Successful business, and successful PR needs goals, strategies and measurement. What it also needs is a healthy dose of creativity. If I got one hundred bucks for every time I’ve seen a RFP ask for an agency to demonstrate ‘creativity’ I would be writing this article sitting on a beach sipping a cocktail.
In the World of PR (which has a lot of similarities with World of Warcraft - the massively multiplayer online role-playing game) creative genius goes a long way. But, what happens when you’re all taped out of good creative ideas?
Consider these ways to generate ideas for the times when you’re feeling a little flat:
Trends - Look, learn, jump on the bandwagon. While you go about your day, look far and wide for common threads that seem to meet. Then connect them and look at the wider trends in place. Now simply connect your product/brand to that trend.
See that automotive companies are coming out with smaller cars, and that computers seem to be smaller, and tomatoes are smaller, and less is more? Maybe that boutique hotel that you represent has something in smaller rooms?
Calendar – What day is it today? I bet if you look it up you’ll find it is national your kitty wears a pink bow tie day. Well, it could be. The point is, if you look up what day it is, what week it is, what month it is… you’re going to find something good. Of course, you could just look at national holidays, religious holidays and sporting events. You could also take into consideration ‘this day in history’, or look for future events, like anniversaries, elections, exhibitions, special appearances and other launches.
Collaborate. Brainstorming can be a nightmare, true, but it can be fun. Most certainly, you don’t know what you’re going to come up with before it starts. There are plenty of pieces of advice on how to make brainstorming effective. Post the rules, invite people in and open a bottle (or three).
Stunt it up. Some of the best stunts are low cost, high visibility and have a high element of people having fun. Sure, there are programs about stunts where you are tricking people into believing bad stuff, but try to take a positive spin. It wasn’t too long ago that flash mobs/dances/singing was all the rage. In fact, we’ve seen some pretty fun ones recently. Try and keep your stunt relevant to your product/brand’s integrity.
Get clever, creative and go have some fun!