Better solutions and better decisions about a particular problem at hand are best done in brainstorming sessions. What is brainstorming you ask? Well, it’s an individual or group problem-solving technique that requires the spontaneous, random, quirky, and sometimes outrageous contribution of ideas from a group…or from yourself.

One is the loneliest number
Individual brainstorming doesn’t always produce a wider range of ideas. On the upside, there are no worries about what other people think or possibly being criticized about an idea so you are completely free to create any way you please. However, in the long run it’s simply not an effective way to develop ideas. It’s one sided, It’s not nearly as fun and what happens when your idea has reached it’s limit and you alone have exhausted all avenues? You don’t have anyone to help you take it to the next level.

It’s A Family Affair
Group brainstorming uses the experience, discipline and creativity of all group members. Ideas are easily developed in more depth and there is more opportunity for expanding ideas in more than one direction. Good sessions come from people who have experience exploring and developing ideas on their own and enjoy the experience of idea making with others. Teams that get the most out of brainstorming are the ones that have the best team culture around ideas and a process for going about finding, refining and harvesting ideas.

Brainstorming 101
Want an effective session? Follow these simple rules:

1. What the heck is our problem?
Understand the project goals before you begin and keep the session focused on those goals. Make sure no one idea or train of thought is followed for too long.

2. Know how to facilitate
A good facilitator knows how to run a session. Not only is it their job to prevent interruptions and fist fights over the last peanut M & M, they also have to be able to: Listen and help people express ideas. Limit the number of ideas so people have a chance to share. Encourage people to develop other people’s ideas or use other ideas to make new ones. Make the sure the brainstorm doesn’t get off track

3. You really ARE more creative with your socks on!
Comfort is the most important way to get great ideas. Work in an atmosphere that isn’t the norm. Coffee shop, meeting room, lobby, someone’s house, restaurant, zoo. Start out with small ideas, encourage the quiet folks to participate, throw out some crazy ideas to lighten the mood and have fun. Great ideas can come from some of the most random thoughts.

4. Establish ground rules
How are you going to run your session? Free for all? Formal hand raising? Freeze tag? Dodgeball? Assign tasks and reward play with positive reactions…or candy.

5. Postpone criticism
This isn’t the time or place to shoot anyone’s ideas down regardless of what you think of them. It not only stifles creativity and interrupts free flow of ideas, but it’s just not nice.

The Aftermath
Great ideas are created, brought to life, invented. So what happens to them after the session is over?

A. You should review and refine the ideas?

B. You should define goal-related criteria to evaluate ideas?

C. You should assign further investigation into potential avenues?

OR

D. You should bail?

The only way to make ideas useful is to refine and narrow them down. Come up with simple criteria for evaluating the ideas and go through them. Pass them around for further feedback if you must but don’t let it sit for another time.

Information brought to you by:

The Step by Step Guide to Brainstorming

Brainstorming

How to Run a Brianstorming Meeeting

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And now, an IM conversation between Dave and myself.

Dave Selden: 10:11
very interesting article here:
http://www.gladwell.com/2004/2004_09_06_a_ketchup.html

Dave Selden: 10:11
I really like the “mind doesn’t know what the tongue wants” part
the fact that you can’t design a universal ketchup and please people
you have to design several ketchups that sub-groups can rally around

Thom Schoenborn: 10:14
reading:
“Try my ketchup!” Wigon said, over and over, to anyone who passed. “If you don’t try it, you’re doomed to eat Heinz the rest of your life.”

Dave Selden: 10:14
seriously
sarah and I don’t eat ketchup
I guess we would buy ketchup if it tasted better
not something I really ever thought about

Thom Schoenborn: 10:14
ketchup in australia is awesome.
no sugar.
just tomato and vinegar

Dave Selden: 10:15
wow

Thom Schoenborn: 10:15
with their bacon, which we call canadian bacon?
kick-ass.

Dave Selden: 10:15
ha
maybe I will make that next
british bacon is also awesome

Thom Schoenborn: 10:16
for sure:
“You know why you like it so much?” he would say, in his broad Boston accent, to the customers who seemed most impressed. “Because you’ve been eating bad ketchup.”

Dave Selden: 10:17
“If you are four—and I have a four-year-old—he doesn’t get to choose what he eats for dinner, in most cases,” Keller says. “But the one thing he can control is ketchup. It’s the one part of the food experience that he can customize and personalize.” As a result, Heinz came out with the so-called EZ Squirt bottle, made out of soft plastic with a conical nozzle. In homes where the EZ Squirt is used, ketchup consumption has grown by as much as twelve per cent.
Small children tend to be neophobic: once they hit two or three, they shrink from new tastes. That makes sense, evolutionarily, because through much of human history that is the age at which children would have first begun to gather and forage for themselves, and those who strayed from what was known and trusted would never have survived.”

Thom Schoenborn: 10:18
Interesting.
I like the concept of the multiple versions of perfection:
“Instead, working with the Campbell’s kitchens, he came up with forty-five varieties of spaghetti sauce. [snip]  When Moskowitz charted the results, he saw that everyone had a slightly different definition of what a perfect spaghetti sauce tasted like. If you sifted carefully through the data, though, you could find patterns, and Moskowitz learned that most people’s preferences fell into one of three broad groups: plain, spicy, and extra-chunky, and of those three the last was the most important. Why? Because at the time there was no extra-chunky spaghetti sauce in the supermarket.”

Dave Selden: 10:20
totally

Thom Schoenborn: 10:21
You can’t please all the people all the time, basically.

Dave Selden: 10:21
yeah

Thom Schoenborn: 10:21
“If I make one group happier, I piss off another group. We did this for coffee with General Foods, and we found that if you create only one product the best you can get across all the segments is a 60—if you’re lucky. That’s if you were to treat everybody as one big happy family. But if I do the sensory segmentation, I can get 70, 71, 72. Is that big? Ahhh. It’s a very big difference. In coffee, a 71 is something you’ll die for.”

Dave Selden: 10:21
totally

Thom Schoenborn: 10:21
in college, my magazine prof was the founder and editor of Guitar magazine.
about 10% of their subscriber base were bass players
they had, like, two sections of each issue dedicated to bass players.
and when they cut one of those sections, ONE SINGLE PAGE of editorial, they lost something like 8% of their subscriber base.

Dave Selden: 10:23
funny
that’s a lot

Thom Schoenborn: 10:23
in many ways, it’s about knowing not just what people like about your product — because people tend to like a lot of things about what you offer —
it’s about knowing about how passionate they are about those things.
which is a little different than this subject.
but they’re related.
We should just copy and paste this IM convo into a 72dpiiintheshade post.

Dave Selden: 10:24
do it.

Hee. “Blook.”

The top 10 most annoying web words:

1. Folksonomy
2. Blogosphere
3. Blog
4. Netiquette
5. Blook
6. Webinar
7. Vlog
8. Social network
9. Cookie
10. Wiki, podcast and avatar

via MarketingCharts.com

I attended some event in which a group of Wieden+Kennedy dudes talked about a survey they’d done to prove the value of their creative. So they asked a bunch of media buyers and marketing folks what they thought NIKE’s annual media spend was. The average guess was ridiculously higher than it actually was. To translate: advertising experts believed NIKE was spending about twice as much as they actually were because the ads were so memorable and fantastic.

The point is that creative executions which are daring and evocative can work twice as hard as mediocre executions for the same price. Throw that little anecdote into your next pitch. Tell ‘em you read it on the Internet…

Anyway, it’s also a great excuse to link you to this non-NIKE commercial, which is %&#@$%&ing hilarious. (Thanks, Ben.)

Our Director of Making Money and Being Smart, Chris Tacy, sent around a link to this summary of a BBDO research study about daily rituals and the emotions they reflect.

You really ought to read it, then come back here. It’s frickin’ awesome.

For one, it’s a reminder that when consumers choose things, they tend to choose first on emotional reasons, then later rationalize those choices with product features and benefits. So as marketers, we have to (more…)

There’s a guy across the street from the office who runs a small coffee cart down near the grease trucks at the corner of Park and Alder. At his cart this guy sells coffee, that’s it. No scones, or muffins or fat-saturated yeasted treats. Just straight up coffee.

I see this guy daily as he rides the 15 with me downtown and sets up shop about the same time I get to my desk each morning. On my first day of work a few months ago I walked across the street to quash my morning fix and see this guy shellacked in a wool blanket from head to toe optimistically waiting for the next customer to plunk down a dollar or two for a quick cup of joe. So my first thought was that its gotta suck to be standing out here in 15 degree rain selling coffee… let me see what he’s up to, and so I curiously go check out his stash…

When I walked up to him he greeted me warmly, asked how my morning was going and then started to tell me about the special coffee he was selling that day. Once upon a time it used to drive me crazy when people in any commerce situation did more than just take my money, stick whatever I’m buying into a bag and send me off on my way, esp. at 8 o’clock in the morning. When I first arrived on the west coast it took me a while to realize that people out here just like to be friendly and talk. Whether about their feelings or your feelings or any number of topics that could otherwise be construed as pointless banter when you’re out just trying to score a hot dog and get back to work.

Yet, on that cold wet morning back in February I stood there in the rain while this man told me all about this special African blend he just got in the night before. Like many people I know, coffee is not something I give very much thought to. I personally just like it hot and not tasting like it just came off a campfire. Past that you could say I’m pretty easy to please, but then again I’m part of a generation who woke up to the fresh snap of Maxwell House as a kid, so this man speaking so eloquently about his trade seemed naturally something I should give a lean in and listen to.

While it was interesting that he knew where the beans were from, how he had come to learn of them, how they were different from the brew du jour yesterday and so forth, what really caught my rapt attention was the way he shared this knowledge with me. There was something in the way he talked to me so that no matter how much of a hurry I might have been in, I simply couldn’t let myself ignore what he was saying.

When I think of the people I have met in life whom I regard as the most successful, that is those whom I feel are genuinely happy with themselves and feel well-respected, I tend to think of their character before any specific talents of accomplishments they may have achieved. It’s part of that ‘how did he/she get there’ question I often ask myself about the people I look up to.

I just got back a few minutes ago from visiting my friend across the street who today is selling a freshly brewed Ethiopian Yirgacheffe for those of you interested. As he did the first day I met him, he told me today of the origin of this specific bean, how it is grown differently than other beans in the area and so forth and just like he did on that cold day in February, he spoke to me with the same genuine sense of warmth and passion about his beans that has kept me coming back every day for four months now.

I realize now that what keeps drawing me back to him, outside of what is simply a damn good cup of coffee, is this man’s tone and manner of elucidating on his trade. While it’s immensely important to be passionate in what you do, it is equally important in how you express that passion to other people. While the coffee is good, what really keeps me coming back is the feeling that this guy is taking care of me. He is so genuinely passionate about his beans that I’m convinced I’m getting the best cup of coffee in the city. It’s this belief and trust I have that in the world of coffee, this man knows what is right and his story, tone and personality make it feel as so.

And for a guy who would otherwise be happy with Maxwell House, this comforting feeling of ‘being taken care of’ is contagious enough to keep me coming back for more.

There is an excellent article here that extends this point into the agency space and talks about the value of who we are over what we do. At the end of the day what we really are selling to others is our belief in ourselves. It doesn’t matter if you’re a mechanic, a flash developer or a guy out there selling coffee. If you know that what you are creating is good, honest and serves some fundamental purpose to the benefit of your fellow man, people will stand up in line for a piece of it, even in the frigid February rain.

One thing about my job that occasionally makes me grind my teeth is letting other folks write. Which is unfortunate, because my job title is “Copy Editor” and not “Lone Wolf.” I probably shouldn’t admit to feeling this way, but what are blogs if not text-based confessionals?

I expect that I am not alone among editors. All our co-workers speak and write the language, so we often feel compelled to justify our jobs by rewriting. Add to that fact I’ve mostly been a doer in my career up until this point: a writer instead of an editor.

And so it was with much glee that we recently had an internal project written by someone else, with only advice from me. It was not painless — I wasted half a day floundering with a pale rewrite. The original draft from our CEO had the message, but not the style. My draft had the style, but completely missed the point. (more…)

I remember taking a corporate identity class my last term of college. Though it was mentioned that branding was a company’s “identity,” it was never explained that branding was more than just a logo. We spent a majority of the class designing a new logo for a company of our choosing and ways to use the logo in the environment. After 11 weeks, the only thing I walked away from that class with was the idea that you have to have a nice enough looking logo to make an impact on your target audience. Also, maybe it should look good on a billboard or a water bottle or something.

I got an A in the class. My point? (Besides the fact that I’m slightly unhappy with my Alma Mater). People talk about brands all the time, but very few people actually understand their purpose or how to manage one.

Who are you? What do you do? Why does anyone care?

A brand is not a logo. It’s not a company. It’s not the solution to any algebra problem and it’s not a product. A brand is a feeling that a consumer has about a company or a product or maybe even a service. It’s also a great Jeopardy question. In short, a brand should say: “This is who we are. This is how we’re different from our competitors.”

Your logo is just one part of your brand. Like a name is just one part of a person. There are many attributes that make someone a unique individual and it works the same for a company’s brand. It takes high quality work, dedication as individuals and team members, shared goals and hard work to create an effective and lasting brand identity. Good brand identity is not just a great logo; it’s a reputation and a level of quality that is associated with the visual “marker.”

When explaining what services they specialized most in, I heard a former employer tell a client once that their company was the “Old Navy” of web design. Let’s face it, people, if you want a great pair of running shoes to last, chances are you’re not going to get them at Payless Shoe Source. Don’t advertise what you are not or what you don’t want people to assume about you. The quality people feel about your product or your work is your company.

Rome wasn’t built in a day – so don’t expect your brand to be.

It takes a lot of: time, people, planning, experience, energy, focus, research, money, ideas, mistakes [deep breath goes here], chances, success, expertise, trials, patience and a lot of hard work to be the next Nike or Coca Cola [whew!].

How to get over the roadblock of logic vs. creativity

Q: How do you know when an idea is innovative?
A: When it scares the hell out of everybody
(Neumeier, 80)

If it were all logic we “right-brainers” would be out of jobs. No one wants logical explanations; no one wants to listen to reason. We want magic! Magic is fun and exciting and…well, magical. Unfortunately you can’t really remove logic from the equation and you can’t remove creativity. People don’t trust pure creativity because it’s not always the most practical to do that but people don’t really want rational thinking ALL the time because our best thinking depends on intuition and insight (Neumeier, 73) and also people want magic. So you have to find that happy medium of both execution and strategy that makes everyone feel warm and fuzzy. Once that is accomplished. then you can play.

Why yes! That is exactly what I want!

“Get the right idea and then get the idea right” (Neumeier, 120-121). Create your message. Send that message to your target audience. Require your audience to give you feedback. Find out what works and what doesn’t. Find out what your people want and then give it to them.

Badger! Badger! Badger!

World just passing you by?

Madonna did it. Michael Jackson didn’t. Madonna experienced musical success throughout the 80’s and 90’s because she reinvented herself and her music continually adapted to what was most popular. The last song Michael Jackson released a few years back sounded the same as the music he was making in the early 80’s. Of course I’m positive there are other “factors” that hindered his success but that is an entirely different blog post.

Success embraces change and fosters growth with the marketplace. Just like with people, brands aren’t always perfect. They have good times and bad times. They change and they grow but as long as their core attributes never change then it’s all good. If you as a person want to experience success you have to make mistakes. You have to bust tail and you have to try different avenues. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn’t. In the end you take what you learn, apply it to your next run and eventually with enough persistence, hard work, and dedication, you will inevitably find success. Through your journey you are still the same person with the same qualities and you’ve adopted new experiences. Brands work the same way.

Does your company’s behavior match your brand? Ours does!

Alongside the business and work aspect of creating a good brand are the people who represent it. A friend told me once “Pop Art is where you hope to end up in your career as a designer.” And although I know he appreciates and admires the work we do here, it’s the people that create the company’s reputation as a whole that makes it such a desirable place to work. Our clients love us! We make business an enjoyable experience, and, as an added bonus, we create beautiful and pleasing work for them, and we love every minute of it.

A company’s atmosphere and culture are just as important as the quality of work they deliver. Pop Art has achieved success on so many levels: from acquiring prominent clients to a knowledgeable staff with a passion to educate and be educated. A collection of intelligent, creative, happy and enjoyable personalities are all part of delivering the high quality work we are becoming reputable for. This is helping shape and define Pop Art’s unique brand and indeed separates us from our competitors.

Where did I get all that info?

1. Neumeier, Marty. The Brand Gap: How to bridge the distance between business strategy and design. New Riders Press; 1ST edition, 2003.
2. Pop Art’s Annual Company Retreat
3. My Brain

I call Pay Per Click (PPC) writing “Haiku for Dollars.” Mostly becuase I think it’s funny, and people laugh so I assume they agree. But PPC isn’t much of a creative strain — unlike most creative endeavors in which a broad base of life experience helps you connect concepts in bizarre ways, PPC tends to be as surprising a corn-fed blonde making the finals of American Idol. Or so I thought. And then realized, as usual, I was right the first time.

I’ll explain in a very long-winded fashion.

So with PPC, you have certain words (keywords, or search terms) that you gotta squeeze into tiny little character counts (25 character headlines, and two lines of 35 characters). And you’ve got to put the selling point in there, and do it in a way that it differentiates you from all the other crap PPC ads offered by the loyal opposition and noble competitors.

But you knew that. You probably also know about negative keywords. No? Well, it’s simple. Say you’re writing about a hybrid air-conditioner. You don’t want a guy searching for a new Toyota Prius to click on your ad, so you tell Google to NOT display your ad when someone searches for “hybrid car with air conditioner.” Because you don’t want to pay for that dirty, unqualified hippy to click your ad.

Clear?

So I’m writing a bunch of PPC ads about laminated veneer lumber a while back. (Laminated veneer lumber? Think of plywood stacked a foot thick then cut like a beam. Sorta. Anyway, it’s strong “engineered wood” used in home construction.) And in our list of negative keywords, I see WoW and “World of Warcraft.”

“What the hell?”

Well, laminated veneer lumber is known in the construction industry as LVL. And apparently, in the World of Warcraft, lvl is shorthand for “level.” So we don’t want some 42-year-old ubergeek searching for “lvl 60 druid” to get our ad. Because after all, everyone knows that searcher lives in his mom’s basement, only uses a hammer when his +9 crossbow of wounding has run out of magic arrows, and would be a throw-away click. There’s twenty-five cents the client will never see again.

Anyhoo. The point? Well, I assumed that someone on our team KNEW this shockingly geeky information about World of Warcraft and snuck it into our project. “Who put this Warcraft crap in my spreadsheet?” I bellowed like a lvl 30 orc. Because that kind of geekery cannot go un-teased.

But it turns out, Google somehow provides that list of negative keywords.

That’s it. That was entirely the point.

…

In other PPC-related news, I have an amusing tic that surfaces while writing PPC: flinching. Character counts matter, right? I can’t count characters as I write, but I have a sense for when a line’s getting too long. And as I get near the end of that suspicious line, I make a pained face and cringe like the word count button is going to bite me if I go over. It’s like gambling. “C’mon, baby! Be 35! 35! Let’s go! AWWWWWW, craps. Thirty seven. Shoot.”

And you thought copywriting was boring…