Connected Creativity: Straight From the Cubicle of a Creative

Posted by George San Jose in CPG, Healthcare, Insurance, Multicultural Marketing, Nonprofit, Total Market, Travel and Leisure | 1 comment

In a world where everyone can create, control and distribute their own content, what does all this mean for creativity in our new hyper-connected world? A world where our social networks influence our individual behavior more than we had previously realized.

What’s needed is social creativity. It’s not enough to craft a message that just touches the individual. What we produce today has to be inherently social. Content that begs a reaction and has a clear social interface. Content which encourages playing, participating and passing on. Content which connects people with people as well as people and brands. Content which builds brand communities.

For many years we’ve believed the best work has to have “ Talk Value”. Today we should ask our teams to create work with Share Value. Work that people want to participate in, to play with and to pass on. Content which somehow enhances the credibility or social status of the sender and says something about who they are and who they want to be. Either because it’s funny, clever, innovative, emotional, charitable or just plain useful. Content which will appeal to a shared interest group rather than just an individual.

In a world as busy as ours, creating content that has Share Value requires even more creativity than ever.

It’s not always easy, though. Producing something that’s social requires a way of working which is also more social. No single person can manage every aspect of the creative process today. Collaboration is essential, especially where technology is involved. It’s not a case of ‘creative by committee’.

Instead, the skill lies in thinking like a casting director about who you need to cast at what stage of the process. And managing and inspiring new types of creative teams, which go well beyond the traditional pairing of art director and copy writer.

SJG is developing a Christmas Card that will put this to the test. It will be funny, clever, innovative. We’ll keep you posted, but so far it looks very engaging.

For more information about this topic please email sjgpr@sjadv.com. For more information about the San Jose Group please visit www.sanjosegroup.com/main.html