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
text
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
text
it got just 31 ‘likes’

@hannah_bo_banna
we *still* don’t always get it right

@hannah_bo_banna
this stuff is *really* hard
ignore anyone who tells you otherwise

@hannah_bo_banna
coming up with a ‘good’ idea
is 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
raise your hands if you think this is a ‘good’ idea

@hannah_bo_banna
ok, what about this one?

@hannah_bo_banna
what about this one?

@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?

@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
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’:
simple
unexpected
concrete
credible
emotional
story

@hannah_bo_banna
& we’ve added one of our own:
simple
unexpected
concrete
credible
emotional
story
shareable

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

@hannah_bo_banna
if you can’t explain it to a 6 year old,
you don’t understand it yourself
~ Albert Einstein

@hannah_bo_banna
‘how famous creative people work’

@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
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

@hannah_bo_banna
we’re going to put
a man on the moon
~ JFK

@hannah_bo_banna
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

@hannah_bo_banna
comes in two flavours:

@hannah_bo_banna
is the data credible?

@hannah_bo_banna
is this credible coming from podio?

@hannah_bo_banna
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

@hannah_bo_banna
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
this provokes an emotional reaction

@hannah_bo_banna
does this piece?

@hannah_bo_banna
it does provoke curiosity
and
people are passionate about productivity
& the habits of successful people

@hannah_bo_banna
have we uncovered a story?

@hannah_bo_banna
no, but this piece supports
the editorial around this topic

@hannah_bo_banna
would you look good sharing this?

@hannah_bo_banna
makes you look smart
and/or
makes you look cultured
and/or
makes you look interested & interesting
and/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 more
simple?
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

@hannah_bo_banna
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 movies
this 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...

@hannah_bo_banna
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

@hannah_bo_banna
this is what we came up with

@hannah_bo_banna
how is this idea
relevant, resonant & different?

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

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

@hannah_bo_banna
creativity & productivity are perpetually hot topics:

@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 smart
and/or
makes them look cultured
and/or
makes them look interested & interesting
and/or
makes them look like they care about being creative

@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
but this is a poster
it 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
you will never be 100% confident

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

@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 share
http://dis.tl/MJ-share
how to produce better content ideas
http://dis.tl/MJ-idea
lessons in virality from axl rose
http://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
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 idea
than 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
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.jpg
daily rituals - http://24.media.tumblr.com/011d7a30de400a6f5f9244775f95781a/tumblr_mmg8etEJt81qzlz5go1_r1_1280.jpg
emotional - http://adland.tv/ooh/feed-sa-trolley-ambient-south-africa
swing - https://www.flickr.com/photos/21745851@N00/4805435840
facepalm - http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=facepalm
no finish line - http://www.quotesvalley.com/images/50/there-is-no-finish-line-5.jpg
danbo - https://www.flickr.com/photos/nomadic_lass/6889892777/in/set-72157629144987013
unicorn - 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 Smith
Content Strategist, Distilled
caffeine addict; book worm;
would really like a unicorn...
send cat pictures or questions to:
hannah.smith@distilled.net

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