve all been there. The grass seems greener somewhere else and when we leave our current position, we’re unfortunately let down by what seemed bright and shiny. We recently read this in an interview with Kristen Cavallo, CEO of MullenLowe and The Martin Agency. In the article she talks about boomerangs. Boomerangs are hires that left a company only to come back later, hence the name boomerang. She herself had this relationship with Deutsch LA.
Trending 2023: Actionable Entertainment
Tubefilter recently wrote an article on trending topics in 2023. Actionable entertainment was listed as one of their top three topics. It makes sense. People don’t like being sold to anymore. Their interests lie in being entertained through authenticity in order to connect with a brand and its ideals. Advertisements should be created with this in mind. You want to, “deliver it like an ad, but (be) loved like entertainment,” according to TikTok. Let’s break down this term actionable entertainment starting with the word actionable
Habits of Creative Leaders
Do you ever wonder what the most successful creative leaders do for their daily routines? We have! So far in our creativity series, we’ve talked about the types of creativity, the styles of creative leadership and the characteristics of a creative leaders. Today we are going to touch on the topic of the habits of creative leaders. Though some of these may seem like common sense, they’re easier said than done with the busy lives we lead in today’s society.
1. Flex the growth mindset & cultivate a limitless mindset daily. This means embracing challenges and learning from criticism. They’re always looking to learn more and never consider themselves know-it-alls. Curiosity leads to self-improvement and growth.
a. This means asking a lot of questions. Did you know that children the age of 5 ask around 120 questions a day? By age 40 we ask roughly 4. Make sure to flex your brain and use your critical thinking skills daily.
b. It also means experimenting and observing things. Try new things and break down processes, ideas and things. Test new ideas constantly and rework them through trial and error. Failure is an opportunity for improvement. Do not be afraid of it!
c. Read a lot and learn a lot. Feed your brain with information. It may inspire you with new ideas.
2. SLEEP! We cannot stress this one enough and it seems that all the top dogs of creative leaders are keen to get 8 hours minimum regularly. This is crucial to having a clear mind. Don’t believe the hype in hussle culture about getting enough sleep equals laziness. This couldn’t be further from the truth.
3. Be active! No one ever regretted a workout after they finished. Are we wrong? We learn and think a lot better when our bodies are physically active. Even if it’s just a walk during your day, make sure to add movement into your routine.
4. Let your passion choose you! When you have passion, your drive will be in hyper speed pushing you to your goals. If you haven’t found what you’re passionate about try new things. What are you drawn to? Follow your gut instincts here. If you have, good for you! Keep following that dream and working toward those passionate goals.
These are some habits from highly successful creative leaders such as Jeff Bezos, Steve Jobs and Warren Buffet. They all have these habits in common and I’m sure many other creative leaders follow similar daily habits. If you’re looking to improve your daily routine in order to become more productive, we recommend Atomic Habits, The 5am Club and 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Creativity can be fostered and developed through focused daily practices. You don’t have to be Steve Jobs in order to be a successfully creative leader!
Communication Breakdown: Type of Communication Plans
Who remembers the Burger King “two equal buns” for Pride month last year? The marketing effort in Austria was meant to represent “equal love and equal rights.” However, they missed the mark terribly as the members of the LGBTQ community felt offended as it gestured a sexual innuendo. The German agency behind the idea had to act fast in response to the backlash and apologized. They promised to do a better job in the future of consulting the LGBTQ community when promoting their equal rights campaigns. This situation is a prime example of an emergency communication plan and while as we all hope this situation never arises for our company, it never hurts to be prepared.
Found Content is the New Word of Mouth
Word of mouth marketing is the oldest advertising strategy out there. Although times may have changed greatly to that of a digital age, one thing is for sure, WOM is still the most common way that people find a brand. 92% of consumers trust recommendations from friends and WOM marketing influences 99% of B2B purchases. Those numbers are truly staggering. In our digital world, WOM is no longer restricted its literal meaning. It now extends into the online space and is just as important, if not more, on social media. This is the new word of mouth. Instead of telling one or a few people, you can tell thousands if not millions. It will spread through the grape vine quickly.
Creating a Case Study for Your Business
What is a case study? It’s a report of a brand’s implementation of something, such as a service, system, practice or product. It is a detailed account of something that your brand did from the beginning to the end. Let’s start by talking about what makes a good case study. First, you want something that is digestible. This means you communicate your story quickly and efficiently without any boring jargon. Second, although you want it to be unambiguous, you still want to convey the study in its entirety, so it must be thorough. This brings us to the last key point, good storytelling. You always want your viewer to be intrigued and interested in the content.
When Hiring Content Creators
We all know by now that content marketing has become the top way to generate more leads, keep reader’s attention, improve loyalty and trust. The list goes on and on. Actually, a stat by demand metric research shows that 86% of businesses use B2C content marketing. As they should, it costs 62% less and the benefits are great (as mentioned above). This being said, there are a lot of content creators out there now so how do you know which one(s) to choose for your brand and its campaigns? There are a lot of things that you should look out for but we’ll list those that we feel are the most important.
Creativity: Different Types of Creative Leaders
It seems there are many different schools of thought of the types of creative leadership styles. Traditional leadership styles are more easily categorized and one could argue that a creative leader can have any of these styles and approach them in a creative way. Well, most of them anyway. The top 11 that we tend to see are:
Setting Business Goals in the New Year
Chances are that in your personal life you’ll be setting some new goals for the new year! We know we are. But why stop there? You’ve obviously had a vision for your business since the beginning so how can you make it what you’ve always dreamed? Well, the answer is goal setting and a plan of action. You will never achieve your dreams by keeping them inside your mind. All dreams were once a thought that were then made into a reality through planning! We’ve all heard the saying, “your dreams won’t work if you don’t,” and as clique as that sounds, it’s very true.
Types of UGC
While our company deals a lot with still and video content, there are many types of user generated content out there. UGC or UCC can be defined as any form of content created by a user that is organic, original and published somewhere online. It comes in many forms and it can come from anyone: customers, loyalists, employees, creators and/or just regular people with a social media account. Here are the types of UGC out there:
Steps of Effective Goal Setting
As the year winds down and we move into the new one, everyone is gearing up for new goals! Fresh starts and recovered minds will be ready to start taking on 2023 enthusiastically. Personally, we don’t do the hole, “New Year’s Resolution” thing. Instead, we make a list of goals for the year. They. Usually consist of 10-12 things. Some of the goals are ongoing. Some are single item goals and we cross those out as we achieve them throughout the year. We’ve always thought this was a much better way to begin the year and it helps you stay on track better than choosing just one thing. Once we make our list, we type it up, print it out and stick it on the fridge so we look at it every day. There’s no better way to help you achieve your goals then to have them stare you in the face every morning let me tell you! To be honest, we usually only hit about half of them and that’s ok. Six goals achieved are better than one failed resolution. In honor of this tradition we thought we’d share it with you and some ways to help you set achievable goals this New Years.
How to be a Learn-It-All
No one likes a know it all, especially in a business setting. A fixed mindset can even be dangerous to an organization. Those with this type of mindset struggle to admit their weakness/mistakes and cannot handle when they’re pointed out. They tend to have a “my way or the highway” attitude. They believe that abilities are innate and fixed. The opposite of this is a growth mindset, where one thinks that anything can be achieved through effort. It’s finding out what you don’t know and being open to new ideas as well as admitting your faults in order to better yourself. They believe that intelligence, abilities and talents are learnable and improvable. They welcome a good challenge because they understand that it can teach them something. A growth mindset is important in order to become a distinguished and influential leader.
We understand that some may want to adopt this way of thinking but may not be sure where to start. We comprised a list of ways to develop a growth mindset. Growth mindset values learning despite the risks more than others thinking that we know what we’re doing. Here are our tips.
1. Determine if you have a fixed mindset. If you already have a growth mindset then you just may need to improve on the thoughts that you already have. Listen to your inner dialogue to help you understand. For example, if you get some negative feedback on your work what does your inner voice say? Does it say, “That’s ok! I must need to learn more about this topic,” or does it say, “I must not be good at this!” if the answer was the first one then you probably have a growth mindset already. If your answer was the second then you may need to work on your inner voice to adjust it to a growth mindset. Try to embrace yourself without judgement when your inner voice speaks. Think about what you would say to a friend if they came to you with your situation. What would you say to them?
2. Embrace your imperfections. Our imperfections are what make us each unique. This is also an important act of self-love. Don’t seek approval from others and learn to trust yourself. An honestly, who cares what other people think! Comparison is the thief of joy!
3. Take risks despite fear. Fear is natural when learning something new. The difference between someone who has a fixed mindset and one that doesn’t is despite being afraid they choose to do it anyway. Consider the challenge as an opportunity to learn something new: a skill, something about yourself, etc.
4. Be realistic. You’re not going to get everything right the first time and chances are if you’re learning something new failure will happen. That’s ok. Failure is a great teacher. Instead of thinking as failures as a weakness, think of it as a lack of understanding that can be improved. How can you understand something deeper? Now, try again.
5. Look at examples. Look at your past examples of successful learning. Look at other peoples. What is something that you’re better at now that you weren’t in the past? How did it go from being difficult to easier? What did you do? Use others as examples. When was there a situation where you’ve seen someone else succeed against all odds? What did they do?
This list is by no means exhaustive but should be a starting point for if you’re trying to get started on improving your growth mindset. Continuous learning will not only better develop the growth mindset, it can shift your thinking to a more positive one. I always say that if you’re not good at something that just means you should be doing it more it. Chances are it’s something that you need to better develop. Challenging yourself in this way will teach you many things about who you are as you improve your “learn-it-all” mentality.
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.
What’s Is It Like Working in the Found Content Space
We love our employees! Each of their unique skillsets and personalities bring something special to the table for each project we do. Working in found content can be a tricky place at times but the rewards it reaps are high, especially since we have the best team available in our field. What better way to explain what it’s like to work in found content than interviewing one of our very own employees? For personal privacy purposes, the name of individual(s) interviewed will be left out due to their allowance to work on other projects. Although we sadly regret not being able to praise their name to the mountain tops, we completely understand that this is their preference and we respect that.
To Green or Not to Green
Our monthly newsletter came from Adage, which always leads to thought provoking articles. The article that caught our eyes this month is the hot topic of “greenwashing” or “greenshaming.” A shift has recently happened where companies have decided to cut back on their sustainability efforts and/or stay their course without sharing the process publicly. This has come as a result of backlash from certain political views and/or companies that have a vested interest in practices that do not promote sustainability. As a brand that prides itself on its green efforts, we believe that sharing your process to combat climate change is important.
Case Study
We love our business and we’d like to think that we are the absolute best in our field. But don’t take our word for it. Here is a client questionnaire review from a previous content creator that we worked with, Jennifer.
1. How did you hear of the brand?
I was contacted by someone with an opportunity to work with Locomotive.
Two Truths & A Lie: UGC Myths
Not all UGC is good for your brand. True! There have been plenty of UGC campaign gone awry and it would be naive to think that all UGC is good UGC. Found content seriously affects your customers’ trust and opinion of your brand through emotional connects. Also, true! People trust real people so if this goes sideways you could be looking at some serious consequences and fires to be put out. This is what we are here for, to get your brand quality, legally cleared content that reflects positively on your company and its mission. However, that being said, we thought we would go through some myths on UGC and clear them up for you.
Feel Good Friday: Creative Thinking Skills
Creativity is an interesting and somewhat uncharted topic. Where does it come from exactly? Are we born with our creative skills or can we learn them? Last week we wrote a little about the different types of creativity, so now let’s dive into some of the skills that creative thinkers’ user to problem solve. Creative thinking is defined as coming up with innovative, unique solutions to problems but what are some of the ways that creative thinkers can discover these answers.
Content Marketing: Self Expression and a Brief History
It can be hard sometimes to remember what life was like before the internet. Some of you reading this may not have even been around for those “prehistoric” days. When we think of content creation our minds go to videos and creators on social media platforms, but there was a time when content creation was something else. Content creation at is core is the ultimate form of self-expression. Before the internet self-expression was embodied through photography, written and spoken word.
