Posts Tagged: multi-dimensional thinking

Marketing — No Comments
27
Nov 09

How to Stand Out

Imagine being an HR representative. You are in charge of hiring and with unemployment rising, you’re flooded with applications. This past March, a high school janitorial position received a total of 700 applications. So how do you stand out from the crowd?

Typically, advertising is known for eye-catching, creative applicants. For instance, a newly minted BA bought a wallet, put his resume on business cards and gave it to the ad agency secretary to “return” to the creative director. The creative director was confused for a moment when he opened the wallet and found a resume. While the creative director might only consider a few — if any — portolios that come across their desk, the intern was hired immediately. He stood out.

The resume below captures that same creative spirit. This is Sean McNally’s (an artist and animator) resume:

killerresume

Consumers experience something similar to your HR rep: they see hundreds of brands every day. Even those that struggle to stand out are “just typical” ads.  So how do you stand out?

It’s about creating something that is fun and meaningful, then building a branded experience around it. Consider Volkswagen’s Fun Theory. The project makes banal activities fun. For instance, they attached a sound recorder to make throwing out a piece of trash fun. Or, they make a staircase a piano so it’s fun to use.

How can your brand make your product or service stand out by injecting a bit of fun? Is it the sound of lightening every time you spray your produce (Genuirdis), or syncing your music with your running (Nike)… or is it illustrating your creativity and wit (RPG resume)? Brands that cut loose and have a little fun stand to generate buzz and engage their consumers in a meaningful way.

Business Development — No Comments
24
Nov 09

It’s OK to Dream Big

If you could imagine the best computer, what would it be? Or, what would the best car look like? While we need to strike a balance between what is possible and impossible (at this time), we need to understand that dreaming big gets us further to the “impossible.” Consider this video of the future computer:

The computer looks like an innovation from the Beyond Year 2000 show on the Discover Channel. You might put it up there with the floating car and the augmented reality goggles. However, we need to go to such creative heights if we are ever to get even halfway there. The more we stretch, the further we can go.

Think Star Trek: the first mobile phone, personal computer, memory disc and Blue Tooth headset were once impossible dreams on the sci-fi show. Now they are everyday realities. Instead of thinking what was possible, the creators of Star Trek just imagined — no holds barred.

How would your product or service be different if there were no limits? In other words, what is the most perfect version of your product? Once you have this in mind, start to think about how to make it possible. While you might not reach your vision immediately, set yourself on a path that gets you there.

Business Development — 1 Comment
13
Oct 09

Garden of Branding Delights

gardenofearthlydelights_header

In one of my college art history classes, the professor lectured the class on Middle Ages art and stopped on The Garden of Earthly Delights, by the inventor of surrealism, Hieronymus Bosch.

The professor said he used to keep a print of the incredibly detailed, large painting in his house, but eventually had to remove it and gifted it to a student. He cited insanity as the reason to take it down. Bosch was so detailed in his work that every time you look at the painting, there is another half bird half human character you’ve never seen before. Something interesting pops out every time you take another look at The Garden of Earthly Delights.

Just as an onlooker can find new gems in Bosch’s masterpiece, so too can marketers and brand managers find new ideas within personal and professional networks.

Take brand naming for example. Even the most uncreative people you know can spark brilliant thinking. Send your criteria and some starter thoughts / names to friends, family and colleagues. You never know who will send you that one “it” idea or the one that sparks the “it” idea.

Internally, when ideating, bring a cross section of the company in your brainstorming session. That means account executives, creatives (upper and lower level) and any one else available. And ensure they’re in a comfortable environment. Nothing is more counter-productive than intimidating egoism and elitist attitudes. Bring in some props, role play, do whatever you have to do develop a creative environment.

The most incredible ideas come from the most unexpected places. Just as every viewing of Garden of Earthly Delights shows another gem, so too can friends, family and colleagues give you brilliant ideas.

Branding — 1 Comment
28
Sep 09

Work Multi-Dimensional

St. Ignazio church in Rome features some of the early multi-dimensional artists that used depth of field to push their craft to new heights (literally). It is multi-dimensional thinking that pushes a craft or profession to the outer limits and revolutionizes what is possible.

Too often we are bound to one dimensional thinking; too often we ask, “what can fit inside this frame?” For example, how many lawn care services can one town have? Mowing grass is all the same… it’s one dimensional. What if you dare to be more? What if you incorporated a social mission into your business–give it depth, meaning and character. No longer are you just another lawn care service, you have a emotional connection with the community and do good by your business and those you support.

To further illustrate multi-dimensional thinking, I stumbled across this incredible video that embodies many of the key characteristics of multi-dimensional thinking:

How does this video work in multi-dimensions:

Scrap and Start Anew — The artists that created this video were not afraid to scrap and paint over time intensive and intricate designs.

Be Ruthless — Be ruthless and re-examine what is possible. As you can see, this video incorporates many artistic styles that make it fascinating and unique.

Be Cohesive — It’s not enough to just throw random ideas at a wall and hopefully one will stick. It’s about having a clear mission and statement. Just because Revlon wants to paint a mural in make-up doesn’t mean it’s right for them. This video uses a motion and layers to create a cohesive and interesting story.

Be Off-the-wall — Literally. This piece starts on the floor, moves to one wall, then another, to the second floor, then back to the first–circling around the courtyard. One of the most important and unique qualities of this video is it is not bound by one setting.

The value in this video is that it showcases creative thinking that works. It’s about creating layers and multiple dimensions. When you have a new idea, explore it. Don’t dwell on what has been, explore what is possible.

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