The 5 Secrets To Innovative Thinking

A study by leading UK, French and US business schools has uncovered the 5 secrets to being a successful entrepreneur. They interviewed 3,000 executives and 500 entrepreneurs to identify the key ingredients behind innovative thinking. Interviews included Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Michael Dell, founder of Dell computers.

The universities behind the study, Harvard Business School, Insead and Brigham Young University conducted a six-year study that was summed up by Insead’s Hal Gregersen when he told CNN “What the innovators have in common is that they can put together ideas and information in unique combinations that nobody else has quite put together before.”

What is really interesting about this study is the claim that innovative thinking (and presumably action) can be learned. “Studies have shown that creativity is close to 80 percent learned and acquired,” Gregersen also said to CNN. “We found that it’s like exercising your muscles – if you engage in the actions you build the skills.” This finding gives everyone running a business who falling behind competitors, or challenged by a changing marketplace, some hope that they can develop new and better ways to conduct their business.

THE 5 SECRETS TO INNOVATIVE THINKING

1. Associating: The ability to connect seemingly unrelated questions, problems or ideas from different fields.
2. Questioning: Innovators constantly ask questions that challenge the common wisdom. They ask “why?”, “why not?” and “what if?”
3. Observing: Discovery-driven executives scrutinize common phenomena, particularly the behavior of potential customers.
4. Experimenting: Innovative entrepreneurs actively try out new ideas by creating prototypes and launching pilots.
5. Networking: innovators go out of their way to meet people with different ideas and perspectives.

In practice, these people act in ways that stimulate their inquisitiveness, such as intense questioning of issues and reading beyond their interests.  Importantly they tap into their network of people in different fields with different interests, who offer multiple viewpoints about a wide range of topics. Their observation skills are second-to-none, as this is their ‘radar’ to identify trends that can lead to launching a new product or service.

When you look at these factors, there is nothing incredibly unique or breakthrough. It is simply a behaviour that some people do intuitively. It should also be mentioned that not all successful people act this way; many are successful despite their attitudes and actions, perhaps due to some luck or they’re born into money/success/position. In this world where we all seem to want success quickly, these 5 factors show that the ’secret’ is really to be smart about how you approach any business venture.

The article will be published in the December 2009 issue of the Harvard Business Review. Read more on CNN.

What to Do About Charging for Online Content?

This article appeared on the mUmBRELLA marketing & media news web site.

http://mumbrella.com.au/shock-why-murdoch-may-be-more-right-than-wrong-about-google-11482

My comments on this article call for online news publishers to keep looking for new (and profitable) ways to engage with readers; instead of simply charging a fee and hoping to retain a profitable online publishing business after readers flock to alternative ‘free’ news sources (including quality State-owned media like the ABC and BBC).

Critique of Selected Print Ads

After reading the Sunday papers yesterday, I thought I’d critique a few press ads from the Sun-Herald Life Magazine (published 8 Nov 2009). An interesting mix of fun, wrong and the downright odd!

The “Lets Make Our Brand Cool To Appeal To Young People” Approach

Advertiser: Blackberry
Headline: Love Hanging Out

So Blackberry wants to broaden it’s target audience from the boardroom to the classroom. It’s a worthy strategy to increase sales and market share; however I can’t help thinking if your dad or mum has a Blackberry for work purposes, why would a teenager or twenty-something want one too! The accepted wisdom is that young people choose their labels/brands/causes/etc. so they can be different from their parents (I know I did). In my view Blackbery would have more success launching a spin-off phone (like ‘Blueberry’ or some other cool name) to appeal to younger audiences. The creative is pretty ordinary too, and why are they even advertising in a newspaper as it’s well documented most people under 35 yrs don’t read papers? Everything about this campaign seems wrong.

The “Quirky Picture Attracts Attention” Approach

Advertiser: Oxfam
Headline: Doing good never goes out of fashion.

A goat with an afro, sunnies and bling around it’s neck – what a great visual to stop you flicking over the page! Coupled with a smart headline that doesn’t play the ‘guilt trip’ on the reader as some charity/cause ads are prone to do. I particularly liked the call to action with its line “be a clever kid” (geddit?) and the SMS word being “Goat”. Hope they got heaps of responses.

The “Reinforce the TVC” Print Approach

Advertiser: Yellow Pages
Headline: Some things need fixing faster.

Yellow Pages has a long history of creating integrated advertising, and this latest campaign is another good example of this approach. The TVC shows the owner of this garden statue dealing with a plumbing problem by using his Yellow Pages. The message is repeated in this print ad, that works even if you haven’t seen the TVC. Kudos also for showing a laptop and mobile phone that signals these are methods to access the YP database.

P.S. The TVC closing scene is pure fun, when you realise the cause of the neighbour’s broken window!

The “Let’s Be Relevant to Students Doing Exams” Approach

Advertiser: Kellogg’s Sultana Bran
Headline: Sultana Brain

This product has been on our grocery shelves for eons (well as long as I can remember anyway). It’s well known health benefits, especially as a source of fibre, over- shadowed the fact it doesn’t taste as good as it’s sugar-laden competitors. Now the manufacturer claims it is an excellent breakfast for students wanting to be at their peak for exams. An ideal message for the end of year exam period, particularly the HSC. Although the pack shot visual is uninspiring, it works with the clever headline that converts “Bran” into “Brain” that says SB does much more than keep you regular. This ad would appeal to parents who want to give their child every chance to do well in exams.

The “Be Different For The Sake Of It” Approach

Advertiser: Dyson
Headline: N/A

The layout is different as there is no headline. Instead the copy is the headline – prominently placed inside the product and goes on and on about the problem of fans with blades and why the Dyson “no-fan fan” is better. Seems to me they missed a great opportunity for a product demonstration as it’s a unique design and seems quite revolutionary. Took me a while to understand what they were banging on about. The copy is too wordy; it should have simply said “Look no blades – for quieter, more efficient airflow”.

Sir Martin Sorrell’s advice for the changing agency landscape – iMediaConnection.com

In the next decade, agencies and holding companies will spend less time fitting into the traditional mold of an ad agency and more time focusing on consumer data and new media. WPP’s chief explains why.

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Mona Lisa and coffee

This ‘artwork’ in Sydney comprises 3,604 cups of coffee, each filled with different amounts of milk to create the different shades. How very clever of those baristas!!

Here’s a close up of the coffee cups.

Advertising’s Future

A couple of recent announcements provide a sign post to the future of advertising. And a warning bell for media and creative agencies!

Publisher Conde Nast has announced the December issue of US GQ will be available on iPhone as well as in hard copy.

The print issue will be totally converted, advertising retained, for the iPhone. Importantly, this will mean the sales are tallied by audit bureaus. Conde Nast can therefore count downloads as part of their December circulation. The iPhone version will cost US$2.99 and advertisers buying the iPhone issue specifically will have their ads shown every fifth screen. (Read Marketing Mag article.)

Procter & Gamble is to ditch traditional CRM and CTR ad payment models in favour of a new ‘cost-per-engagement’ scheme.

The move will see publishers that run ads for the FMCG giant’s brands, paid depending on specific metrics used to measure their engagement with the advert. For example, a metric would be used to measure consumers who sign up for newsletters or watch videos after the initial ad impression.  (Read Netimperative article.)

Wow! Who would have imagined, just few years ago, that we’d be witnessing such dramatic changes to the “old-school” advertising model where circulation/audience number/unique visitors is simply used to set display ad rates. In other words, a media owner charging an advertiser based purely on the number of people reading or watching or listening. These metrics are about to undergo a most dramatic shift towards a far more measurable and accountable state.

The Conde Nast move is a bold and exciting one. The company’s CEO even admits to receiving criticism for this decision! But kudos to him for ignoring the “old schoolers” and being prepared to embrace the new ‘digital’ world order. Imagine the creative possibilities arising out of interactive advertisements in the iPhone issue! The real upside for Conde Nast (and one one that Mr R. Murdoch should be watching very closely) is the arrangement whereby GQ will earn a fee when readers link to iTunes songs/video clips incorporated into the special iPhone issue. Whoever devised this revenue-sharing model has their finger on the pulse of cross-platform monetisation.

P&G is well-known as an advertiser that demands accountability from its advertising. The article says this is a “radical new precedent in online advertising”. They got that right – given P&G’s media buying power it could be the path that all major advertisers adopt within the next 12 months. Of course many will wait and see how this new model works for P&G and whether it can be refined in any way.

This development raises a thorny issue: the relationship between media owners and creative agencies. In “old school” terms, the effectiveness of an advertisement was dependent on two factors operating in concert – the creative and the placement. The media owner naturally controls ad placement, however they DO NOT have any control the creative; whether a customer actually responds to an ad is not of ‘financial’ concern to the media owner so long as they delivered the audience the advertiser was after.

Under the new P&G-initiated model, the creative AND the placement will not only contribute to reader response rates, but it will determine how the media owner gets paid!!

You can probably see where this argument is going…why aren’t the creative agencies also being remunerated according to the response rate in this ‘cost-per-engagement’ scheme?

There is no mention in the article that creative agencies will be included in the scheme. Surely it is fairer that both producer and distributor of advertising are held accountable and remunerated accordingly. It will be really interesting to see where this trend leads. One thing is for sure, the ground is quickly shifting under “old school” advertising models.

OMG! My parents are on Facebook.

A recent article on Digital Ministry (http://digitalministry.com/AU/home) caught my eye. The headline reads “Scary…your parents are on Facebook!”

Here’s an excerpt from the article: “So are your parents really on Facebook? Whilst this isn’t strictly true in my case, I’ve certainly been ‘friended’ by many of their mates and I know it won’t be long until the inevitable & slightly embarrassing parental posts eventually creep onto my wall.”

From personal experience my 18 yo daughter took a whole year before deciding to accept me as a “FB friend”.  That’s OK as I was just getting to know FB so in that time I learnt some of the etiquette and behaviours of being a cyber friend.

Now she and I are “FB friends” it takes our relationship to a whole new level. As we don’t live under the same roof I don’t see her every day, so FB is another way for us to keep in touch and (this is the important bit) to find out some of what is going on in her life. I know I’m not privy to “all” her FB posts/pics but that’s OK I don’t want or need to know everything anyway! And once the eldest child agreed to be friends online, the younger daughter accepted me as a “FB friend” quite quickly.

As a marketer, I am also fascinated by the insights that FB is giving me into the ideas, attitudes and opinions of my teenage daughter and her peers. The technology is enabling parents, marketers, researchers, etc. unprecedented fly-on-the-wall listening capability to the conversations of our children; and of course they can listen to our online meanderings however I doubt they bother or care what we have to say

The data mining ‘gold field’ of the future will be to capture, organise and analyse online conversations so that marketers can identify emerging opinions and trends that may impact their communications strategies. On public blogs, forums, news sites, etc. the conversations are easily tracked and analysed. However within a closed network like FB, privacy is paramount and marketers must not assume they will get carte blanche to listen in to these conversations.

In a world where we are all seemingly ultra-connected, being connected to your kids is still the most important “connection” a parent should make.

8 tips for B2B social media – iMediaConnection.com

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Channel 9 Sydney

Last night on Two and a Half Men (Channel 9 Sydney 8.00pm) there was an extraordinary in-program promo.

On the screen, top right corner, appeared a reasonably large watermark-style message promoting the next show, which was the launch episode of The Apprentice. The problem for me as a viewer was that this station promo was so distracting from the program as it was quite large and stayed visibile for about 30 seconds.

We are all used to stations running a message at the bottom of the screen during a program, indicating the show that is coming next. However I feel in this case Channel 9 has gone too far in it’s efforts to alert the audience about the next show due to start in about 15 minutes.

Would they have done this if the next show had NOT been a launch episode of a new series? Maybe not.

The point is that our free-to-air stations are taking way too many liberties with time (and screen real estate) to promote their own programs. In this digital TV era, where many viewers now have a dedicated TV guide channel, as well the traditional printed TV guide, it seems that the networks are getting a bit desperate to promote their shows.

The ratings for The Apprentice indicate that all this heavy promotion did not pay off anyway. Only 692,000 people tuned in, not a great result. It is really odd for Channel 9 to be launching a new show with an old format that probably died a natural death some years ago after the U.S. version with Donald Trump.

It is perhaps a sign of the ‘digital’ times that free-to-air TV networks are doing all they can to hold a viewer from one program to the next. I don’t begrudge their intent; I do however have a gripe about them splashing a promo message prominently on-screen during a program that is so overtly distracting to the viewing experience.