The Grinch who built a community

When I was (reluctantly) at the mall yesterday, I was reminded of the tremendous potential for brand building during the holidays.

Not shopping, not buying things.

Brand building.

By creating communities.

With all of the giving and cheer, when people are at their best and most in the mood to spread good tidings, think about the tremendous opportunity to build communities of people who are passionate about the same thing.

Apple comes closest, for all the obvious reasons. The atmosphere in their store is kind of like a big party that everyone cool and nice is invited to. All of the people in there have something in common, whether you can put your finger on it or not.

Can’t say many other stores/brands have it right. But think of the community-building opportunities, all over the mall. A massive captive audience filled with the spirit of the season and theoretically, willing to take the time to address how they feel about their most (or least) favorite brands.

Even the guy in the SUV who blew off a stop sign and gave me the finger as he raced off at 40 mph. That’s a disgruntled patron with valuable input. What if the mall planners could ask him how they could improve the parking and throughways during the holiday? And what if he had suggestions, and the planners adapted per his suggestions? Think of the good faith that would engender and the allegiance that could be created.

If only someone asked the Grinch why he hated Christmas so much. So much heartache could’ve been avoided, so much Whoville brand building and community planning could’ve been achieved.

How to create a community of spies

There are more end-of-year lists than mattress sales this time of year. Ridicule them if you will, but they’re great ways to find good reading, stupid videos, cool design…pretty much the best of anything you’d ever want to experience.

You could probably just live in a cage from January through Thanksgiving, wake up and spend a few solid days online, and find the bestest stuff of the year.

Here’s one list on design that’s mindless and fun. I especially like the Rollercoaster designed to kill you and the USB drives hidden around NYC to connect people into a little spy network, the former because it’s wickedly smart and the latter because it’s another ingenius way to build a community.

Try something new for $20

Does this sound like a good thing? I suppose it depends on if you’re in a back alley in Thailand or at Alinea. The latter could give you gastric pleasure beyond compare and the former…well…there may be pleasure involved, but also some antibiotics shortly thereafter.

When it comes to Dabble, though, it’s a great idea.

For $20 a pop, you can spend a couple of hours learning about something you’ve always wanted to learn about. Like fencing. Or beer brewing, venture capital, and tomorrow, how to plan a stress-free dinner party, just in time for the holidays.

Low commitment, high potential. An ingenius way to be part of a temporary mini-community and learn something new while you’re at it. No wonder it’s spreading.

It’s like a smaller cooler Learning Annex. And what it seems to be building, that Learning Annex is too big to drum up, is a “buy local” type of community. As someone who prefers Filter and Star Lounge over Starbucks and Caribou, I’m all for it.

Pay attention to the B-side of life

When you have to listen to an entire album, you're forced to hear songs you would otherwise never have heard. You can pay attention to certain harmonies, or notice background vocals, or the way the instruments were arranged. You might catch some weird sound effect that's mixed in.

Paying attention to input in this way is surprise-fueled potential. Inspiration. A way to get to discovery. Which of course is the way to get to fresh ideas.

When you choose what you see or hear or do, rather than letting it happen, the opportunity for surprise decreases just a little bit. Since you know what you’ll be getting, the chances of a happy accident go down.

But what about the TV remote control? Can the generation before mine say the same thing about the way I learned to channel surf, therefore bypassing what could have been unlimited unplanned viewings? Sure.

Do I think I’m any less creative or inspired because I mastered the remote? Not really.

But just remember, Playlist Generation, as your appetite for control grows greater and you pick and choose with every decision: don't forget to pay attention to the B-side of life. It's the key that opens the door to discovery.

Does choice trump Discovery?

So have you heard about the Playlist Generation?
These are the folks who only know listening to music on ipods and mp3 players.
They don’t look at 78 rpm albums as a way of listening to music. They see them as cute scratchy relics that DJ’s use at concerts or shows.
Back in the day of albums, if you wanted to buy a song, you had to buy the whole album. Warps, scratches and all. You couldn’t just buy the one song.
The Playlist Generation gets to buy (or more likely, steal) that one song they’ve got to have.
Playlists are awesome.
But like many time-shortening devices, they may hamper Discovery.
And that’s too bad. Because discovery is the fount of new ideas.
A playlist to today’s teenager is kind of like a remote control for teenagers when I was one. A way of skipping over all of the options you don’t want and choosing only the one(s) you love, be it music or tv stations.
Each preceding generation decries the lazy-fication of our youth. Not having to stand up to change the damn channel. Not having to patiently (and sometimes painfully) listen to each song on the album just to get to the one really good single.
The similarity is, in each case, discovery is affected.
Tune in tomorrow to see why.

Water in a Box

Before we continue our conversation about Discovery, an interlude about the importance of follow-through.

I’d bet lots and lots of people have thought of ways to sell water in something other than a landfill-filling plastic bottle.

So why haven’t the huge corporate monoliths brought an alternate to market? And why has a small ecologically responsible company beaten them to it?

Your guess is as good as mine, but I’d bet it has something to do with that annoying little thing called profit.

Too bad, because this is a phenomenal idea with wonderful design. And not only did they discover it, they made it happen. They brought it to life. So please find some and buy some, and be inspired by a great idea executed really well.

And PS, it’s delicious.

Discovery is the action that creates moments of newness

Discovery has been around as long as people have been around. Whatever you consider to be the beginning of human civilization—Adam and Eve, Cavemen, Led Zeppelin, fresh pasta—the great ideas of the time were sparked by a moment of discovery.

Doing the naughty when you're not supposed to is an idea; finding fruit on The Tree of Knowledge was a Discovery.

Light bulbs are an idea; the controlled movement of charged particles like protons, electrons and ions was a discovery.

Discovery is the action that creates moments of newness.

Is it any different now? Absolutely not. Ideas are democratic. Discovery is unique and is the key to getting to fresh ideas.

The more intriguing question is, does the act of discovery change over time? Will our kids and grandkids experience discovery the same way our ancestors did?

The answer is, much like most questions comparing digital natives to their forebearers, yes and no.

The difference can best be articulated by the way people listen to music now vs. the way I listened to music as a teenager.

If you’re curious to hear how, check back on Wednesday.

There’s a reason they didn’t name it the Space Shuttle “Ideation”

Let’s talk about Discovery.
Discovery is an action. That goose-bumpy spine tingly activity that sparks the creation of the germ that becomes a great idea.
People love talking about the moment they come up with a great idea. That moment of inspiration. But “come up with” and “inspiration” are passive words.
Discovery is an active word. Synapses are firing, adrenaline is flowing.
Discover Dis • cov • er(diss kuvver): be first to learn or find something. (v)
A verb.
The actual moment of “Aha!”
“Idea” is not, sayeth the dictionary, a verb. Only recently has the world begun turning it into a verb. Ideating and Ideation are sexier ways of talking about what Alex Osborn simply and clearly coined “brainstorming” back in the Mad Men days. Now it’s a way to sound smarter and charge more money to facilitate it.
I’m fine with making conjugations of “idea” into different parts of language as long as we all acknowledge that there’s no new ideas without discovery.
Lots of ideas, to be sure, and lots of creativity, but without discovery, forget about fresh thinking. Which is all well and good for people who can get by with warmed over ideas that generate mediocre excitement and flat sales.
But smart cool profitable ideas? How do you get one of those?
Look for part 2, coming early next week.

I’d rather Bing with the sinners than Google with the saints

If you’ve ever thought that Google (or Bing, in my case) is used for the simple pleasures of locating, researching, or buying a product and service, connecting to old friends or finding new ones, finding love, music, art, directions, a restaurant, sheet music, etc… you’re right. If you Google.

It's not so much of an innocent act, apparently, if you Bing.

Take a look at the upper screen shot that shows the results of a very simple search I did on Google about how long ago I started on Twitter. It shows what Google thought were the most likely places I wanted to go after typing in just the first couple of words. I could be mistaken, but it looks like a lot of long-distance-running farmers had been Googling recently.

Then take a look at the lower screen shot that was the result of the same exercise on Bing. Don’t look now, but apparently, the guys and gals who’ve been Binging have been up to some not so down-on-the-farm types of activities. That, or it’s a whole lot of professional athletes who are facing random drug testing…

Kevin Bacon's not gonna be happy about this

You shouldn’t be surprised to know that there’s significantly fewer than 6 degrees of separation between you and anyone else on the planet.

These findings come from a new study by scientists from Facebook and the University of Milan. Before you poo-poo it because it was sponsored by 2011’s version of Big Brother, consider that the cohort for the study was 721 million people. Facebook users, yes, but also a full 10% of the world’s populations. Zoinks.

Also not surprising that this ever-increasing shrinkage of the world is being driven in part by the digital world in which we all live. I think for the first time in my life, I can say “Duh!” to something I read in the New York Times: “The research underscores the growing power of the emerging science of social networks.” Wow. I think Lolcats could’ve figured that one out.

For all you social media naysayers who would argue that “friends” takes on relative meaning since it’s likely that you really know a very small percentage of your Facebook friends, please take one stupendously big step forward and join us in the 21st century. As Cornell computer science professorJon Kleinberg says in the article, “It’s the weak ties that make the world small.”

What a great articulation of how social media is bringing people together. Someday we’ be playing three degrees of Kevin Bacon. The only question is how soon, and how much more you’ll have to imbibe if you’re playing the drinking game version.

And PS, a shout-out to Mr. Bacon himself, who I heard speak very impressively and entertainingly at TEDx Midwest about SixDegrees, the charitable organization he's created and maintained.

Miracles are always sweet

99.9% of the time, when something seems too good to be true, it is.

The Miracle Berry seems like it’s the other 0.1%.

I first heard of Miracle Berry from Homaru Cantu, the mind-bending chef of Moto restaurant, a temple of molecular gastronomy in Chicago. He spoke at Chicago Ideas Week about a berry that could make sour things taste sweet. He also talked about a lot of pretty fantastic stuff that night, including menus you can eat. So I figured it was boastful hyperbole and I forgot about it.

But it made me curious.

As I read more and more about it, I got more and more fascinated by a product that can do a whole lot more than make lemons taste very un-lemony. For example, Miracle berries have been given to cancer patients in a Florida hospital whose tate buds have been dulled by chemo. It helps them eat more and prevent weight loss.

Does this feel like a wonder drug to you? Why then do you think the the FDA won’t approve it?

One rumor has it that the sugar companies made it go away in the ‘70’s.

Conspiracy theories aside, it does seem to be legit, and it does warrant more than a head scratching. Miracles are always sweet, and this one's no different. Read up about it and social media-ize it with a few friends. Let’s build a community around the Miracle Berry and see if we can’t get it into more people’s mouths.

Vanilla. Camouflage. Wallpaper. Plain toast.

Do you want to be any of those things?

Didn’t think so.

I can think of a lot of brands (and people) that would enjoy inhabiting that world. They abhor the idea of unwelcome attention. They’re plugging along, calmly and safely, thinking of all the things that could wrong if they took a misstep, luxuriating in the warmth that is complacency, misguided as it might be.

Problem is, they’re at risk of fading into the background, never to be heard from (or purchased) again.

Brands should want attention, welcome or otherwise. It’s what gets people to notice and be interested, and once you have that, you have the possibility of connection. Once you have connection, you can work your way up to loyalty. And that’s the shizz.

Speaking of connection, a new ad campaign from Benetton is getting a lot of attention, good and bad, for connecting people a little too closely. They‘ve even had to pull one of them.

Benetton has a history of provocative ads that usually have nothing to do with the product, but everything to do with their philosophy of unity. Bing or Google Benetton and look how much press they’re getting. For a fashion brand, buzz is everything, and Benetton will never be vanilla. More like Amarena black cherry swirl.

And ps, those are some sick photoshop skills!

Look up before it’s too late

I know a “book” is a relative concept. You can read a “book” on a Kindle or an ipad. You can “turn” “pages.”

I’m not going to go old man crazy on you and tell you how reading devices are ruining reading. Because that would be an understatement.

What they’re really doing is ruining human communication.

Actually, the reading device conundrum is part of a bigger digital dilemma. At the epicenter is texting, and according to Sherry Turkle, who spoke at the Chicago Humanities Festival over the weekend, its affect on the increasing deterioration of actual human interaction. She has a new book on the subject. The NYT liked it.

It’s unsettling when you see people texting during a funeral, or families who sit at the same dinner table staring at their own screens. Nauseating, even. For many reasons which she articulates. And I’ll add one more:

The future revolves around forming communities. Bringing people together to connect and think and create and solve. It’s what Twist lives for and does every day. Because you have nothing if you don’t have community. And while there may be plenty of communities online, you can’t do anything if you don’t look up and talk to one another.

So let’s use technology to create communication, not break it down. I double dog dare you to take a walk with a friend and leave your blackberry/iphone etc behind. You can meet him on eharmony, or talk with her about a book you e-read. Start online if you must. But eventually, just go on a walk. Talk, connect, discuss, develop.

And look up. You never know what might be up there.

The most audacious rapper in the world

You can have Jay-Z, Kanye, Tupac, Biggie, and both M and M. To me the greatest wrapper in history is a 76-year old Bulgarian.

He’s wrapped the Reichstag, the Pont Neuf, and islands in Florida; he’s erected gates in Central Park, and umbrellas in Japan and California.

Next up is Southern Colorado, where Christo is getting closer to approval to Over The River, where he’ll suspend almost six miles of giant panels above a 42-mile stretch of the Arkansas River.

As usual, he has to go through countless rounds of talks with various governmental agencies to get approval, and he’ll finance the project with his money, earned through sales of his work. But he’ll get there. He’s smart and he’s persistent.

His life long partner and collaborator, wife jean Claude, died in 2009. They were fated to be together, having been born on the same day.

I’ve been a huge fan for a long time, and volunteered to help build the umbrellas in California. I was turned down, not by a form letter, but by a personalized letter from Jean-Claude, sent in an envelope stuffed with postcards of Christo’s work.

Admirers cite different reasons for loving the work. For me, it’s the pure audaciousness of the projects. Big, beautiful, and impossible not to notice. As simple as child’s drawings, yet so complicated, and so amazingly, incredibly original.

Check out Over The River. See the gift a truly audacious artist can give.

Serpentine, Shel!!!! Serpentine!!!

If you ever saw (the original) In-Laws with Peter Falk and Alan Arkin, you’re smiling now. One of the funniest scenes in a movie, ever.

Why is a direct path boring but going back and forth is fun? What makes hairpin turns and Silly Straws so much fun? Why is a kickoff return with seventeen laterals more entertaining than a straight-up-the-field return?

And don’t even get me started on body shapes.

Even making a curvy motion with your finger in the air is more fun than making a straight line. Go ahead, try it. Do it with a flourish. Pretend like you’re conducting a symphony. Lassooing a cow. Cracking a whip. Yee-ha.

And in the case of this spoon, curvy is highly functional, too. It’s the best kind of curvy. I found it at Argo Tea; you hang your spoon on the lip of your cup so you can store it between stirs without getting your saucer all wet and coffee-y.

Poo-poo it if you must but for hot beverage drinkers who like to stay dry this is a very happy spoon. And it's got a curve in it, so that makes it more fun right there. I'll take a dozen.

Can I get your digits?

No surprise, but the population growth of our great planet is growing. Within that fact, there’s good news and bad news.

The bad news: We’ve picked up speed, doubling to seven billion over the past fifty years. Resources are stretched. The poor get poorer.

The good news: More people means more cool ideas, more possibilities to put your head together with your universal brothers and sisters, more opportunities to find ways to work together to think up something smart, productive, profitable, beneficial, and fun. Solve the growing problems with even bigger ideas.

See where you stand in the chronological order of the world, and take pride in your digits. Then get together with someone and get thinking.

Gives new meaning to giving someone your number.

Read it and don’t weep. I dare you.

The best writing makes your heart skip a beat. It projects a movie in front of your eyes filled with images that compels your brain to consider them undeniably real.

The best writing comes from a place where otherworldly feelings live comfortably. Where once in a while, you have to close your eyes in the middle of a sentence to be able to fully digest and appreciate it. The best writing can make you cry from joy. And from sadness.

Ultimately the best writing comes from deep within the heart, where experience has been synthesized into love. And that’s certainly true of Mona Simpson’s eulogy for her brother Steve Jobs.

If someone were ever to send me something and say “Read it and weep,” this would be it.

Hot Math

Heard the other day that a couple of geniuses have calculated the number Pi to 10 trllion digits. It took Shigeru Kondo and Alexander Yee over a year and burned out many a hard drive. The room in which they were working heated up to over 104˚ as they worked.

It sounds a little like an experiment Willie Wonka would do with Stephen Hawking if they got together and did way too much cocaine and Mt. Dew. I have no idea if any if this is true because I wouldn’t know how to compute Pi past the nine digits on my calculator.

I don’t really understand the value in doing it. But I’d bet Shigeru and Alexander wouldn’t see the value in watching old West Wing reruns. I’d watch ten trillion of those if I could find a way to compress time. Maybe Shig and Alex could help me with that…?

Truthfully, I’m awed by their accomplishment, and I can only imagine the creative thinking they had to employ to solve the challenge and get to the ten-trillionth digit. And I can only wonder how strong they must be to be able to carry around such big calculators.

You’re crazy if you don’t like these songs

From the department of this-may-or-may-not-be-true because I heard it from a rock star, there have been more hit singles of a song called “Crazy” than any other song title.

This from either Will Champion or Chris Martin of Coldplay (couldn’t tell which one) in an interview on NPR on Sunday.

From Patsy Cline through Seal and Gnarls Barkley, decades of music lovers have heard creative artists posit and wonder around ways of being Crazy.

Why is this? I think off-the-charts right brained creative thinkers and doers do everything in the extreme, and they need extreme words to capture what they really feel.

Plus, it just wouldn’t be as interesting if Patsy was Stupid for loving you, or if Seal wasn’t going to survive unless he got a little Wacky.

Sliding into the Hall of Fame

You’ve got something people care about when you can create a Hall of Fame for it. All the major sports have one. So does Rock and Roll. And don’t forget Polka and Gospel Music. Astronauts, TV, Insurance, they all got ‘em.

Which would lead some to counter that anyone can put up four walls—or a web site—and salute something they love. And this is true. But if you build it, either digitally or physically, and people come, then it’s probably a good thing that you built it.

Hence, I love the White Castle Hall of Fame, which just announced their most recent inductees, including Constance Huening, a 90-year old who’s been eating Sliders since the 1920’s. If you think it’s easy to get in, consider this:

Since the Hall opened in 2001, from almost 8000 applications, they’ve inducted 80 people. Insert punch line here asking how many of them are still alive…

I’d bet most of them are like Constance Huening, eating a slider on every birthday. Unheralded heroes among the real people of this country. It takes a special kind of person (and a special kind of stomach) to get there.

It also takes a special kind of creative thinking to be a relatively hip and current brand after 90 years in business. Kudos to White Castle for sliding along for decades with basically the same product, and coming up with new ways to stay relevant and intriguing.

Think Galactically

Over the years, Richard Branson has been a poster boy for off-the-charts right brain thinking. His stunts are legendary, including his trip down 5th Avenue in a tank—and a cannon shot at the Coke sign--to announce Virgin Cola’s arrival in the US. With Steve Jobs’ passing he may be one of the most prominent visionary creative thinkers left standing.

And he sure does offer fun things to do and buy. The latest, launching from the (publicly funded!) first commercial spaceport, is a ticket for one of the first space flights on Virgin Galactic, if you have $200,000 burning a hole in your pocket. I’m tempted to pony up just for the experience, damn the cash flow reorganization required. Astronauts smacked golf balls off the moon 30 years ago. I'd like to try knocking one into the cup with a 9 iron from 100 feet out.

Not to mention, pioneering opportunities don't come around every day.

We can all learn a lot from a crazy right brain thinker like Sir Richard. He sets the creative thinking bar insanely high and challenges us to think not just big, but galactically.

Occupy something more positive

I'm mad as hell and I could see myself Occupying something other than my desk chair or that one really good seat at Starbucks with the good view, away from the door but close enough to people-watch.

And I understand the way anger builds up, and I get why thousands of people have joined the Occupy movement.

But I would suggest one thing:

Occupy something a little more positive.

Last week at TEDxMidwest, I heard Bill Strickland talk. Fairly quiet, somewhat unassuming, intensely passionate guy. Read about him, see if you can help his cause, but more than anything else, be inspired by his story and the stories he's helped thousands of other people successfully tell. Then see if you might feel like Occupying something more positive.

Generosity = confidence

A very wise, very good friend told me that many years ago. It stuck with me and I passed it on to many others because it’s wonderfully pithy and powerfully true.

When you give something away, people don’t just see you as likeable, they see you as confident.

So I was blown away by these five very confident people who served on a panel at Chicago Ideas Week, at Twist’s event titled “The Economy’s Effect on Creativity,” and gave away a lifetime’s worth of great advice for creative thinkers in the span of 6o minutes:

Tara Heibel, Founder and Owner of Sprout Home

John Timmons, former Director at Sears Holdings and Social Media Consultant

Sherman Wright, Co-Founder and Co-managing Partner of CommonGround

Catherine Hudon, Digital Producer and owner of Online Clothing line Shorty

Kathleen Luttschyn, Owner of the new maternity blog Style Nine and blogger for Apartment Therapy

Thanks to all five panelists, to all of the people who filled the room at Twist’s session, and to Tribeca Flashpoint Academy, an amazing institution in the heart of Chicago that is filled with ambitious designers of the artistic future.

Here’s to giving great stuff away and the supremely smart and confident people who do it.

Finding creativity in simplicity

The Postal Service is the the nation’s second-largest civilian employer, with 574,000 employees. Who’s #1?

Why, it’s that little company in Bentonville, Arkansas.

What does this mean? It confirms that when it comes to the way we shop, the vast majority of Americans like ‘em big. We want lots and lots and lots of choices; nothing very fancy; please make it friendly, thank you very much; and of course, make it as cheap as possible. But I suppose that’s pretty global.

Not a real complicated formula and I don’t think Sam Walton would argue. Sometimes ideas are great because they strip everything out and become wonderfully beautifully simple. I don't think he'd argue with that either.

PS, please check out Twist's event at Chicago Ideas Week next Tues 10.11. Space is limited and filling up.

Where do you get it from?

You go to the opera and while you’re listening to Tosca you figure out how to solve a 3-4 defense that has kept you out of the end zone.

You listen to a song by an artist you’ve never heard of and pluck out a few words that help you find the right phrase for the legal brief you’ve been struggling with.

You “Sit on the terlet.” (thank you, Uncle Sol.)

Creativity can strike anywhere. For me, it’s totally unpredictable. Matt Lauer asks a question in a way that makes me rethink how I get information.

I hear an Adele song with lyrics that speak to me.

“Throw your soul through every open door
Count your blessings to find what you look for.”

Most often, I think people find inspiration in counterintuitive places. It’s kind of like finding love. Don’t look for it. It’ll find you.

Although going to Chicago Ideas Week sure could help, especially this cool discussion on how the economy has affected creativity.

Who needs socks when you can have cupcakes?

Human instinct is to want stuff, whether it’s stuff you should have or not. We can only hold back for so long. It’s why diets don’t last and professional baseball players who go to jail get to come back to professional baseball. People like to eat yummy treats and general managers like to win games. So red velvet cupcakes and $5 milion pitchers with 5.00 ERA’s re-enter the equation.

This was further confirmed in last Friday’s NYT article that lays out the thinking behind people who are back to buying fun stuff at a faster clip than the necessary stuff. As the founder of Junior’s Cheesecake in Brooklyn so articulately summed it up, “People want to get back to living — it’s become a more adjusted normal.” Water always finds it’s own level, and humans find theirs.

My only fear is that the level they like isn’t one they can afford. My wish for them: Think creatively. When the stuff you want is unhealthy, unaffordable, or just doesn’t seem like a good idea, think about what could replace it, or what you could do instead; maybe find a different place to shop or eat, put on a pair of pants that you always ignored, or try combining two foods in one dish that might normally make you gag. Rumor has it that’s how Grant Achatz got his start.

You can’t always get what you crave. But if you think creatively some time, you’ll find, you’ll get what you need...

Speaking of which, have you checked out the schedule at Chicago Ideas Week? You might find an event on Tues 10/11 that's especially interesting.

A great example of how NOT to use creative thinking to get to a great idea.

I love/hate this picture.

No wonder our esteemed leaders are gridlocked. Everyone has ideas on how to unlock them. Here’s a first step: Eliminate 85% of the people in the room; rock paper scissors, Simon Says, whatever works. Get fewer voices in the conversation.

The key to a great ideation is to get the right people in the room. Dear Washington: Try this.

Chicago Ideas Week is only 10 days away. Pls check out a very cool discussion on where creativity fits in to this new economy.

Good writing is good. Being different is better.

What’s better than when someone creates a piece of communication that respects the target’s intelligence? Well, Free Pie Wednesdays at Baker’s Square, for one. But gratis Coconut Cream aside, I love websites and tv shows and tweets that don’t treat people like herds of lowest common denominators. Explains why I love Aaron Sorkin, he of The American President, West Wing, Sports Night, and The Social Network. And being a writer, I love his work because the dialogue is spectacular. Rapid fire, biting, human.

That said, I still like watching shows like Wipeout, which succeed for the same reason Larry Moe and Curly are in the comedy Hall of Fame. Sometimes you just don’t need words.

This is not true, though, if you believe London MarketingWeek’s article about long copy ads making a comeback. On the surface, it’s a win for writers who like to flex their linguistic muscles. But as the article makes clear, it’s more about zigging when others are not zigging. With the years-long dearth of long copy ads, the agency was trying something different, going an unfamiliar way to engage consumers.

While an interesting trend, this is not about the number of words, or even about what they say, although Aaron Sorkin might diagree. This, as is often the case when you want to create breakthrough ideas, is just about thinking differently.

Shameless reminder: Don't miss Chicago Ideas Week and Twist's timely and intriguing panel discussion.

Chicago Ideas Week is coming

Something magical always happens when diverse creative thinkers come together.

Ancient Maya, the Algonquin Roundtable, the Big Lebowski conventions, the NFL owners meetings…well, the NFL may disprove the theory a bit, but maybe you need to make sure you’re assembling the right people.

Next October 10-16, the right people will indeed be gathering together right here in our backyard, to create an ecosystem of innovation, exploration, and intellectual recreation. Chicago Ideas Week consists of dozens of intriguing events and over 100 speakers spread out across the city. Amazing creative thinkers representing art, architecture, culinary arts, sports, and much much more (no NFL owners allowed).

Check it out, make a plan, be inspired.

Just because you didn’t get a Genius Grant doesn’t mean you’re not a genius

22 people were awarded MacArthur Foundation "Genius Grants", the no-strings-attached, half a million buck fellowships to spend however they want. The winners were doing all kinds of mediocre things like leading children’s choirs, fighting for elder rights, figuring out how to prevent sports concussions, yadda yadda yadda.

What would I do if I got a MacArthur Genius grant?

Pay Alfonso Soriano for four innings.
Buy a five second ad on the Super Bowl.
Fill my cart all the way to the top at Whole Foods.
Give ipads to all of the needy children in the New Trier school system.
Extend our Cooking Light subscription for 41,667 years
Buy a massive amount of gnocchi and anitpasti from Piccolo Sogno and several ridiculously expensive Barolos and slowly consume it all over a two to three week period

So I guess it would pretty much be wasted on me.

But seriously, if I received a large amount of for-good money...? I would use it to convince every person in the world that they have many creative bones in their body, even if they say they have none. I would design incredibly thought provoking and compelling mechanisms and buy the necessary materials to build them on a massive scale. And we would work (and play) together until they were regularly using the creative side of their brains to figure stuff out and solve tough challenges. And I would then hope to get many many thank-you notes.

What would you do?

Renegade inspiration

Bracelets made out of old bicycle tires. “WTFWJD” bumper stickers. Musical hair. Old books with the middle carved out, the way you’d sneak a gun into a jail, but with the shape of an iphone carved into it to create a clever storage and carrying device for your iPhone.

These were few of the many wonderfully innovative items being displayed and sold at the Renegade Craft Fair on Division Street over the weekend. Renegade is based in Chicago and is also held "in urban epicenters of creative indie-entrepreneurship."

In Chicago, the entire fair is only a few blocks long but the vast amount of creative thinking they cram into several dozen small booths would put most other fairs to shame.

The items for sale go from playful to profane, beautifully crafted to simple but ingenious. And many just plain fun and smile-inducing, like the bookmarks made out of old book spines.

Beyond the items, the way they’re displayed and the way the booths are set-up are also given thought and made to feel different and a little special. Not your standard art-fair-in-a-mall exhibition.

If you’re even the slightest bit interested in being inspired, put it on your calendar now for next September. See how people are conjuring up fantastic things from old skateboards, books, bicycle parts. Putting the right sides of their brains to work and having a pretty gosh darn good time.

And if you want to feed your physical curiosity, try the brown rice sliders from Mana food bar. Tasty!

You can't always want what you get

I saw this blurb in my weekly Accounts on the Move email:

“SECRET WEAPON MARKETING WINS 1-800-DENTIST
Secret Weapon Marketing, the agency that handles only three clients at a time, filled the final slot in its three client roster with 1-800-DENTIST. Creative duties were previously handled in-house.”

I love Jerry McGuire, so I must love Secret Weapon.

I don’t know anyone there, although I’ve admired a lot of the Jack in the Box commercials over the years, all of them directed by Dick Sittig, the agency's founder and Creative Director.

Skeptics will scoff at their three-clients-only policy as a gimmick, or an excuse, or just a plain old money loser.

I say it’s genius. For one, it’s a great way to save time and money doing countless RFPs, which greatly increases employee's mental happiness. It allows them to focus on the business at hand, building client relationships, doing great work, and, heaven forbid, enjoying the work they do.

Plus, I would argue that it makes the agency more attractive to clients, regardless of how many clients SW takes. Every schoolboy who’s ever had a crush knows that some folks only want what they can’t have (at least that's how I explain my high school dating drought). For once, it’s the clients who should be nervous, with the possibility that they could lose their agency if another client comes along and steals them away.

And of course, it’s a different way of thinking about doing business. It changes the model. It’s twisted, and I love that.

One of my favorite quotes in one of my favorite movies is about the time and dedication that it takes to truly do a great job on behalf of another, and it can’t be underestimated. Secret Weapon understands this.

I just hope they're really really good at negotiating their fees.

Smell the book (or not)

Close your eyes and imagine you’re holding a book in your hands. What does it feel like? Smell like? Does it have years of dog-ears, coffee stains, worn edges? Now open it up. Are there annotations in the margins? Notes inside the front and back covers with phone numbers and lunch dates ?

If so, you’re crazy.

Books don’t look or feel anything like that, and they certainly don’t smell. That is, until someone creates a scratch n sniff app.

Well, ok, that might be a few years off, and I suppose some crazy antique book dealer in an alley in Evanston will make sure there will always be those things with pages that you turn and smell kind of dusty.

But as you well know, the digital book revolution is in full swing, and the latest reminder comes from Gregg and Evan Spiridellis, the guys who brought us JibJab. They have a new line of children’s books sold only on the ipad that allow you to customize a book and make yourself the star of the story.

This is what Gregg Spiridelli says about their new product:

"We see a huge opportunity to disrupt children's publishing and reinvent storytelling with new devices."

I love that. As much as I love the tactile experience of turning pages, I also love what the bros are doing. It’s smart and creative and makes reading more appealing for kids. It’s medicine inside a cupcake.

And if you’re wondering what the effect of tablet computers are on how kids are learning to read, according to USA Today, 47 of the top 50 iTunes book apps are kids’ titles.

Put that in your book and mark it.

I'll pay you not to like my product

This is kind of genius.

One way to get people to use your product is to get the people they admire to use your product. Hence, celebrity endorsers, product placement, league deals, sponsorships, etc. It enables even simple little products to dream of someday becoming the next George Foreman Grill.

But the field is getting more and more crowded, endorsements are becoming less and less meaningful, and consumer cynicism around celebrity endorsers grows daily. So I love this Twisted thinking.

It’s a brilliant way for Abercrombie to make clear who they are, by saying exactly what they’re not. Not only are they publicly disassociating from Jersey Shore, they feel so strongly about distancing themselves, they’ll pay to prove it!

And they do it in a way that their target can relate to. “I wouldn’t go out with Danny Schuman if you paid me.” A familiar-sounding high school refrain (and a little too close to home...). Point is, you have to really really not like something to pay money not to be connected to it.

It’s irrelevant whether Snooki or The Situation takes the dough. It’s the offer, and the clear meaning behind it, that counts (In fact, some are now saying it's a big back-to-school publicity stunt).

Either way, it's smart. Abercrombie thinks so little of the Jersey Shorers, they’d rather give them money than have the cast members wear their clothes. Fun, ballsy, stake-in-the-ground move. Makes the brand feel like it’s iconoclastic and trendy simply because they buck other trends.

Suicide-preventing pens!

I’ve been away from the blog for a while helping other people come up with great ideas, but in the words of Sir Isaac Newton, great ideas never take a vacation. Here’s the proof:

Who knew there’s a magical, lifesaving pen out there? A pen that has literally prevented people from killing themselves!

Actually, I don’t have any proof of this, but the last time I lost an entire notebook of notes and thoughts from crucial client meetings, the only thing that stopped me from killing myself was a bottle of Chianti and an Ally McBeal marathon.

So this pen is called the Echo smartpen from livescribe. First, you have to write on a special notepad. Then, when you connect it to your computer, your notes, scribbles, drawings, etc, are instantly and magically uploaded. And when you click back on your page, the pen tells you when you made that note or drawing.

I’m not doing justice to all the pen can do. Put it this way. For anyone who has taken notes and then forgot about…
--Where you put them
--When you had the conversation
--What the context or reason was for the conversation
--What the hell they mean !#$#$%@$%#!#
…this is technological manna from heaven. Gives your brain a break, your anger a breather, your sanity a refresh.

The single biggest question I had: Why didn’t Steve Jobs get there first with an ipen? The answer, of course, is that he was beaten to the punch. By a PC, no less. But like all things PC, it just doesn’t look as cool as the Mac version.

More on great ideas to come.

Please look up when you're talking to me. Or not.

This new development is definitely one of two things:

A brilliant idea that perfectly takes advantage of how things currently work, as well as a way to use new technology to get more kids involved at school.

Or a sad commentary on how unpersonal things will someday be.

I hate the idea of people “talking” to each other a few feet away while looking down at a screen, but I love the possibility of students finding new ways to interpret art.

It’ll be fascinating to see how the next generation is able to relate socially beyond their screens. I have no idea how it’ll turn out, but I’m pretty sure it’ll be good business for chiropracters.

How Social Media helps fuel great ideas

The best ideas come from the gut. They emerge from a feeling that what you’re creating is important.

They gestate for days or months or even years. Consciously or subconsciously, you’ve been collecting all that time and storing stuff up: Experiences you’ve endured or enjoyed, words you’ve heard, images your brain has captured.

You’ve been building empathy.

And then, one day, a ripped photograph shows up in your back yard.

You don’t know the people in the picture, but you know where it came from, because a few days before, tornadoes ripped through cities and towns that surrounded your own. And while your town, somehow, was spared, many, many more were not. Houses were destroyed, and priceless personal possessions were blown away. Some, for hundreds of miles.

The photograph in your hand, of a little girl in a cheerleading uniform, or grandparents on their wedding day, is a visceral reminder that it could have been you who lost everything.

This happened to Patty Bullion of Lester, Alabama. When she found a ripped picture of an older man and his dog, she posted it on Facebook, on a page that she created, titled simply, “Pictures and Documents found after the April 27, 2011 Tornadoes.” A woman 175 miles away posted almost immediately that the picture was of her grandfather, who had died in the tornadoes. You can only imagine how much the picture must have meant to the woman.

You can read about what happened from there in The New York Times, but as you can probably guess, many, many more items have since been posted, and many people have claimed them.

If you read some of the posts on the page, you’ll see the true genius of Social Media and how it gets people engaged, involved, and prompts them to do something. It certainly proves the power of people who care. That’s the first step in creating an idea that gets people to act.

If you're dying for a good idea...*

Costco, home of 2 pound hunks of mozzarella, 10 man tents and $200 cabernets, sells caskets. If this is not news to you, I’m sorry (in more ways than one).

Let me start by saying, I love going to Costco.

I don’t mind the crowds. At checkout, they get you through the lines amazingly fast, and I like looking at people’s carts while I’m waiting to pay. It’s a great way to see all the wonderful things that are potentially in my future (an 8-pack of John Wayne Certified Organic Black Pepper Flavor Beef Jerky! Who know John Wayne was into organic!?).

I just love all the stuff. I don’t know why four boxes of Honey Nut Cheerios is better than one, but it just is. Maybe it’s American’s unofficial motto (“Gimme More!”) that drives people to fill their Costco carts.

For me, it offers the perverse challenge of getting through the Unofficial Home of Excess without going off my list. I love leaving with just the couple of things we need. I think it pisses some people off, indignant that I could go to Overshop Heaven and leave with just blueberries, batteries and water.

For my latest excursion to Costco I showed up right when they opened on a Saturday morning and took advantage of the empty store to walk down every aisle. I saw all the things I usually miss when I’m flying from the beer to the water to the pharmacy (with a stop at salmon).

At the end of the row with shredders and filing cabinets, I found the above aforementioned casket area. Glory Be! You can buy the last box you’ll ever be in, at the biggest box you’ve ever been in.

It’s genius. They sell tires, and gas, and vacations, and blinds…so why not make what will arguably be your last purchase at the same place where you buy all the things that help you enjoy life? It makes perfect sense. It’s a great idea. A bit macabre, perhaps, but if the Caramel Apple Pie rocks at Costco (which it does), why wouldn’t the caskets?

The only thing I wonder—and I didn’t stay long enough to find out—how many do you have to buy?

*posthumous thanks to Sid Rosset for this oldie but goodie.

The award for best use of hair extensions in a tv commercial goes to…

I love this commercial.

I don’t write about TV ads much anymore because they’re so pre-millennium, but there’s still nothing like moving film to disrupt your emotional state. In this case, in a good way.

This spot captures human nature subtly and beautifully in fun but understated performances. Each time you watch you notice a nice new detail. I especially love the way the dad gets his pony tail and then one more when he hears the second part of the boy’s career goals.

And it clearly brings to life the product’s selling proposition: that there’s such a great variety of flavors, there will be something for everyone.

In a world of executional dazzle it’s nice to see something as mundane as a family dinner become so funny, relevant, and engaging. And convincing. Let’s hear it for clarity and simplicity

How do you Know?

The amount of money spent on determining ad effectiveness is second only to the amount of money producing the work (Or is it? Sometimes I wonder…). The first questions clients ask about a piece of communication is whether it’s getting good ROI, or something that indicates that it’s working.

One of my all-time favorite ad-related quotes is the gem from John Wanamaker, followed closely of course by this one from Amy Adams.

I was reminded of both quotes when I read about the decision facing e*trade about what to do with their advertising campaign: To pull or not to pull. For years, the work has been great. Very memorable, killed on the Super Bowl year after year, even though the talking baby thing has been done over and over since Bruce Willis channeled little Mikey in Look Whose Talking.

My favorite e*trade ad is probably the one with the clown. ("I really underestimated the creepiness..."). I’m sure you have yours.

These are some great talking babies. But once again, the question, “What makes successful advertising?” is being asked, because they continue to lag behind their competitors.

Many agencies say “we’ll make your brand famous,” which makes a ton of sense, especially when a brand has low awareness. But once the awareness numbers are up, clients want sales to go up too. And what makes an ad famous doesn’t always help make people run out of the house to buy.

So what to do? Unfortunately for e*trade, they’ve been hit by factors other than advertising that have affected their bottom line. But the most public way to talk to the street is to talk about changing the public face of the brand, and that means advertising.

So they’re taking an interesting angle, trying to keep it and work with it at the same time. Sounds like a good idea to me. They have such a valuable equity, something that reminds people of their brand, that they can use different ways in different media.

And you can’t say enough about word of mouth. It’s just not something you can buy; having an ownable property is invaluable, and you can’t put a price on having to reinvent the (wheel) every time it’s time to crank up the marketing machine.

My definition of ad success is not really measurable (take that, you quant people). I’ve always believed great marketing communications serve mostly as reminders, and partially as educational tools, and I’d say a piece of communication is effective if the product or service leaps to the front of the cranial cortex when a person is at the point of consideration.You can’t make anybody buy anything (unless of course you’re Steve Jobs).

So I like where you’re going, e*trade. Good luck.

Good news for romantics (and retailers)

You can’t buy love, but according to a study from the National Retail Foundation, people have trying harder to disprove that notion this year. Valentine’s Day spending in 2011 is the highest it’s been since before the economy crapped out.

The average person will shell out $116 on red roses, heart shaped cookies, and I Love You thongs. A hundred and sixteen bucks! I guess someone must be buying a few of these to bring that average up.

What’s the explanation? I have no research on this, but I have a firm belief:

Valentine’s Day is a purely emotional holiday. Nothing rational about it; it’s all about human connection. You could argue there’s a rational reason to give a gift on V-Day, that if you play your cards right, your reward might greatly justify the gift. Probably explains all of the I Love You thongs.

This wonderful research proves that when it comes to selling, heartstrings trump purse strings.

And as an aside, I love the fact that folks are spending more on love. It’s a sure sign that we’re on our way back to financial confidence. POTUS should use this in one of his upcoming speeches. What’s a better economic indicator?

Let’s hear it for unorthodox delivery! (And I don’t mean water births)

I watched Northwestern almost take down the #1 team in the country Saturday night, without their best 3-point shooter, John Shurna. Ever seen John Shurna shoot a 3-pointer? He shoots with his arms parallel to his shoulders (instead of above them). It looks like he’s trying to release homing pigeons. It’s just not natural. But it’s beautiful. Because it works. He’s 3rd in scoring and 4th in 3-pointers made in the Big Ten.

Check it out, about 2:15 into this video.

Makes me think of Rick Barry. Rick Barry was old school when old school was still new school. Ever see him shoot a free throw? He did it underhand. Like when you were 3 years old. Like the smelly guy in the tank top with the chest fur at the gym who doesn’t know what you’re supposed to do with a basketball.

Don’t believe me? Take a look.

He led the league in free throw shooting percent seven times and had a 90% career average. Not too shabby.

How about Jason Belmonte? Mr. Belmonte’s unorthodox approach to bowling would make Earl Anthony roll over in his grave (with some nice English).

He bowls with two hands.

The 2009 PBA Rookie of the Year (Professional Bowling Association), is a handsome, sunglasses, 25-year old rising star, and drawing new folks to the sport. He’s kinda fun to watch.

Finally, Tim Lincecum. The right-handed pitcher for the San Francisco Giants has a crazy, homemade, ridiculously efficient delivery to the plate. The main difference is in his insanely elongated stride, which helps him propel the ball to the batter. The normal stride for a pitcher is 77-87% of his height; Lincecum’s stride is 129%, some 7 ½ feet. It’s amazing to watch.

Does it work? Hmmm…he won the Cy Young in 2008 and 2009, and last year, pitched 8 innings and won the deciding game of the World Series for the Giants. His unorthodox style—and his goofy hair—makes him a standout in the league.

I could go on. But I think you get the point.

If different is good, unorthodox could be special. Give it a shot sometime.

Now that’s what I call a pacifier

This month’s winner in the “I thought of that years ago but dang it, someone actually did it!” category is the Adult Beverage Company. Let’s see if I can explain this without getting too complicated:

Chocolate milk + vodka = Yum!

Still with me?

Yup, another wonderfully simple idea hitting the big time, growing in leaps and bounds, getting widespread press for a cute little idea. Let’s hear it for the two mixologist-moms who cooked it up in their kitchens after livening up their kids chocolate milk after the little ones went to bed.

Further proof that the best ideas are sometimes right in front of your face and almost always super simple. Executing them? Now that there’s the hard part.

The first step is the biggest. After that, just keep your feet moving and soon you’ll be running.

And I have heard that chocolate milk is a good recovery source when you sweat…

Keep your friends close and your data closer

Being a marketer means having a love-hate relationship with data.

I love the way data helps us better understand what the hell our brands really are and how they stack up against competitors. I love the way data can tell us what’s going on in the heads of our consumers.

Data helps us formulate the right strategies to create the right target-facing articulations of those strategies, without which we’d be making art or art’s sake instead of intelligent, focused art, and for that reason alone I would bow down at the data throne.

But as someone responsible for creating the communications that will best engage with and convince consumers, I’ve spent a lifetime ruing the potentially damaging effect data can have on a powerful (and usually therefore polarizing) piece of communication. As well as the hold it can have on tentative clients; smart people who can get freaked out by what’s at stake, and use data as a crutch to take the road most travelled and fall back on safer (and usually less engaging and convincing) executions.

I’ve always tried to treat data as the two-faced friend in high school who I never allowed out of the corner of my eye. Helpful with schoolwork, great to have in a nonsensical conversation, full of the kind of gossip and information that would make me think, “I never would have thought of that myself.”

But also talking about me behind my back. Telling people things about me that they may have interpreted incorrectly or stretched into truths that didn’t really exist. Being wary. Very wary…

If only we employed data just for fun/goofy purposes, using wonderful facts and figures for daily conversation fodder, like the recent stats on Facebook relationships (sad to see seven million more people becoming single vs getting married).

But as long as there are products to brand and sell, there will be data.

So go ahead, crunch the numbers, hug them, smother them with affection. But just in case, remember to keep your friends close, and your data closer.