In my last post I shared how to set up a creative team. In this post I want to share how to operate a creative team so that you can generate and develop ideas to creatively communicate your product or message.
You’ve got your team together, it’s 9 a.m. on a Tuesday morning, and you’re in a relaxed, creative setting.
First, you start the Creative meeting before the actual meeting by informing your team a few days in advance, what they are supposed to be getting creative about. If it’s a product, tell them what the product is. If it’s a message or idea, tell them what it is. This gives your team members opportunity to start thinking about ways to creatively communicate.
Second, start the meeting by reminding them of the rules mentioned in the first blog post, assign someone to write down the ideas that are mentioned where everyone can see them (Have a white board, or some means of recording the ideas) and then tell your team to start firing out different ideas. It doesn’t matter how crazy they are, how stupid they sound, how out of reach financially it is to do it, write it down and don’t allow anyone to trash anyone’s idea (Not at this point). Have your team think out of the box, under the box, behind the box, don’t even have a box.
Third, after you’ve gotten a list of ten to twenty ideas start culling them out.
Start by asking if there are any ideas listed that go counter to the core values/mission/beliefs of your business or non-profit (This is a good way of reminding yourself what your core values are). Immediately remove those ideas that can compromise your companies or non-profits values. One egregious example is an outreach event that occurred at a mega church. The event was geared to families with young children and they brought in an acrobatic team whose program turned out to be a bawdy burlesque show and far too racy for the age group intended. The persons who scheduled this team could have prevented this by asking if this acrobatic troupe's act went counter to the organizations core values. They could have gone to the acrobatic team’s website where they would have found a nude calendar the team had produced. And the sensuous nature of the team’s rehearsal before hand should have been a blatant red flag. Here is a case where a little due diligence could have prevented the fiasco that occurred.
Next, determine if any of the ideas presented would alienate your target market. Two recent examples of advertising gone wrong were the Groupon Superbowl Commercial Campaign (Here is one of the commercials videos).
Another is a recent restaurants ad campaign that made light of a religious cult that resulted in mass suicide several decades ago. Indiana eatery pulls billboards
There is a school of thought that says “Any press is good press” as it provides free publicity. This only works, if your intended market prefers such scandals. Regarding the aforementioned ad campaigns, if they weren't intentionally trying to shock their audience then they fell short in the creative development by not asking if these ads would alienate their market. As an aside understand that using shock as a marketing idea will only take you so far. And you can’t use it too often.
Now have your team members list their favorite five ideas and have them state their reasons why they like that particular one. By doing this you will gain insight on that idea based on what that team member brings to the table (IE. the demographic they represent, their experience, their knowledge base). This is important especially if your market and that team member’s demographics match.
If someone’s idea doesn’t make the final five cut, give them the opportunity to defend it and add it back to the list. This is not an all or nothing venture. Nor is it majority rules. If you have someone standing up for an idea and they have a track record of picking winners, then go with their idea, no matter how crazy it might sound. Also as the business owner, or non-profit head, you have the ultimate say, but remember the reason you put the creative team together.
Fourth, take the favorite five and start throwing out more ideas surrounding how to develop and implement them in regards to your product or message. Look at the various scenarios they would work out best in, compare them to your target market, has anyone else done this? Why or why not? How does this idea compare with the trends that are currently moving up among your target market? (If the trend has peaked or is in decline toss the idea.) Depending on how far out you are planning you may utilize all five ideas, or just one or two. At any rate, if the ideas have made it this far, they each have value, so definitely save the ones you don’t use for a second look down the road.
And fifth, take the idea(s) you settled on and run with them.
After the meeting take time and determine what worked and what didn’t. Was the team creative enough to provide the spark needed? Were the ideas fresh or stale? Was there someone there that shouldn’t have been? Or was someone missing who should have been present. Make note of these things and make the changes prior to having your next creative team meeting.
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