Post on 15-Apr-2017
transcript
@hannah_bo_banna
jaws in space
how to develop
& pitch creative ideas
@hannah_bo_banna
@hannah_bo_banna
steal this deckhttp://dis.tl/SEMDays2015
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this is distilled
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we made this
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2.2m page views | 111k+ ‘likes’ | 1,280 LRDs
@hannah_bo_banna
a few years ago we made this
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it got just 31 ‘likes’
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we *still* don’t always get it right
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everyone agrees that coming up with a ‘good’ ideais paramount
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but what do we mean by a ‘good’ idea?
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something that appears to have worked?
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pop quiz!
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I’m going to show you 2 pieces - which got the most links?
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ready?
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64 LRDs
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275 LRDs
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ok, you’ve seen which got the most links, but which got the most interactions on facebook?
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ready?
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50k facebook interactions
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5k facebook interactions
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the relationship between social shares and links is not as linear as you might expect
@hannah_bo_banna
sometimes links lead to increased social shares
@hannah_bo_banna
1,280 LRDs | 111k+ ‘likes’
@hannah_bo_banna
other times, social shares lead to links
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230k+ ‘likes’ | 330 LRDs
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ok, let’s try another one
raise your hands if you think this piece got links from more than 100 sites
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ready?
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215 LRDs
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what about this one?
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ready?
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74 LRDs
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so hopefully I’ve proved that spotting a good idea is tough
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but most of the time we’re not even thinking in terms of ideas,
we’re just getting wrapped up in formats
@hannah_bo_banna
‘guides get links’ let’s do loads of guides!
@hannah_bo_banna
a guide is a format, not an idea
@hannah_bo_banna
video is a format, not an idea
@hannah_bo_banna
an infographic is a format, not an idea
@hannah_bo_banna
it’s a huge mistake to think in formats
@hannah_bo_banna
people don’t share formats,they share ideas
@hannah_bo_banna
a quick note on ideas
@hannah_bo_banna
text
an idea is a novel combination of
previously unconnected elements in a way that adds value
@hannah_bo_banna
you’ve probably thought this:
“hmmmm a lot of pop songs sound kinda the same… why is that?”
@hannah_bo_banna
the answer:
“they use the same four chords…”
@hannah_bo_banna
you could just write a list of all the songs that use the same chords...
@hannah_bo_banna
meh
@hannah_bo_banna
it’s not until you show me that I really get it
@hannah_bo_banna
why do pop songs sound the same?
they use the same 4 chords
bring it to life with a mash up
combining previously
unconnected elements
execute in a way that adds value
@hannah_bo_banna
that’s an idea
@hannah_bo_banna
that’s what you need to be shooting for
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but I’m getting ahead of myself, let’s rewind a little
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we don’t have the luxury of creating & launching a bunch of different things
before hitting on a winner
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we get fired
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how can we improve our strike rate?
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we started out with this
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what sort of ideas ‘stick’?
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urban legend
(a story which spreads spontaneously in various forms)
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a friend of a friendwas away on business in Chicago
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he decides to head out to a bar alone
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he meets a beautiful stranger
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they head to a motel
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in the morning he wakes to find himself in a bathtub full of ice
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there’s a freshly stitched incision on his side
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call 911 is scrawled in lipstick on the bathroom tiles
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he’s admitted to hospital, & is told that one of his kidneys has been removed
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this guy is almost certainly going to wake up without a kidney
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authors Chip & Dan Heath wanted to figure out why people shared this story….
here’s what they came up with
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it’s simple & easy to tell
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& it has one clear message
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“don’t accept drinks from strangers”
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it’s unexpected,a kidney seems a high price to pay for a one night stand
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it’s concrete,there are tangible details:
a bathtub full of ice, call 911 is scrawled on the wall
@hannah_bo_banna
it seems credible(despite the fact that there have never been any crimes of
this nature recorded)
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it provokes an emotional reaction
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it’s a great story& people remember stories, not stats
@hannah_bo_banna
we’re not in the business of inventing urban legends
but we are seeking to create things which other people want to share
@hannah_bo_banna
as such we’ve taken the ‘Made to Stick’ framework, added a factor of our own, & applied it to the content we create:
simpleunexpectedconcretecredibleemotionalstoryshareable
@hannah_bo_banna
simple
is there one clear message? (don’t bury the lead)
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unexpected
what’s new or different?
@hannah_bo_banna
2.2m page views | 111k+ ‘likes’ | 1,280 LRDs
@hannah_bo_banna
concrete
are the details tangible? or are you dealing in the abstract?“you can’t pick up a calorie, you can pick up a burger”
@hannah_bo_banna
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credible
is your data credible?is the story credible?
is it credible coming from you?
@hannah_bo_banna
emotional
does it provoke an emotional reaction?does it make people feel something?
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story
are you telling a story?people remember stories, not stats
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shareable
would someone look good sharing this?what does sharing this say about someone?
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you don’t need all 7 to be successful: but in this case, more is more
@hannah_bo_banna
further reading:
lessons in virality from axl rosehttp://dis.tl/HS-axl
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the ‘success’ framework helps us fail less often, but it hasn’t solved all our problems
@hannah_bo_banna
problem one
it’s a useful tool, but it can be used as a weapon
@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
don’t use this to shoot ideas down,use it to build ideas up
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how can we develop this idea to make it moresimple?unexpected?concrete?credible?emotional?story-driven?shareable?
@hannah_bo_banna
you can also use the framework later in the ideation process to help you decide which ideas to pitch
@hannah_bo_banna
but there’s another issue
@hannah_bo_banna
the made to stick framework helps you develop‘good’ ideas
@hannah_bo_banna
but we’re not just trying to come up ‘good’ ideas
@hannah_bo_banna
we’re trying to come up with ‘good’ ideaswhich are right for our clients
@hannah_bo_banna
problem 2
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 coming up with ‘good’ ideaswhich were right for the client
ANDget them signed off
we needed to get better at pitching ideas
@hannah_bo_banna
who’s great at pitching ideas?
@hannah_bo_banna
the high concept pitch
for alien was
“jaws in space”
@hannah_bo_banna
@hannah_bo_banna
that’s a lot of information in just 3 words,it tells you a lot about the film
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the ship is not sleek & clean like in other sci-fi moviesthis is grubby, broken, low-tech
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this film will be filled with tension & conflict,not everyone will understand the danger they’re in
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we figured we could learn from this
however,the aim was not to be able to pitch our ideas in 3 words
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or even 6 words
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our aim was to distill our thinking & communicate why our ideas were right for the client
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this is what we came up with
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relevant, resonant & different
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this is hard to explain in the abstract so I’ll be using an example
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pop quiz!
@hannah_bo_banna
raise your hands if you think this is a ‘good’ idea
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hopefully I can convince the rest of you
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relevant, resonant & different
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relevant
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this is about ‘brand fit’why is this the right thing for the company to do?
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podio’s strapline is ‘empowering you to work the way you want’
&
they’re targeting 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
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resonant
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why will our target audience & target publishers care about this?
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creativity & productivity are perpetually hot topics:
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so we know people share this stuff
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we think people will share our piece because it:
makes them look smartand/or
makes them look culturedand/or
makes them look interested & interestingand/or
makes them look like they care about being creative
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& we know the publishers we want coverage fromfeature this stuff
@hannah_bo_bannaexcerpt from a buzzsumo content analysis report for ‘creativity’
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different
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how is this different from what’s already out there?how are we adding value?
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this data has been visualised before
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but this is a posterit wasn’t built for the web
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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
have I managed to convince you it’s a good idea yet?
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how did it all go down?
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you will never be 100% confident
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@hannah_bo_banna
760k page views | 40k+ ‘likes’ | 1,077 LRDs
@hannah_bo_banna
please note:
@hannah_bo_banna
results like this don’t just *happen*
@hannah_bo_banna
we spent over 60 hours promoting this piece
@hannah_bo_banna
today we use the ‘SUCCESS’ framework alongside‘relevant, resonant, different’
@hannah_bo_banna
it means our ideation process is more rigorous
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& it forces us to think harder about whether or not our ideas make sense for our clients
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it makes getting sign off from clients easier
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& we’re failing less often
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final thoughts
@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
1. 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 ideait’s a format
@hannah_bo_banna
people don’t share formats,they share ideas
@hannah_bo_banna
further reading:
how to produce content people will sharehttp://dis.tl/MJ-share
how to produce better content ideashttp://dis.tl/MJ-idea
@hannah_bo_banna
2. take this sh*t seriously
@hannah_bo_banna
a few years ago we used to ‘present’ creative ideas like this:
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those were not ideas
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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 deckwe also spend significantly longer on the ideation process
@hannah_bo_banna
3. keep on keeping on
@hannah_bo_banna
we continually evolve our approach & our processes
@hannah_bo_banna
@hannah_bo_banna
good luck out there x
@hannah_bo_banna
Hannah SmithContent Strategist, Distilled caffeine addict; book worm; would really like a unicorn...
send cat pictures or questions to:
hannah.smith@distilled.net
credits
Images:alien: http://www.wired.com/2010/02/0205hr-giger-born-science-fiction-artist/kidney heist: http://www.marthastewart.com/275076/a-housewarming-cocktail-party/@center/277004/kevin-sharkeys-home-makeover#222626 unexpected - http://thabto.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/shocked-face.jpgdaily rituals - http://24.media.tumblr.com/011d7a30de400a6f5f9244775f95781a/tumblr_mmg8etEJt81qzlz5go1_r1_1280.jpgemotional - http://adland.tv/ooh/feed-sa-trolley-ambient-south-africaswing - https://www.flickr.com/photos/21745851@N00/4805435840facepalm - http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=facepalm no finish line - http://www.quotesvalley.com/images/50/there-is-no-finish-line-5.jpgdanbo - https://www.flickr.com/photos/nomadic_lass/6889892777/in/set-72157629144987013unicorn - 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.