Creative and lateral thinking in action

Milano, 23 aprile 2010

What feeds my creativity?

Is this a picture of an old woman or a young one?

Is this the face of an honest person or a liar?

Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer inwaht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a

taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.

Fill in the ?s

??e, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten,

????, ????n, ??n?

Clue

Lateral thinking

Edward de Bono

Creative Thinking

What is creativity? New ideas; inspiration; positivity; energy; passion;

bringing opportunity to life; life force; seeing potential not limitations…

Adds most value when it aligns with business strategy and brand

Creativity…motivates people

ensures constant improvement

makes you competitive

pays

makes you efficient and effective

Breaking a pattern: four practical techniques

1. Different perspective

2. Block, escape, drop

3. Broaden parameters

4. FutureShock

#1 Different perspectivesDifferent hats

What would Walt Disney, Richard Branson, Nelson Mandela, Bill Gates do?

Different corporate cultures

What would Nike do? Coca-Cola? McDonalds? L’Oreal?

Different sectors

How would/do the manufacturing industry approach this problem? The financial services industry? The healthcare industry?

Different disciplines

What would advertising/direct mail/research disciplines do?

#2 Block Escape Drop

Change current methods, escape from dominating idea,

drop altogether

For example:

What if we can’t write a press release about this?

What if we had to market this handset without mentioning music?

What if we had no demo handsets?

#3 Broaden parameters

Remove natural limits to thinking by broadening parameters

$ million

30 people full time

CEO visit

Double it! impact, longevity, size

#4 Future Shock

Create fantasy scenario to push thinking

Apple launches identical handset the week before

Sony Ericsson and Samsung merge

Legislation bans listening to music while walking outdoors (for safety reasons)

The Six Thinking Hats

What information do we have?

What information is missing?

What information would we like to have?

How are we going to get the information?

The White Hat = Information

The Red Hat = Feelings

Feelings

Feelings

Feelings

Feelings

Feelings

Feelings

Feelings

The Black Hat = Caution

Rules

Regulations

Limitations

The Yellow Hat = Benefits

Optimism

Feasibility

Benefits

Deliberate searching

The Green Hat = Creativity

Creative thinking

New ideas

Additional alternatives

Possibilities

Hypotheses

The Blue Hat = Managing the thinking

Process control

Agenda

Next steps

Other hats

Summaries

Conclusions

Commentary on thinking used

Decisions

A game of hatsYou Tube Video

Pass the hat please

Creativity killers

Obstacles to creativity

• Habit and routines

• Fear of making mistakes

• Beliefs

• Status quo

• Certainty

• Boredom

• Self-doubt and self criticism

• Stress

• Rational thought

• Politeness

• Fear of looking silly

• Lack of time

• Local culture (Italian vs. English vs…..)

Summary

We are all capable

Creativity is a process

Maintain a healthy mix of pragmatism and free-thinking - ideas that don’t work don’t sell…

There are few new ideas but many more twists on an old idea

The creation of something new is not accomplished by the intellect

but by the play instinct acting from inner necessity.

The creative mind plays with the objects it loves…

(La creazione di qualcosa di nuovo non viene compiuta dall’intelletto, ma dall’istinto al gioco che viene mosso da una necessità interiore.

La mente creativa gioca con gli oggetti che ama...)

C. G. Jung

A few examples of creativity in action

“LG Mobile Italiancup” Texting Championshipthe first Italian SMS texting competition

In order to support and promote the launch of the LG mobile phones with a “Qwerty keyboard” –targeted to the teens in particular -, and convey the message that “LG Mobile has been the first to bringthe Qwerty keyboard to the masses” in order to make the “Life of Y Generation Good” (“Life’s Good” isLG’s strapline), Text 100 Italy recommended to organize an Italian “SMS texting Championship” toaward the quickest texter on the Qwerty keyboard of an LG mobile phone.

More than 9,000 people, mainly youngsters and teens, participated in the competition.The “LG Mobile Italiancup” started on October 31st and in four stop-overs it covered allItalian regions, from North to South. Four of the main CE retail chains collaborated with LGand hosted the competition stops. The participation was promoted only through word-of-mouth and PR activities – including bloggers engagement).

The final competition among the semi-finalists (who had won the local competitions in theretail shops around Italy) was organized in Milan, in a well known club called LimeLight, onDecember 10th. It was an amazing partynight for youngsters, where LG with the help of Text100 invited also partners, customers, employees and – of course – journalists. Two wellknown Italian DJs conducted the evening show, during which the finalists fought to becomethe “quickest texter in Italy”.

Coverage Results

Text 100 obtained great coverage results: 1 national TV program presented theinitiative at the end of October, and 5 TV channel participated in the finalcompetition event night and shot interviews with the finalists, putting also theLG mobile phones in the spotlight. Lots of dailies (national and local), bloggersand radio channels covered the news throughout the competition.

Total coverage: in 40 days, we obtained over 80 print and online articles, 8broadcast (TV and radio) airings and more than 40 blog posts

The objective of the campaign: highlight Xerox expertise in document management through a dedicated website –www.cliccalastoria.it - which showcased original documents from the Italian constitution including the first drawings of the Republic’s crest.

In collaboration with the Italian Parliament Text 100 created a web site (linked to Xerox and Parliament web sites) where people can have access and download copies of fundamental Republic acts, such as original version of Constitution. This service would be of particular interests for schools and universities.

"The Cliccalastoria project represents an example of how to position Xerox in a creative way as a provider forward-looking, value added services for businesses, but also for other audiences, including young people, who can look at Xerox as a true innovator".

Rogerio P. Fangueiro, General Manager, Xerox Southern Entity, Europe

Cliccalastoria.it - Historical documents archive of the Italian RepublicText 100 Italy, Winner SABRE Awards 2007, Mediterranean

Linking with the 45° anniversary of Xerox Italy, the website shows a chronology of the most important events of Italy’s history in parallel with Xerox.

30+ articles published in Tier 1, daily, business, broadcast and online media

The project won Text 100 Italy a Sabre Award in 2007

Intel Short Movie ContestEngaging social media to promote Intel’s consumer technologies

Intel Corporation Italia has been a main sponsor of Taormina FilmFest for the last 4 years. In 2008, in order to address the consumer audience and leverage Intel Centrino 2’s “entertainment and cinema” capabilities, Text 100 Italy created and developed two projects, strictly linked to one another:

1.“Intel Short Movie Contest”: an online competition open to all Internet users and would-be “digital film directors” who want to create a short movie/videoclip; the best videoclip was awarded a prize during the Taormina FilmFest. The theme of the competition was “What is in your opinion the most important ingredient for happiness?”, with a strong link to the “Intel ingredient relevance” message (“what is the most important ingredient in a good PC?” “the Intel processor”)A specific, creative mini-website www.intelshortmovie.com was designed where people were able to find all the information to compete, upload their short movies, and vote for their favorite short movie.

The Results

• In less than 2 months, as many as 33 short movies were uploaded in the mini-website, more than15,000 people visited the Intel short movie contest website to see the short movies uploaded.

• About a hundred fans joined the “Intel Short Movie Fan group” created in Facebook, to promote the initiative.

• More than 20 bloggers wrote about/posted on the Intel short movie contest and participated in the blogger contest.

• The winning blogger (www.nikoisdifferent.net) achieved more than 2,000 unique visitors with his daily report of the main news and events of the Taormina FilmFest and was able to enjoy a great week in Taormina.

2.“Bloggers contest prize draw”; that offered the opportunity to win a week’s holiday in Taormina and become the “official blogger correspondent” of Intel for the FilmFest. The only requirement –apart from a general interest in cinema and movies - was to post a banner to promote the “Intel Short Movie Contest”.

Launch: Disney.it is landing in Italy!• Disney characters “phisically”landing

at the Airport of Milan for the new Disney.it

launch event

• TV channel crews and photographers allowed

in to take pictures and videoshootings

On top, a press event organized

in a dedicated area of the airport

Teaser “media alert” sent in

advance, to generate buzz

around this happening

Thanks!