What’s brand new? – It is what has only just become known.

Simply put, what’s known is part of our consciousness. That which is not is, well... new.

 

Not counting the medieval McGuffin, the Really-Not-So-Dope Aether, we have had around three working models to understand phenomena – what we see but can’t explain. The spiritual tradition lays out the immanent and the transcendent. Twentieth century psychology has informed our understanding of the conscious and subconscious mind. But three time’s a charm and today the quantum and the macro realm seem to take the cake.

 

Why would Blow be concerned with this? Because super nature also gives us a decent two-finger grasp of a tiny handle on creativity, a glimpse at the mechanics of coming up with new ideas. Because, if you really, really look for something, the possibility that it will be there isn’t bad. Not bad at all. It could even be somewhere else – if anyone cared to look, that is. And technically it's not really there, but in possibility it is. In a quantum sense it is... which, at first glance seems to make about as much sense as stapling your tongue to a perfectly good wall.

 

This aspect of quantum theory however could quite possibly explain creativity in a scientific way, provide detail intelligibly omitted in the latest ‘Inside the Outside of the Box’  TED talk about creativity – not elude to techniques which will make you more creative in only 6 minutes, that’s a Google Problem, but sufficiently explain it.

Creativity is manifested possibility.

What is possible?

Almost anything.

Why only almost?

Cause some infinities are way bigger than others.

 

Why is creativity even important when there’s wind turbines that kill all the birds, global pandemics that  benefit the rich and we haven’t even started getting the plastic out of all the penguins around? Plus, our sun is dying, right?

Well, why indeed?

Try this… and just look around. Everything you see that is not a tree or a pile of horse shit is made from creativity.

 

The actual creative process is a four step process* (Haha! A Four-Step-Process? When was this game-breaker thought up, in the 90s?! – Yes, probably.)

 

Step one: Preparation.

That is to say, you spend your time researching and analysing facts, many of them, informing a network of correlation and significance between them. Play around with what you find interesting, build tables, matrices, sketches, mind maps, charts...  anything will do. After that, you’re almost done – with the whole process that is. Research time is after all quality time. You should practice this thoroughly.

 

Before we move on to the next step, we should consider a peculiar fact about creative people. A common habit of highly creative people is that they often do...

 

Step two: Nothing.

For this research to resonate and create actuality, you will have to run with the idea that our patterns of thinking function like waves. They are  possibilities of meaning not manifested yet – One hand clapping, a wave expanding in a pool. They need to grow in meaning, propagate to eventually correlate with other expanding thoughts, possibilities of meaning – things you already know, even unconsciously. While you 'do nothing' (in any other event an oxymoron), the correlation gives 'gestalt', thoughts become visible in the pool of possibility, so to speak. Then the conscious mind can seek these out and manifest them as a new idea. Hence this step is more accurately described as ‘incubation’.

 

You might be thinking, this sure sounds strange but is somewhat endearing – apart from giving it a fake name to be lippy.

So, with doing a lot and then nothing, I can come up with a whole bunch of things? Great... How does it, my conscious mind, choose the right one though – the right idea? Where is the purpose? This is all still in response to a marketing brief, right?!?

 

Purpose comes from what we set our mind to, quite literally, in the first step. You were supposed to practice this thoroughly, come on!

 

Why would it take time to have possibilities interact with possibilities in the quantum realm when everything moves with the speed of light, or actually way faster, non-local communication, outside of space and time? Wouldn’t it be instantaneous? Anything our conscious mind selects as a possible idea is actually a manifested idea already, not possibility – in a quantum sense. Now imagine how many possible stupid things you can think of consciously before you think of anything half-decent if you concentrate on those things?

Lots.

Well, there is lots more unconscious(!) that your conscious mind is not even  aware of – it’s a very, very big pool. And maybe that's why it does take time.

 

Then there is two more steps to this which are probably around strategising and implementing your brand new idea. Or something like that. But you don't need anyone explaining that to you if you read up to here.

 

P.S.

If we hear ‘creativity’ another 20.000 times at an Adobe Creative Cloud Event, we will eventually send a bad email. You guys are making a mockery of our profession.

 

 

 

*Thanks to Dr. Amit Goswami for this incredible insight. The part about the unconscious pool size and space time is not his work but Blow’s own little special project, so please get mad at us if we got this or actually anything else wrong.

 

 

 

 

 

We don’t think astrology is anything but pseudo-science. There is a narrative quality to it however which ties to epistemology and memory... alright, we take it all back: House of Aquarius rules!

 

Outstanding consumer experiences with one particular brand are far and few between. Most people are interacting with products and services of an ever expanding number of brands on an ever expanding number of occasions: Your cereal, your pants, your light bulbs, your car, advertising... do we need more proof that we exist in a gigantic entropy? Only sometimes, somewhere, someone does their job right and a brand experience stands out to a consumer; is significant enough to be remembered – consciously, or not. An outstanding brand experience is like the brightest star among a plethora of stars. And sometimes, you run into another brand touch-point of the exact same brand, by chance – or by re-marketing. But be that as it may, if it matches your initial outstanding experience; a pattern is formed. This is significant because over millennia we have developed one most effective way to remember and understand the world: A narrative pattern. Stories tap into the existing circuitry in our brains, as our own life is remembered as a story and two dots connecting will have you believe that something is starting to take shape. And indeed it is.

 

Let's imagine these standout events as two stars. These two seemingly disconnected but similar brand experiences are the eyes of a giant dragon in the sky. 'Oooh!' It gets better, because there are nine more stars outlining the dragon’s shape on the firmament. 'No way!' Yes, way! Let us outline this in more detail... These over there, that’s the claws. Then in the centre, the body and these three are the tail – you see the dragon? And then you go: 'Oh wow! That’s really a dragon! Amazing.’ or maybe simply ‘Alright. I get it.’, something like that – doesn't matter. But for our purposes, this dragon constellation represents the rationale of your brand.

 

The grandeur of this revelation has to be compelling, has to ring true. What looks like an eggplant cluster of stars is never going to be a dragon. But once sold on the semiotics, it’s easy to identify all the brand touch-points because you can recall how they align to create a meaningful shape – a pattern. It’s your dragon. And if tomorrow another ad is trying to convince you, the three stars in the dragon’s tail are really the collar of a celestial Pomeranian, you won’t be swayed. There is no Pomeranian. But the dragon makes a lot of sense. Brand reality and consumer reality are aligned and on this basis, communication is meaningful. Not only that, you are now also able to look at a million stars and find the eleven exact ones of them that make a brand – a very impressive cognitive task, aided by pattern recognition.

 

We’re speaking in metaphors of course, but these constellations do need to make sense for people to memorise and empathise with. A convoluted and incoherent story is almost impossible to remember. For example, a dragon eye can hardly be a collection of three stars – to stay within our exemplary metaphor. If that was the case, you are probably not a dragon.  And that’s ok, too. Be something different.

 

It’s Blow’s job (… we’ve heard it all) to find interesting insights about brands which lead to the creation of memorable and compelling experiences – the ones that make sense and excite! We weave them into a constellation that your customers like so much, they won't share any part of it to build a different one. Owning a part of the sky is comparable to owning a chunk of the market, if you really need to bring this grand metaphor down to a spreadsheet. Losing a star in your constellation to another brand will likely result in the loss of significant market share. But defining and understanding a brand in this fashion will make it easier, if not intuitive, to create outstanding and irreplicable experiences.