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April 25, 2007
Be in the box
"Out of the box thinking" is a tired old phrase and using it in some situations would put your career in a pine box. I would like to offer "in-the-box" thinking as the new replacement. Because more often, marketing communications folks are faced with the challenge of thinking within a very tight space. Creativity begins when you're squeezed in by many unrelenting requirements, standards and "best" practices.
At one of my previous jobs, I remember telling a telesales person that I was the new copy writer for the company. She responded by saying, "Oh, I'm a writer too. But I'm a creative writer." To which I replied, "Try writing something that makes people want to talk to you, if you want a real creative challenge." She took it personally . . . never said I was a creative conversationalist . . . but I meant that I literally had the job of writing/creating marketing programs that got people to call our 800 number.
True marketing communications creatives are the types who can take the heaped-on limitations from the account execs and the clients and drive right back into the fight with not just what they were told, but something better. I am continually amazed by the bigger and better ideas that writers and designers deliver when they've got their back to the drawing board.
I listened to an audio book recently wherein the author (head of an ad agency) said a good, healthy dose of fear drove her firm to the big ideas. I don't know about that. Fear leads to panic and panic to brainlock. But constraints and limitations often squeeze the best out of the best of us. It's like the creativity a child demonstrates when given a few blocks of wood. Or . . . a cardboard box. Sure, you can dream outside the box, but when you embrace the box . . . or constraints . . . it can become much more.
Posted by Bob Brin at 3:48 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
