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April 30, 2012: Doing Things Differently

Ever wonder why you do your best thinking in the shower?

You may recall the visual game we played as kids where you looked at a drawing of two lines coming towards you on the page.  You saw them as the same length, however in reality one was much shorter than the other.  Your vision—the combination of your eyes and brain—made them appear the same length because that is what your brain expected.

New research around innovation and creativity is showing that our brains are, in essence, lazy.  Our brains take shortcuts so as not to work so hard.  If we see a problem we have seen before, our brain applies the same analysis and/or solutions it did before.

One of the keys to innovation or creativity then is to force the brain to break its patterns, to think differently.  You may think best in the shower or during a car ride because you are thinking in a setting outside where it is expected of you.  The change in external stimuli helps your brain think fresh ideas.

There are several ways that we at BHPi3 work to stay creative and innovative.  Here are two:

First, we are constantly seeking new and different challenges.  We love it when a client brings us a new sort of problem, or asks us to come up with something different.  For example, in a few weeks we will roll out a new activation program for Travelers Insurance in New York.  This pilot program won’t be huge, but it will be something the city hasn’t seen before—and that is saying a lot. 

Second we are constantly putting ourselves in new and different settings, throwing new stimulus at our team.  Office environments aren’t conducive to creativity—the same four walls, the same carpet, the same people, the same routines.  If you swing by BHPi3 you are likely to see a bunch of empty offices—people are out doing things, working in new environments, surrounded by new people.  You may also see a golf-putting contest going on down the hall.  We actively embrace any opportunity to shake things up. 

In essence, we follow the work of the design firm Ideo, applying their lessons on innovation to our fields.

All this may seem a bit nontraditional, particularly for a firm based in staid Washington, DC, however it directly benefits our clients. 

 

April 5, 2011: RIP Information Age 3.0

There is expression, “the Stone Age didn’t end because they ran out of stones.”
The modern era corollary is, “the Information Age isn’t going to end because we run out of information.”

In fact, the opposite is true.  The Information Age in its current form (IA 3.0) is ending because there is too much information.  We are drowning in a Sargasso sea of useless information—water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink.

In February, Google altered its ranking algorithm to combat content farms—websites with large amounts of low quality content.  It did so because people are fed up with wading through search results full of bad, useless stuff.

People are desperate for information, but good information—for that one metaphorical drink of something useful. 

This dynamic has profound implications all around.

First, with so much bad information across the web, we are increasingly turning to people we trust for information and insights.  As a result there is now a proliferation of social media tools that give us access to what our networks are saying, buying, doing and saying. 

Second, really good content is now king.  Providing relevant, useful information, in a form that is accessible, is essential to success.  Great content can readily make you a valued, trusted resource.

In contrast, bad content isn’t worth the effort.  Increasingly it turns people off. 

There is a real risk in this for even some of the biggest names.  While Facebook appears to have reached the point of saturation where it can’t fail, experts said that same thing not that long ago about AOL.  More and more we hear trendsetter types expressing dissatisfaction with Facebook.  The ultimate paradox: there is even an “I Hate Facebook” Facebook page.  Is this the end of the Facebook?  Probably not, however it does open the field up more than many might think.

Third, media, public relations and advertising campaigns that are activated at the individual level, tapping into existing networks and communities of interests, have the ability to be extremely impactful.  It is one thing when an ad says something; it is another thing when people start saying the same thing.  The key then is to engage people.

Coming full circle, engaging people requires you to offer something real and of value.