Jaws in Space - How to develop & pitch creative ideas

@hannah_bo_banna

“jaws in space”how to develop & pitch creative ideas

@hannah_bo_banna

@hannah_bo_banna

text

this is distilled

@hannah_bo_banna

we made this

@hannah_bo_banna

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2.1m page views; 105k+ ‘likes’; 4.7k+ tweets; 1,055 LRDs

http://www.concerthotels.com/worlds-greatest-vocal-ranges

@hannah_bo_banna

a few years ago we made this

@hannah_bo_banna

textit got just 31 ‘likes’

@hannah_bo_banna

we *still* don’t always get it right

@hannah_bo_banna

this stuff is *really* hardignore anyone who tells you otherwise

@hannah_bo_banna

coming up with a ‘good’ ideais paramount

@hannah_bo_banna

but what do we mean by a ‘good’ idea?

@hannah_bo_banna

something that appears to have worked?

@hannah_bo_banna

pop quiz!

@hannah_bo_banna

raise your hands if you think this is a ‘good’ idea

@hannah_bo_banna

@hannah_bo_banna

ready?

@hannah_bo_banna

618 LRDs

@hannah_bo_banna

ok, what about this one?

@hannah_bo_banna

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ready?

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189 LRDs

@hannah_bo_banna

what about this one?

@hannah_bo_banna

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ready?

@hannah_bo_banna

59 LRDs

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tricky, huh?

@hannah_bo_banna

it’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking ‘guides get links’ - let’s do loads of guides!

BUT

it’s not always the case &

over time formats can become less effective

@hannah_bo_banna

let’s try something else... I’m going to show you 2 pieces - which got the most links?

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@hannah_bo_banna

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ready?

@hannah_bo_banna

64 LRDs

@hannah_bo_banna

181 LRDs

@hannah_bo_banna

ok, you’ve seen which got the most links, but which got the most interactions on facebook?

@hannah_bo_banna

50k facebook interactions

@hannah_bo_banna

5k facebook interactions

@hannah_bo_banna

the relationship between social shares and links is not as linear as you might expect

@hannah_bo_banna

it is incredibly tough to figure out whether something is ‘good’ idea or not

@hannah_bo_banna

& most of us don’t have the luxury of creating & launching a bunch of different things

before hitting on a winner

@hannah_bo_banna

we get fired

@hannah_bo_banna

so how do we get better?

@hannah_bo_banna

we started out with this

@hannah_bo_banna

http://www.concerthotels.com/worlds-greatest-vocal-ranges

@hannah_bo_banna

authors Chip & Dan Heath identified 6 factors make an idea ‘stick’:

simpleunexpectedconcretecredibleemotionalstory

@hannah_bo_banna

& we’ve added one of our own:

simpleunexpectedconcretecredibleemotionalstoryshareable

@hannah_bo_banna

this is hard to explain in the abstract, so I’m going to use an example

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simple

@hannah_bo_banna

if you can’t explain it to a 6 year old, you don’t understand it yourself

~ Albert Einstein

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‘how famous creative people work’

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unexpected

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text

@hannah_bo_banna

@hannah_bo_banna

ok, so this may not make your jaw drop…but it is a different take on the topic

@hannah_bo_banna

long form articles and listicles are the most popular formats in the space, whereas this is visual & explorable

@hannah_bo_banna

concrete

@hannah_bo_banna

we’re going to

win the space race

~ not said by JFK

@hannah_bo_banna

‘win the space race’is an abstraction

it’s intangible, no one knows what you mean

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we’re going to put

a man on the moon

~ JFK

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this isn’t just about the language you use

@hannah_bo_banna

well-executed data visualisation makes concepts more concrete

you can only hold around 6 pieces of information in your head, but you can take in much more than that

visually to determine patterns

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credible

@hannah_bo_banna

comes in two flavours:

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is the data credible?

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is this credible coming from podio?

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using data from other credible sources is a reasonably safe bet for most brands

@hannah_bo_banna

be very careful if you’re commissioning your own data

@hannah_bo_banna

there are two modes of failure here

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a failure to gather statistically significant data or weak methodology

@hannah_bo_banna

being self-serving

if a bingo company did a study that found people who played bingo were happier than those who didn’t

would you think it credible?

@hannah_bo_banna

emotional

@hannah_bo_banna

this provokes an emotional reaction

@hannah_bo_banna

text

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does this piece?

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@hannah_bo_banna

it does provoke curiosity and

people are passionate about productivity & the habits of successful people

@hannah_bo_banna

story

@hannah_bo_banna

have we uncovered a story?

@hannah_bo_banna

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no, but this piece supports the editorial around this topic

@hannah_bo_banna

shareable

@hannah_bo_banna

would you look good sharing this?

@hannah_bo_banna

@hannah_bo_banna

makes you look smartand/or

makes you look culturedand/or

makes you look interested & interestingand/or

makes you look like they care about being creative

@hannah_bo_banna

the ‘success’ framework is great, but it has its drawbacks

@hannah_bo_banna

good ideas rarely seem like good ideas at their inception,that’s what stops the majority of people from having them

~Drew Gummerson

@hannah_bo_banna

it’s a useful tool, but it can be used as a weapon

@hannah_bo_banna

don’t use this to shoot ideas down,use it to build ideas up

@hannah_bo_banna

how can we develop this idea to make it moresimple?unexpected?concrete?credible?emotional?story-driven?shareable?

@hannah_bo_banna

use it to evaluate or compare and contrast ideas to see which are the strongest

@hannah_bo_banna

you don’t need to hit all 7

but more is more ☺

@hannah_bo_banna

but there’s another issue with the framework

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clients don’t always understand why they should care about these criteria

@hannah_bo_banna

there’s insufficient onus on why this is a good idea for their company

@hannah_bo_banna

we found that some of our best ideas weren’t getting signed off

@hannah_bo_banna

we needed to get better at pitching ideas

@hannah_bo_banna@hannah_bo_banna

the high concept pitch for alien was

“jaws in space”

@hannah_bo_banna

that’s a lot of information in just 3 words

@hannah_bo_banna

the ship is not sleek & clean like in other sci-fi moviesthis is grubby, broken, low-tech

@hannah_bo_banna

this film will be filled with tension & conflict,not everyone will understand the danger they’re in

@hannah_bo_banna

you won’t see much of the predator until the end

@hannah_bo_banna

I could go on for hours...

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our aim was not to be able to pitch our ideas in 3 words

@hannah_bo_banna

but to distill our thinking & communicate why our ideas were right for the client

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this is what we came up with

@hannah_bo_banna

how is this idearelevant, resonant & different?

@hannah_bo_banna

I’ll deal with each in turn, using the daily routines piece as an example

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@hannah_bo_banna

relevant

@hannah_bo_banna

this is about ‘brand fit’why is this the right thing for the company to do?

@hannah_bo_banna

podio’s strapline is ‘empowering you to work the way you want’

&

they target people in the creative industry

@hannah_bo_banna

‘daily routines’ places podio in the conversations people are already

having about how best to work,without being self-serving

@hannah_bo_banna

resonant

@hannah_bo_banna

why will your target audience & target publishers care about this?

@hannah_bo_banna

creativity & productivity are perpetually hot topics:

@hannah_bo_banna

@hannah_bo_banna

@hannah_bo_banna

@hannah_bo_banna

people share this stuff, so publishers want to publish this stuff

@hannah_bo_banna

& the publishers we want coverage from feature this stuff

@hannah_bo_banna(excerpt from a buzzsumo content analysis report)

@hannah_bo_banna

people will share our piece because it:

makes them look smartand/or

makes them look culturedand/or

makes them look interested & interestingand/or

makes them look like they care about being creative

@hannah_bo_banna

different

@hannah_bo_banna

how is this different from what’s already out there?how are we adding value?

@hannah_bo_banna

this data has been visualised before

@hannah_bo_banna

@hannah_bo_banna

but this is a posterit wasn’t built for the web

@hannah_bo_banna

this execution doesn’t allow you to compare the creative routines of the people featured,

or explore the data, our execution will

@hannah_bo_banna

we use relevant, resonant, different alongside the ‘SUCCESS’ framework

@hannah_bo_banna

it means our ideation process is more rigorous

@hannah_bo_banna

& it forces us to think harder about whether or not our ideas make sense for our clients

@hannah_bo_banna

most importantly - it makes getting sign off from clients easier

@hannah_bo_banna

how did it all go down?

@hannah_bo_banna

@hannah_bo_banna

you will never be 100% confident

@hannah_bo_banna

@hannah_bo_banna

658k page views; 33k+ ‘likes’; 10k+ tweets; 632 LRDs

@hannah_bo_banna

please note:

@hannah_bo_banna

results like this don’t just *happen*

@hannah_bo_banna

we spent over 60 hours promoting this piece

@hannah_bo_banna

the bigger picture

@hannah_bo_banna

getting good at this stuff is hard

@hannah_bo_banna

there’s a few things we do which we think have helped us get better

@hannah_bo_banna

focus on ideas, not formats

@hannah_bo_banna

text

an idea is a novel combination of

previously unconnected elements in a way that adds value

@hannah_bo_banna

an infographic is not an idea;it’s a format

@hannah_bo_banna

further reading:

how to produce content people will sharehttp://dis.tl/MJ-share

how to produce better content ideashttp://dis.tl/MJ-idea

lessons in virality from axl rosehttp://dis.tl/HS-axl

@hannah_bo_banna

take this sh*t seriously

@hannah_bo_banna

a few years ago we used to ‘present’ creative ideas like this:

@hannah_bo_banna

REDACTED

yep, it really was that bad...

@hannah_bo_banna

@hannah_bo_banna

you won’t be surprised to hear that sign off was an issue

@hannah_bo_banna

today we present creative ideas in person, with a slide deck

we also spend significantly longer on the ideation process

@hannah_bo_banna

we use these frameworks to build ideas up, not knock them down

@hannah_bo_banna

good ideas come from everywhere,

it’s more important to recognise a good ideathan to author it

~Jeanne Gang

@hannah_bo_banna

keep on keeping on

@hannah_bo_banna

we consistently work on improving our approach & our processes

@hannah_bo_banna

@hannah_bo_banna

good luck out there x

credits

Images:alien: http://www.wired.com/2010/02/0205hr-giger-born-science-fiction-artist/unexpected - http://thabto.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/shocked-face.jpgdaily rituals - http://24.media.tumblr.com/011d7a30de400a6f5f9244775f95781a/tumblr_mmg8etEJt81qzlz5go1_r1_1280.jpgemotional - http://adland.tv/ooh/feed-sa-trolley-ambient-south-africaswing - https://www.flickr.com/photos/21745851@N00/4805435840facepalm - http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=facepalm no finish line - http://www.quotesvalley.com/images/50/there-is-no-finish-line-5.jpgdanbo - https://www.flickr.com/photos/nomadic_lass/6889892777/in/set-72157629144987013unicorn - http://queenofheartsonthesleeve.tumblr.com/post/58736423727/ok-not-much-but-here-it-is-3

Big love to to the wonderful Distilled folks who helped me put this together.

@hannah_bo_banna

Hannah SmithContent Strategist, Distilled caffeine addict; book worm; would really like a unicorn...

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