Thoughts on being creative and finding inspiration. Four chapters: creativity matters more than ever; there's no such thing as an original idea; learn to steal and remix; dissect the formulas in ideas that work. I should note that while the statement in this title has been attributed to Picasso, Oscar Wilde and others, I stole it from Faris Yakob, who has used it for years. Thank you, Faris.

1. TALENT IMITATES
GENIUS STEALS
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2. AND THEN IT REMIXES
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3. Four chapters on:
how to be creative in the digital age

4. Chapter One
Creativity matters more than ever

7. New research from the University of Pennsylvania, published in a recent issue of the
journal Cognitive Neuroscience, showed that when the prefrontal cortex, your
command center for cognitive control and a filter for your random thoughts that might
interrupt your present tasks, is inhibited, your ability to tackle creative activities can be
better. This is because your unfiltered thoughts actually offer an advantage.
In other words, the less cognitive control, the better your creativity.

9. There’s a new marketing challenge:

10. There’s a new marketing challenge:
The Scarcity of Attention

11. 2000: 12 seconds
Source: National Center for Biotechnology Information

12. 2000: 12 seconds
Source: National Center for Biotechnology Information
2013: 8 seconds

13. 2000: 12 seconds
2013: 8 seconds Goldfish: 9 seconds
Source: National Center for Biotechnology Information

15. We need great, attention-worthy ideas

16. We need great, attention-worthy ideas
That invite participation

17. We need great, attention-worthy ideas
That invite participation
That generate content

18. We need great, attention-worthy ideas
That invite participation
That generate content
That inspire sharing

19. We need great, attention-worthy ideas
That invite participation
That generate content
That inspire sharing
That earn media coverage

22. Unfortunately
It never gets easy, but there are a few tricks.

23. Chapter Two
There’s no such thing as an original idea

24. “There is no such thing as a new idea. It is impossible. We simply take a lot
of old ideas and put them into a sort of mental kaleidoscope. We give
them a turn and they make new and curious combinations. We keep on
turning and making new combinations indefinitely; but they are the same
old pieces of colored glass that have been in use through all the ages.”

27. A new and curious combination

28. A new and curious combination
Illustration interacting with photography

29. A new and curious combination
Illustration interacting with photography
Editorial comment

30. A new and curious combination
Illustration interacting with photography
Editorial comment
A bit of irreverence

31. A new and curious combination
Illustration interacting with photography
Editorial comment
A bit of irreverence
Dash of inappropriate

34. Art director grew up in the country
Copywriter has chickens
Account executive’s kids went on a field
trip to a farm

35. Art director grew up in the country
Copywriter has chickens
Account executive’s kids went on a field
trip to a farm
Google image search

40. “We take ideas from other people, from people we've learned from,
from people we run into in the coffee shop, and we stitch them together
into new forms and we create something new.”

41. Chapter Three
We have to master both stealing and remixing

42. Note: this is not an invitation to plagiarize.

45. OUCH!

49. 7 km/h.

56. But these are ads, messages, paid media.

57. Social media

58. Social media
User generated content

59. Social media
User generated content
Encouraging influencers

60. Social media
User generated content
Encouraging influencers
Inspiring action

61. Social media
User generated content
Encouraging influencers
Inspiring action
New ways of telling stories

62. Social media
User generated content
Encouraging influencers
Inspiring action
New ways of telling stories
Owned content

63. Social media
User generated content
Encouraging influencers
Inspiring action
New ways of telling stories
Owned content
Creating utility

64. In an age of digital, social and mobile
we have to remix more than two ingredients.

65. Chapter Four
Learn to dissect good ideas and steal the formulas.

66. Social media
User-generated content
Inspiring action
New ways of telling stories

67. Social media

71. Formula: Social media (in the stream)
• Find a relevant cultural or media event
!
• Go where the fans are; what are they interested in?
!
• Take inspiration from the (event’s) content
!
• Connect your product to it

74. Thousands of re-tweets
Pages of press coverage
144,000 followers on Twitter *

75. * A laundry detergent.

78. Formula: Social media (in the stream)
• Find a relevant cultural or media event
!
• Go where the fans are; what are they interested in?
!
• Take inspiration from the (event’s) content
!
• Connect your product to it

79. User-generated content

82. Tactics
• No media buy
!
• Volumes of free content across Facebook, Twitter and YouTube
!
• Brand story told by users with followers
!
• Extensive media coverage

83. Results
1000 videos / 5 million plus views / 500,000 FlickR views / 3 million Twitter impressions
37 % brand awareness among GenY / 50,000 new prospects currently not Ford owners

84. Formula: User-generated content
• Create an experience
!
• Invite participation that inspires and enables content
!
• Document everything
!
• Distribute, repackage and encourage sharing

88. Formula: User-generated content
• Create an experience
!
• Invite participation that inspires and enables content
!
• Document everything
!
• Distribute, repackage and encourage sharing

89. Inspiring action

95. - 12 %

96. Formula: Inspiring action
• Start with something that would be good for
your customer rather than what’s good for you.
!
• Spread joy, not fear (never lecture)
!
• Create a crowd or community (visible)
!
• Reinforce by rewarding (gaming dynamics)

101. + 46 %

102. Formula: Inspiring action
• Start with something that would be good for
your customer rather than what’s good for you.
!
• Spread joy, not fear (never lecture)
!
• Create a crowd or community (visible)
!
• Reinforce by rewarding (gaming dynamics)

103. New ways of telling stories

108. Formula: New ways of telling stories
• Think about how to “demonstrate” your message
!
• Create an actual “stunt” that attracts users/prospects
!
• Work across multiple media and technologies
!
• Record reactions and create a story

109. We asked people to upload an image of a friend on our website

110. Our image manipulators than edited the photo…

111. …and pasted it in photo of a non existing event.

112. The participants received a notification that their manipulated photo
was placed into the event album.

113. People could then tag their friend in the photo.

115. Formula: New ways of telling stories
• Think about how to “demonstrate” your message
!
• Create an actual “stunt” that attracts users/prospects
!
• Work across multiple media and technologies
!
• Record reactions and create a story

116. Formulas work and
you can find them everywhere.

119. Formula: New ways of telling stories
• Break big things into little pieces
!
• Offer a psychic reward for participating
!
• Don’t be afraid to ask, then trust people to do right
!
• Be joyful and enthusiastic

121. Formula: New ways of telling stories
• Break big things into little pieces
!
• Offer a psychic reward for participating
!
• Don’t be afraid to ask, then trust people to do right
!
• Be joyful and enthusiastic

123. It’s about your customer, not about you.

124. To recap

125. There are no original ideas

126. Find good stuff to steal

127. Re-mix ingredients

128. Dissect formulas

129. Think “do” versus “say”

130. I don’t tell my friends about your product
because I like your product.

131. I tell my friends about your product
because I like my friends.

132. References and Resources
A Technique for Producing Ideas
Where good ideas come from
Creativity Study
Attention Span Statistics

133. @edwardboches
edwardboches.com
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