Stand Out Advertising: How to Embrace Your Uniqueness

Trends come and go but good advertising lasts forever. We read a great article yesterday on the benefits of standing out from the crowd in the ad business or any business. We couldn’t agree more that it’s easy to go with the flow and just be like everyone else. The hard thing to do is be different and creativity should be wary of consensus. So, as humans how do we step into our uniqueness and let that shine through in a world that attempts to stifle it? Here are some steps you can take to embrace your one-of-a-kind self.

1.     Accept your flaws and imperfections: No one out there is perfect and giving yourself grace is important as you try to better yourself on this journey of life. Accepting them is the first step to improving them. Growth will happen as you attempt to better yourself.

2.     Lean into your strengths and talents: What are you good at? Are you creative with art, writing, and music? Are you more science-minded? Find those things that you are good at but also enjoy doing. The last statement is important here. Just because you are good at something does not necessarily mean you enjoy it. The two must be in tune.

3.     Find like-minded individuals: Being around those who think like you is important. People who accept you for who you are and all those little weird quirks. Those that inspire you to step into your weirdness and power forward through life.

4.     Spend time doing things you enjoy: What are some of your passions? Do you like nature? Do you like baking or cooking? It’s important to find a little time each day to do these things. They

5.     Stop compromising: Don’t be a people pleaser. Stand out from the crowd and do what you want. Real connections are those that accept you unconditionally rather than who they want you to be.

6.     Embrace your beliefs: Everyone has a different belief system based on upbringing and personal experience. Your beliefs represent a large part of who you are. It’s important that you still be open-minded but also don’t be too fluid. Find a good middle ground.

7.     Stop comparing yourself: comparison is the thief of joy. Everyone has a different path of life. You must trust yours and allow it to unfold as it should without judgment.

8.     Stop asking for validation: Self-confidence goes a long way. It’s one thing to ask for advice here and there but if you need constant validation, it means that you aren’t exactly in tune with trusting yourself.

Dare to be different. Dare to be weird. Dare to stand out. Being you is special because there is only one out there just like you. This means that what you bring to the table in the creative world is unique. Your individuality is the best thing about you. It’s why your company hired you over the other guy. Don’t let the world try to convince you that those cookie-cutter styles are the way that you should be. Being different is extraordinary.

Digital Age: Effects on Creativity

 We heard someone say the other day that their friends’ children were told to go play outside. They then saw the kids have absolutely no idea what to do when technology wasn’t present. They sat there. Doing nothing. Kicking rocks around. This made us start to think about what it was like for our generation growing up without IT. We had to get creative and think of things to do. We made up games, we hunted for critters, we rode bikes or other fun things with wheels. We then started to think, “what if this digital age is going to negatively affect creativity for that younger generation when they enter the work force.” We think that maybe it hasn’t shown its true colors because those creatives working in industry did grow up without these things and know how to tap into their imaginations. What happens when Gen Z comes into the work force? Will their creativity be less than their older counterparts? Turns out that people are already trying to study these effects on creatives. One study found that when professionals were overloaded with technology the cognitive absorption of creativity suffered. They also reported higher levels of burnout with high levels of tech overload, which also led to negative impacts on creativity. Some argue that technology can facilitate creativity. Here are some negative and positive effects of technology on the creative process.

Positive:

1.     It can be a source of information/inspiration

2.     It can help come up with new ideas

3.     Allows for easier collaboration

Negative:

1.     It can be a distraction

2.     It can cause digital burnout/overload

3.     It can cause dependency

4.     Lack of original ideas

We believe that creativity is spawn from the thought processes that it comes from. When we analyze information and need to solve something, it is our critical thinking skills that create innovative ideas. Not Googling it to find the best answers. This diminishes the act of critical thinking. We have a friend who plays a drinking game called, “Not allowed to Google.” They spend the evening hanging out enjoying the evening together with drinks. They’re not allowed to Google any thought or question that they end up talking about for the entire evening. This promotes creative/critical thinking skills. It’s actually very hard to do and really fun to play! This is where we need to be in our professional lives from time to time. Put the phones down and try to solve a creative problem with looking up solutions. We guarantee it will help you increase creativity. We’re not sure where creativity is headed with the younger generation but we sadly think that there will be a decrease in creativity in the near future. Think AI.

Tips for Teamwork

We already know that collaboration is effective in fostering creativity at the workplace but what are some ways to promote good teamwork? We recently read an interesting article written by Rob Schwartz on teamwork that inspired this blog. It’s interesting to think that the one thing that makes humans stand out from other animals is our ability to cooperate in large groups. This is why we are at the top of the food chain. So what elements make a successful team? Here are some key elements that we believe help create a successful team.

1.     Listen: active listening is so important. When someone else is talking are you just thinking and waiting for them to finish to blurt out what you have to say? Or, are you actually listening and processing their words? You can’t properly communicate with one another unless you have the ability to do this!

2.      Clearly define roles and goals: knowing who will do what and why will take out any confusion when working in groups. It helps them stay on task and work efficiently toward the goals set by the team.

3.     Make decisions together: do not make decisions alone and speak for the whole. It’s important that everyone opinion is considered and each member of the group feels heard. This builds trust as you get to know each other on a deeper level.

4.     Celebrate differences: not all of us think the same and we may disagree on many things. This is honestly a beautiful thing. How boring would the world be if we all had the same thoughts and ideas. This is how creative innovation comes about. Different approaches from different viewpoints makes for a great team collaboration.

5.     Promote creativity: this is crucial for a successful team to be creative in their approach to problems within the business. Therefore, the person above them should encourage creative perspectives. 

While some groups put in teams may just hit it off and have a smooth work flow, others may not. While we wish the first scenario for you, it’s important to have ways to help your company teams be successful if they are having difficulties. Research shows that having a collaborative team leads to better outcomes, the team members are more likely to take calculated risks leading to innovative ideas, and finally, increased job satisfaction with reduced work stress. Teamwork really does make the dream work!

Expanding Creativity Through UGC

Advertising is creativity at its core. Those who think otherwise probably shouldn’t be in this business. Think about it, ads are a creation of creativity that extract an emotional response from the viewers. It’s that emotional response that makes UGC ads stand out from the rest. Their authenticity has the power to provoke stronger emotional connections to the content that real people made that is now being shown in the ad. We are here to argue that using UGC in your campaigns can actually increase your creative power. For example, we get the brief that you send for specific content you’re looking for. Your brand has an idea for a great commercial using UGC found content. We then start searching for the content that fits within the parameters. However, sometimes we come across a gem that may not fit into that box. We will pitch it to your team anyway because sometimes it’s worth a shot. Your team falls in love with the video and decides to take a new approach to the UGC ad. The organic content that someone created just shifted your creative process that you may not have otherwise thought of. Playing around with ideas is the heart of creativity. This is how original ideas come about. UGC is kind of way to collaborate different creative ideas through the creativity of those who created the content. This can expand the team’s creative juices with fresh ideas to come up with new ones for their campaigns. We’ve seen it happen and when it does, the campaigns are one of a kind.  

Creativity & Working from Home

We read an interesting article in Adage yesterday about how remote work may be hurting creativity in the workplace so we decided to delve into this idea a little deeper. Creative collaboration can push projects to the next level, but does it matter if these collaborations are in person or digital? Some say that those stating creativity is suffering from at home work is just a cop out for the uncreatively bad work they’ve produced, but could it actually be true? Well, a study was done on this and the results are very convincing. According to this article from CNN, results showed that digital meetings can actually drain creativity and that it is actually easier to come up with creative ideas in person. This is how it was determined. The college study used 602 participants and divided them into pairs. They were given every day things and asked to come up with new and creative ways to execute them. Some of the groups were virtual and some were in person. Performance was measured on how many ideas they came up with, the novelty of those ideas and value of the ideas, which was ranked by other students. Eye tracking software was also used and they found that the virtual groups spent more time looking directly at their partner on the screen. Those that were in person gazed around the room more. Also, the virtual pairs remembered less about their surroundings when asked about it later. This suggests that the virtual space narrows cognition and narrows focus that can inherently hurt creative formulations.

It’s not surprising that remote work could hinder creativity since part of creative inspiration comes from in-person collaboration. 68% of employees say that they have found communication with colleagues more difficult while working remotely (CROOW). Less in person engagements at the office equals weaker relationships between employees. One could see why less collaboration happens with at home work. The need for collaboration IRL is key for creativity. It promotes things, such as brainstorming, story-telling, open-mindedness and active listening all hone in on the creative mind. It also allows for a more open-ended focus that is necessary to get in the creative head space. At Locomotive we love remote work and encourage it. That being said, our team already knew each other and had many in person interactions before they went fully remote, so their employee bonds were already awesome. The concept of remote work is fairly new since the pandemic and we think there are benefits to both. However, we believe that there should be some in-person meetings every week in order to promote relationships and collaborations between employees, especially if the field is creative in nature and the employees are still getting to know one another.  

Psychology of Creativity

Neurology is intertwined with creativity and how it works within the brain. There is research to show that those who are creative use the three brain systems of neural networks: the default/imagination network, the salience network and the executive network. The salience network is a large-scale neuro network located deep within the brain. It is in charge of complex functions, such as social behavior, communication and self-awareness. This system plays a role in motivation and readiness to act to stimuli. The default mode is one that works when we are in our resting state. For example, when we daydream or thinking about a memory we use this part of our brain. It’s what creates simulations of possible scenarios and is also used for social cognition. Lastly, the executive network is one that monitors and resolve conflicts between thoughts, feelings and responses. This is the part of the brain that is used when someone is focusing intensely on a challenging task. Forging new creative connections in the brain are tied to certain personality traits of creative people. These include, but aren’t limited to, openness to new experiences, curiosity, positivity, high energy and persistence.

It has been said in the past that people who are creative are dominant right brained. However, this is a myth. As you noticed we talk about neuro networks above and whole brain functions. Each side of the brain is not separate from the other, especially when it comes to creativity, according to Anna Abraham. She also talks about the importance of the frontal lobe with involvement in creative ideation in an interview with Scientific American. Different parts of the brain will be involved in different parts of the creative process, hence the dynamic nature between neural networks. Study of the brain during the creative process is still in earlier stages. Much more research will be done in the coming years and we look forward to seeing what they find.

Creative Leadership: Characteristics

“The heaviest penalty for declining to rule is to be ruled by someone inferior to yourself.”

-Plato

When we think of leadership we don’t typically think about creativity. Creative leadership can be defined as an act that develops and realizes innovative ideas through shared ambitions of improving the world. Basically, leading in a way that fosters creativity, promotes innovation and endorses entrepreneurship. Being a leader does not inherently mean that you are a creative leader. Some are not. But those that are tend to have similar personality characteristics. We will list some of them here.

1.     Adaptable, Resilient

2.     Independent, Yet Inspiring

3.     Purposefully Driven & Great Listeners

4.     Unorthodox, Yet Calculated Risk Takers

Creative leadership is often complimented by cognitive leadership. Now that we know that there are different types of creativity, we can see how this might be so. According to a scientific article, A Propulsion Model of Creative Leadership, there are eight different types of creative leadership. These are all broken down into categories. 1. Leadership that accepts current paradigms and attempt to extend. 2. Those that reject current paradigms and attempt to replace them and 3. Those that integrate existing paradigms to create new ones.  This is interesting, but we won’t divulge too much as this can be a whole other article all together. No matter which creative style a creative leader has, their ability to solve problems with divergent thinking and cooperative encouragement remains the same. Their open mindedness makes them constant learners. They have the ability to create innovative ideas by developing new answers/decisions by looking at things from a different perspective. They ask difficult questions that aren’t the status quo and aren’t afraid to shake things up. Creative thinkers actually encourage disruptive thinking. They also have the courage to make tough decisions and take it on the chin when things fail. They see this as an opportunity to grow and improve and thusly, are more adaptable than the rigid leaders of the past.

Feel Good Friday: Sparking Creative Inspiration

 It’s time to spice things up again here at Locomotive. Every Friday for the next few weeks (maybe months) we will be focusing on topics that will inspire you. Today, our first topic will be ways to spark inspiration for all our creatives out there. Let’s face it, we all suffer from lack of inspiration here and there so it’s always nice to have something you can fall back on when these creative blocks hit and the deadlines are creeping in. What in the world is inspiration anyhow? Let’s define it. It has been defined by psychologists as a motivation from external sources that cause someone to have an idea and/or creatively produce something. We’ve done some digging on ways to spark creativity when you’re in a rut.

1.     Journal. Seeing your thoughts written down can offer insight into new ideas. Free journaling is recommended. Just grab a pencil and get going. Don’t think about what you’re writing just let it flow. We like to use the laptop since it’s faster to get our thoughts out than with typing than actually writing. Not only does this help spark new ideas, it clears your mind and lets you see a clearer picture of things. We highly recommend doing this not only to spark creative inspiration.

2.     Mix up your routine. Doing the same thing over and over day in and day out can feel like you’re living in the movie Groundhog Day. No wonder our creative juices stop flowing here and there. It’s important to shake it up in your personal and professional life. Try a different order in your routine. Go for your run in the morning instead of after work or try to change the order of your daily work flow. Maybe take a later or earlier lunch. Things that may have worked for you in the past may not be working now. We adapt quickly and become complacent. We get bored. You can’t expect different results doing the same things you have always done. 

3.     Spend time with artists or other creatives in your field. Everyone thinks and creates differently. Spending time with other creatives will allow you to bounce ideas off one another and potentially spark new ones. It’s not only good for this but important to spend time with like-minded individuals in your field, so it also benefits your networking practices. 

4.     Rearrange your space. Look up some basic Feng Shui. What usually gets your inspired n the physical sense? Imitate that and attempt to recreate it. Add some living things to the area. What better to inspire thoughts than vegetation? If you want to get really deep with this, certain plants possess certain properties. For example, mother-in-law’s tongue acts as an air purifier. There’s no better way to provoke creation than something that does just that.

5.     Branch out into new styles of music. Who doesn’t like to discover new jams that they vibe with? We enjoy all styles of music but of course, we have our favorite go to’s. Switch up the style of music that you find yourself listening to often. Throw in some bluegrass or dive into something cultural, such as Afro-Caribbean. Get crazy!

6.     Meditate. The benefits of meditation reach far beyond promoting creativity. It reduces stress and allows you to see new perspectives. It increases self-awareness by focusing on your breath and letting go of thoughts. It’s a great way to clear your head. Again, something we recommend doing not just to motivate creative thought.

7.     Try something new. We love trying new things! Adventure tends to spur new thought processes. Typically, you’re learning something when you try new things. It gets your mind working and, most likely, unlocking potential brain power in new ways.

These are just a few ways to inspire creativity when you’re stuck. Adding on to this and creating your own list is a great way to combat blocks. Think back to some times when you felt your most creative. What were the circumstances? Write them down. What were you doing when you had that really brilliant idea? This will give you insight into what works for you. You can use that. Happy creating!  

Creative Ways to Advertise

Did you know that it typically takes 5-7 brand interactions before a consumer remember the brand? (Start Up Bonsai) We’ve written articles in the past on how to make your advertisements stand out from the crowd with the use of Interactive Advertising. We’ve also talked about what contributes to the effectiveness of an advertisement. Creativity will always win in advertising campaigns so why should the way that you advertise be any different? Not only should the advertisements themselves stand out, the way that you advertise should as well. Here are some creative and not so creative, but tried and tested, ideas to get you started.

1.     Magazines. This type of advertising is one of the oldest. Ads began in newspapers so this is similar. This can cost your brand anywhere from $500-$20K depending on which publication it is as well as the placement within the magazine. Ads in the back are typically better so they are going to cost your brand more. Cost will also be affected by the size and colors you choose.

2.     Sponsor local city maps. This one is a bit old school but tested to work. This will work especially well if your brand is located in a tourist destination.

3.     Use the space creatively. Put an ad on the celling of a building. On the floor or the staircase. Use the space creatively to draw attention to the campaign.

4.     Swag. Everyone loves free stuff and it helps your brand advertise. Think pens, tee shirts, reusable water bottles, stickers, bottle openers, etc. Keep costs low by ordering early, buying in bulk, shopping around for the best deals and also negotiate pricing.

5.     Vehicle wraps. We’ve all seen the bus side ads. It’s dynamic since the vehicle is always in motion. Many people will see the ad but make sure that it legible to read in motion. This type of advertising is also a bit costly ranging anywhere from $3K-5K. That being said, this type of ad generates 2.5x’s more attention than static billboards according to Sign Post. You can easily find companies in your area that specialize in vehicle wraps with a simple Google search. 

6.     Banner Ads. Banner ads are a great way to get your brand to the eyes of those that potentially are interested in what you have to offer. These are placed on specific websites that have similar interest to your business through publishers. This can help grow your audience big time. They should be animated to get the viewers’ attention immediately. Costs of this type of advertising varies. Some do 50cents per 1,000 impressions. Meaning that it will be displayed 1,000 times. Some charge one-time fees for a specified span of time.

These are some fun ways to mix up the ways that your brand is advertising. Not only should your advertisement be creatively sound, the way that you choose to advertise that campaign should be as well. We hope this helps give you some ideas to add diversity to your advertising strategies.