So tell me, what's the. . .

Two years ago on our blog we posited the idea that "thinking outside the box" is dead.  This is what we said:

"Thinking outside the box is no longer the golden rule. It kept you on the cutting edge of creative problem solving for sourcing, making and marketing goods in a manufacturing based economy...Today’s challenges require thinking for a post-industrial economy.   A new market where proliferating technologies, changing business models, and the shifting dimensions of globalization are the order of the day...."For platinum status you have to think at the intersection..."

(You can read the whole post here)

From this idea we developed our Seven Principles of Convergence in which principle #1 is: Think at the intersection, not outside the box.

In July I wrote a post entitled "Hard-Edge, Erotic Pop meets Tank Girl" (title borrowed from Hugh McCleod) in which I discussed the highly creative and (financially) successful Australian artist Hazel Dooney. Recently we received a mention on the Australian online publication, Word on the Street,  which quoted Hazel saying this:

"It would appear that – as is often the case with whatever's next at the intersection (emphasis mine) of technology and culture – the Americans are 'getting' me ahead of everyone else," Hazel Dooney has said in response to two, recent high-profile online commentators who have written about her Here and Here"

Nice.

This is just one example of the idea of the intersection.

In the 21st Century as brands are being re-designed and business models are being re-constructed (which will take creative thinking and innovative approaches) you just may want to consider abandoning that box and exploring the intersection instead.

Embrace this equation

                                                                                     Image from  99percent.com

Does your brand bleed passion?  Let me ask again.  Does your brand bleed passion?

If it doesn't then put away your water bottle, pack up your shoes, and turn in your uniform. Let the coach know you're not ready and just head home. Game over. 

It's one of the oldest and probably most repeated ideas out there.  Be passionate. Find something you'd do for free and go for it. Find what matters deeply to you and pursue it with reckless abandon. 

To understand that money cannot get you passion, but passion can get you all the money in the world is something to know and never forget. 

Every now and then we have to remind ourselves of this simple concept. It is what pushes and sustains ideas, projects, and businesses. Its what drives creativity. It is what drives innovation. 

It is that ache in our hearts to do something that makes us feel alive. Doing something that matters. 

Passion is the soul of determination that conquers and destroys anything in its path. 

Hmmm. . .what to ask?

Back in April I put up a post that discussed the backbone of what we are about: The Seven Principles of Convergence.  The post covers the seven tenets/building blocks that make up our approach to brand strategy and marketing innovation . 

So when I came across Mitch Joel's post on Twist Image (who I read regularly - see him on our Links on the Brink on the right) entitled Strategy Trumps Tactics Or Ask "Why" Not "What" I was pumped! His whole premise behind the blog post is about asking the right question which is Convergence Principle #4 - and it reads: Ask excellent questions the right way. 

Asking the correct question can radically change how you not only think about what you are doing but will ultimately change how you navigate today's complex landscape and reach your endgame.

Check out the video from his blog post  and enjoy!

A digital picture is worth a thousand words. . .

. . . so now imagine if you had a thousand digital pictures. How many words would you have then? A lot.

So what are the words, ideas, or concepts, to describe and explain today's "digital" market? Take your pick: The creative economy. The new digital landscape. The post-industrial age. The world of web 2.0. And if you really wanted to, I imagine you could probably put some of your own words together.

At the end of the day the bottom line is that we have to expand yesteryear's vocabulary of products and services to fit today's new ideas. As Einstein said "we can't solve problems using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them."

A few months back I wrote a piece called Warhol-ism in which I juxtaposed Warhols creativity in merging culture and the commercial world with today's opportunities to do the same. How do we creatively interpret Warhol's approach for today's 21st century challenges?

One way is to begin looking at Lee Clow's idea (which I blogged about in my previous post) of "media art." A term which describes how brands can be made inseparable from culture. Lee goes on to say that every brand touch point needs to be treated as an opportunity to seduce an audience. Now I wasn't quite sure what that looked, felt or might be like. Then I came across these. . .(digital seduction worth thousands of words).

As we've been saying for some time now Convergence (the merging of business, technology and culture in new combinations) is the new business ethos of the 21st century, and artist, Chandra Michaels, creator of the Sugarluxe iPhone Gallery, with her comment below captures one slice of this idea beautifully:

"The iPhone represents a new modality for the innovation, ownership and appreciation of digital art, and creates a new mechanism for artists and designers globally to monetize their talent." "This truly is New Art for a New Medium."

Lee Clow's next. . .

Should be your revolution

Well I'm imagining that your question right now is. . .who the hell is Lee Clow?!?

Let me introduce you. Lee is the Global director of media arts for TBWA\Worldwide (one of the most creative ad firms in the world). He's the brains behind the "Think Different" campaign (celebrating iconoclasts from Muhammad Ali to Einstein) that would in 1997, pull back the curtains and introduce a new Apple to the world that would, just a few short years later, become the embodiment for innovation.

He's the brains behind the Energizer Bunny, the Taco Bell Chihuahua, and the Adidas's "Impossible Is Nothing" campaign to name a few. Now according to Lee in a Fast Company article from June of this year, his own next revolution is something he calls "media arts," a term that describes how brands can be made inseparable from culture. He believes every brand touch point needs to be treated as if it were an opportunity to seduce an audience. He then goes on to say that "when advertising is done well, I think it can become a part of our culture. When it's done badly it becomes visual pollution."

I couldn't agree with him more.

One of my favorite lines by Hugh MacCleod that drives this point home says "if you talked to people the way advertising talked to people, they'd punch you in the face." Classic.

Now technically we don't need Lee or Hugh to tell or show us that we really don't like the way advertising is intrusive in our lives. That's why we flip the channels at commercial breaks or a partial reason we TiVo our favorite television shows. Its one of the reasons why HBO rocks. Great entertainment. No commercials.

Other indicators that you should jump in the revolution mosh pit with Lee are popping up everywhere. Post Advertising wrote in July that Conde Nast (a worldwide magazine publishing company) lost 1,680 ad pages in September—traditionally an ironclad month for magazines—vs. last year. Ad Age recently spoke about how their own research is uncovering how advertising is becoming less and less effective. And two new books look at the  major upheavels in marketing: The Chaos Scenario makes the case that advertising as we know it is about to be obliterated and Ad Nauseum: A Survivor's Guide to American Consumer Culture suggests that we should all be dancing with the stars on its grave.

At the end of the day it's imperative that organizations understand the first rule of business is the first rule of life - adapt or die. Advertising needs to re-invent itself. It needs to understand convergence.  It needs to be cultural. It needs to engage us in conversation. Its got reeeallly bad habits that need to change in order to figure out how to offer us value. And like my momma use to say to me when I was little and I kept "messing up" and "doing things wrong" (that could land me in undesirable situations). . . "You need to get this through that thick skull of yours" - Advertisers . . .  are you listening to my mom!!