I'm at the CMA Convention and Tradeshow in Montreal this week. I'm pleased to see that there are some non-traditional speakers and sessions in this year's line-up. Being an interactive marketer, I have a difficult time understanding why we're even talking about things like Mass Marketing (mass is dead), but, OK .. you have to bring the Old Guard into the real world at a slower pace. Well, one of the folks paving the way is Peter Mosley [blog].
I attended Mosley's session entitled "Unlock and Expand Your Creative Potential". Great stuff. Highlights:
- Clients and agencies get stuck. We must crave change. Must be curious!
- We (humans) prefer stories to acronyms. Acronyms don't connect us to an emotional picture.
- Who has a brand? Harley Davidson has a brand. People wake up thinking about Harley's and they don't all ride motorcycles.
- What prevents creativity? The inability to nest where we work.
- Crap with reverbs is still crap (don't do drugs).
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Mosley's take on the creative process:
- Gather: get your halnds on everything relevant to the project you're working on and play with it.
- Process: use a creative technique (e.g. lateral thinking, brainstorming, mindmapping) to start mulling it over (good for preventing the tyranny of the blank page)
- Leave: let it bake.
- Apply: Deadline driven. Create an execution.
- English doesn't use verbs well; we say "bell ringing" rather than "belling"
- Attention is dynamic. We scavenge, not scan.
- Emotion is important at every level of perception and attention. Creative *must* be rooted in a base emotion. We (humans) set our priorities based on emotions. From these emotions falls an execution. All creative is based on intrusion and emotion.
- Countries to emulate: Japan, Italy - NOT the US
Perhaps my favourite bit about Peter's presentation: his mention of Mush. Billed as "booze, bail bondsmen and regrets", it's a gathering for Web 2.0 cyber reprobates.. How can you *not* go? Besides, it's not really sold out. Be there, Wednesday, May 17th. 7pm. The Monarch in on Clinton in Toronto.
One side comment ... during the session, we were benchmarking our reaction to different ads on emotional impact, brand relevance and desired response. Mosley showed us a variety of ads: Calvin Kline, Canon printers, Bell Canada Open ... and he showed us one for Trivial Pursuit's 20th Anniversary Edition "Born to be a Question" campaign. It was a pic of Dennis Rodman looking very stylish in his wedding dress. We all called out our response to the "Emotional Impact" of the photo. Most of us shouted "8" or "9" (on a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being high). One fellow said "2". When asked why by Mosley, this gentleman said "Because I find it revolting." And I have to admit .. I was shocked. Aside from the fact that "revolting" is an emotional reaction and he should have then ranked it a 10, I was genuinely surprised to hear that a Canadian marketer couldn't deal with a man in drag. Comical. Provacative. Outrageous. Sure. But, revolting? Dude. Take a pill. It's Dennis Rodman.
Tags: CMA, marketing, creativity, Peter Mosley, Dennis Rodman