Creativity or Bust: the challenge for 2010
06/01/2010

Oodles of snow, economic doom and gloom - if the start to your New Year has crept around the door, slunk into a small, dark, cold part of the room and been remarkably subdued, now's the time to give it a shake.

The issue is stark. It's not just the freezing temperatures but freezing budgets that might have you thinking. And all of a sudden something's altered. We all start to communicate much more formally. Forget dress down days on a Friday, we mean business, five days a week. The SEO project you were excited about starting now feels frivolous. And so, despite all the hard work and planning all of a sudden, being ‘safe’ seems a lot easier. And yet, ironically equates to being just like everyone else. Which we think is extremely unsafe. In fact we would go so far as to say perilous.

 If ever there was a time to sound different, behave slightly out of sync from the rest of your industry, communicate effectively with clients with passion, enthusiasm and a sense of belief that your brand will rise in ‘phoenix out of the ashes’ style, then it is now.

This isn’t an article hell bent on making you spend money your company can ill afford. Far from it. Rather we put forward an argument, nay, a challenge to all marketing professionals in Kent, London and beyond!

The challenge is to stop.

Stop and just relax a minute. Regroup. What are we meant to be doing again? Ah yes, that’s right. And what’s the best way of reaching that audience? Ok. Is it the only way? Is the message spot on? Should we test it with a friendly audience first?

Are you confident of success?

Now, how do we do it on half the original budget? Is there scope for the project to broaden its use?

Brilliant. It is critical crunch on credit shouldn’t mean a crunch on creativity. It is more important than ever to think outside of the box during difficult times. Not much point in solely fair-weather marketing.

Suffering from a bout of creativity crunch?

• Keep focused on the end result, but be open to changing how you actually get there.
• Think creatively about your market research: speak to friends, family members and use your professional networks to test ideas with chosen market segments rather than commission expensive research which only serves to confirm your intuition
• Work with partners and suppliers who challenge your thinking
• Reconsider your definition of the ‘safe’ option.