jaws in space (how to develop & pitch creative ideas) by hannah smith, sem days 2015

@hannah_bo_banna

jaws in space

how to develop

& pitch creative ideas

@hannah_bo_banna

@hannah_bo_banna

steal this deckhttp://dis.tl/SEMDays2015

@hannah_bo_banna

this is distilled

@hannah_bo_banna

we made this

@hannah_bo_banna

2.2m page views | 111k+ ‘likes’ | 1,280 LRDs

@hannah_bo_banna

a few years ago we made this

@hannah_bo_banna

it got just 31 ‘likes’

@hannah_bo_banna

we *still* don’t always get it right

@hannah_bo_banna

everyone agrees that coming up with a ‘good’ ideais paramount

@hannah_bo_banna

but what do we mean by a ‘good’ idea?

@hannah_bo_banna

something that appears to have worked?

@hannah_bo_banna

pop quiz!

@hannah_bo_banna

I’m going to show you 2 pieces - which got the most links?

@hannah_bo_banna

@hannah_bo_banna

@hannah_bo_banna

ready?

@hannah_bo_banna

64 LRDs

@hannah_bo_banna

275 LRDs

@hannah_bo_banna

ok, you’ve seen which got the most links, but which got the most interactions on facebook?

@hannah_bo_banna

ready?

@hannah_bo_banna

50k facebook interactions

@hannah_bo_banna

5k facebook interactions

@hannah_bo_banna

the relationship between social shares and links is not as linear as you might expect

@hannah_bo_banna

sometimes links lead to increased social shares

@hannah_bo_banna

1,280 LRDs | 111k+ ‘likes’

@hannah_bo_banna

other times, social shares lead to links

@hannah_bo_banna

230k+ ‘likes’ | 330 LRDs

@hannah_bo_banna

ok, let’s try another one

raise your hands if you think this piece got links from more than 100 sites

@hannah_bo_banna

@hannah_bo_banna

ready?

@hannah_bo_banna

215 LRDs

@hannah_bo_banna

what about this one?

@hannah_bo_banna

@hannah_bo_banna

ready?

@hannah_bo_banna

74 LRDs

@hannah_bo_banna

so hopefully I’ve proved that spotting a good idea is tough

@hannah_bo_banna

but most of the time we’re not even thinking in terms of ideas,

we’re just getting wrapped up in formats

@hannah_bo_banna

‘guides get links’ let’s do loads of guides!

@hannah_bo_banna

a guide is a format, not an idea

@hannah_bo_banna

video is a format, not an idea

@hannah_bo_banna

an infographic is a format, not an idea

@hannah_bo_banna

it’s a huge mistake to think in formats

@hannah_bo_banna

people don’t share formats,they share ideas

@hannah_bo_banna

a quick note on ideas

@hannah_bo_banna

text

an idea is a novel combination of

previously unconnected elements in a way that adds value

@hannah_bo_banna

http://dis.tl/axis-chords

@hannah_bo_banna

you’ve probably thought this:

“hmmmm a lot of pop songs sound kinda the same… why is that?”

@hannah_bo_banna

the answer:

“they use the same four chords…”

@hannah_bo_banna

you could just write a list of all the songs that use the same chords...

@hannah_bo_banna

meh

@hannah_bo_banna

it’s not until you show me that I really get it

@hannah_bo_banna

why do pop songs sound the same?

they use the same 4 chords

bring it to life with a mash up

combining previously

unconnected elements

execute in a way that adds value

@hannah_bo_banna

that’s an idea

@hannah_bo_banna

that’s what you need to be shooting for

@hannah_bo_banna

but I’m getting ahead of myself, let’s rewind a little

@hannah_bo_banna

@hannah_bo_banna

we don’t have the luxury of creating & launching a bunch of different things

before hitting on a winner

@hannah_bo_banna

we get fired

@hannah_bo_banna

how can we improve our strike rate?

@hannah_bo_banna

we started out with this

@hannah_bo_banna

@hannah_bo_banna

what sort of ideas ‘stick’?

@hannah_bo_banna

urban legend

(a story which spreads spontaneously in various forms)

@hannah_bo_banna

a friend of a friendwas away on business in Chicago

@hannah_bo_banna

he decides to head out to a bar alone

@hannah_bo_banna

he meets a beautiful stranger

@hannah_bo_banna

they head to a motel

@hannah_bo_banna

in the morning he wakes to find himself in a bathtub full of ice

@hannah_bo_banna

there’s a freshly stitched incision on his side

@hannah_bo_banna

call 911 is scrawled in lipstick on the bathroom tiles

@hannah_bo_banna

he’s admitted to hospital, & is told that one of his kidneys has been removed

@hannah_bo_banna

this guy is almost certainly going to wake up without a kidney

@hannah_bo_banna

authors Chip & Dan Heath wanted to figure out why people shared this story….

here’s what they came up with

@hannah_bo_banna

it’s simple & easy to tell

@hannah_bo_banna

& it has one clear message

@hannah_bo_banna

“don’t accept drinks from strangers”

@hannah_bo_banna

it’s unexpected,a kidney seems a high price to pay for a one night stand

@hannah_bo_banna

it’s concrete,there are tangible details:

a bathtub full of ice, call 911 is scrawled on the wall

@hannah_bo_banna

it seems credible(despite the fact that there have never been any crimes of

this nature recorded)

@hannah_bo_banna

it provokes an emotional reaction

@hannah_bo_banna

it’s a great story& people remember stories, not stats

@hannah_bo_banna

we’re not in the business of inventing urban legends

but we are seeking to create things which other people want to share

@hannah_bo_banna

as such we’ve taken the ‘Made to Stick’ framework, added a factor of our own, & applied it to the content we create:

simpleunexpectedconcretecredibleemotionalstoryshareable

@hannah_bo_banna

simple

is there one clear message? (don’t bury the lead)

@hannah_bo_banna

@hannah_bo_banna

unexpected

what’s new or different?

@hannah_bo_banna

2.2m page views | 111k+ ‘likes’ | 1,280 LRDs

@hannah_bo_banna

concrete

are the details tangible? or are you dealing in the abstract?“you can’t pick up a calorie, you can pick up a burger”

@hannah_bo_banna

@hannah_bo_banna

credible

is your data credible?is the story credible?

is it credible coming from you?

@hannah_bo_banna

emotional

does it provoke an emotional reaction?does it make people feel something?

@hannah_bo_banna

@hannah_bo_banna

story

are you telling a story?people remember stories, not stats

@hannah_bo_banna

@hannah_bo_banna

@hannah_bo_banna

shareable

would someone look good sharing this?what does sharing this say about someone?

@hannah_bo_banna

@hannah_bo_banna

you don’t need all 7 to be successful: but in this case, more is more

@hannah_bo_banna

further reading:

lessons in virality from axl rosehttp://dis.tl/HS-axl

@hannah_bo_banna

the ‘success’ framework helps us fail less often, but it hasn’t solved all our problems

@hannah_bo_banna

problem one

it’s a useful tool, but it can be used as a weapon

@hannah_bo_banna

good ideas rarely seem like good ideas at their inception,that’s what stops the majority of people from having them

~Drew Gummerson

@hannah_bo_banna

don’t use this to shoot ideas down,use it to build ideas up

@hannah_bo_banna

how can we develop this idea to make it moresimple?unexpected?concrete?credible?emotional?story-driven?shareable?

@hannah_bo_banna

you can also use the framework later in the ideation process to help you decide which ideas to pitch

@hannah_bo_banna

but there’s another issue

@hannah_bo_banna

the made to stick framework helps you develop‘good’ ideas

@hannah_bo_banna

but we’re not just trying to come up ‘good’ ideas

@hannah_bo_banna

we’re trying to come up with ‘good’ ideaswhich are right for our clients

@hannah_bo_banna

problem 2

clients don’t always understand why *they*

should care about these criteria

@hannah_bo_banna

there’s insufficient onus on why this is a good idea for

their company

@hannah_bo_banna

we found that some of our best ideas weren’t getting signed off

@hannah_bo_banna

we needed to get better at coming up with ‘good’ ideaswhich were right for the client

ANDget them signed off

we needed to get better at pitching ideas

@hannah_bo_banna

who’s great at pitching ideas?

@hannah_bo_banna

the high concept pitch

for alien was

“jaws in space”

@hannah_bo_banna

@hannah_bo_banna

that’s a lot of information in just 3 words,it tells you a lot about the film

@hannah_bo_banna

the ship is not sleek & clean like in other sci-fi moviesthis is grubby, broken, low-tech

@hannah_bo_banna

this film will be filled with tension & conflict,not everyone will understand the danger they’re in

@hannah_bo_banna

we figured we could learn from this

however,the aim was not to be able to pitch our ideas in 3 words

@hannah_bo_banna

or even 6 words

@hannah_bo_banna

@hannah_bo_banna

our aim was to distill our thinking & communicate why our ideas were right for the client

@hannah_bo_banna

this is what we came up with

@hannah_bo_banna

relevant, resonant & different

@hannah_bo_banna

this is hard to explain in the abstract so I’ll be using an example

@hannah_bo_banna

@hannah_bo_banna

pop quiz!

@hannah_bo_banna

raise your hands if you think this is a ‘good’ idea

@hannah_bo_banna

@hannah_bo_banna

hopefully I can convince the rest of you

@hannah_bo_banna

relevant, resonant & different

@hannah_bo_banna

relevant

@hannah_bo_banna

this is about ‘brand fit’why is this the right thing for the company to do?

@hannah_bo_banna

podio’s strapline is ‘empowering you to work the way you want’

&

they’re targeting people in the creative industry

@hannah_bo_banna

‘daily routines’ places podio in the conversations people are already

having about how best to work,without being self-serving

@hannah_bo_banna

resonant

@hannah_bo_banna

why will our target audience & target publishers care about this?

@hannah_bo_banna

creativity & productivity are perpetually hot topics:

@hannah_bo_banna

@hannah_bo_banna

@hannah_bo_banna

@hannah_bo_banna

so we know people share this stuff

@hannah_bo_banna

we think people will share our piece because it:

makes them look smartand/or

makes them look culturedand/or

makes them look interested & interestingand/or

makes them look like they care about being creative

@hannah_bo_banna

& we know the publishers we want coverage fromfeature this stuff

@hannah_bo_bannaexcerpt from a buzzsumo content analysis report for ‘creativity’

@hannah_bo_banna

different

@hannah_bo_banna

how is this different from what’s already out there?how are we adding value?

@hannah_bo_banna

this data has been visualised before

@hannah_bo_banna

@hannah_bo_banna

but this is a posterit wasn’t built for the web

@hannah_bo_banna

this execution doesn’t allow you to compare the creative routines of the people featured,

or explore the data, our execution will

@hannah_bo_banna

have I managed to convince you it’s a good idea yet?

@hannah_bo_banna

how did it all go down?

@hannah_bo_banna

you will never be 100% confident

@hannah_bo_banna

@hannah_bo_banna

760k page views | 40k+ ‘likes’ | 1,077 LRDs

@hannah_bo_banna

please note:

@hannah_bo_banna

results like this don’t just *happen*

@hannah_bo_banna

we spent over 60 hours promoting this piece

@hannah_bo_banna

today we use the ‘SUCCESS’ framework alongside‘relevant, resonant, different’

@hannah_bo_banna

it means our ideation process is more rigorous

@hannah_bo_banna

& it forces us to think harder about whether or not our ideas make sense for our clients

@hannah_bo_banna

it makes getting sign off from clients easier

@hannah_bo_banna

& we’re failing less often

@hannah_bo_banna

final thoughts

@hannah_bo_banna

getting good at this stuff is hard

@hannah_bo_banna

there’s a few things we do which we think have helped us get better

@hannah_bo_banna

1. focus on ideas, not formats

@hannah_bo_banna

text

an idea is a novel combination of

previously unconnected elements in a way that adds value

@hannah_bo_banna

an infographic is not an ideait’s a format

@hannah_bo_banna

people don’t share formats,they share ideas

@hannah_bo_banna

further reading:

how to produce content people will sharehttp://dis.tl/MJ-share

how to produce better content ideashttp://dis.tl/MJ-idea

@hannah_bo_banna

2. take this sh*t seriously

@hannah_bo_banna

a few years ago we used to ‘present’ creative ideas like this:

@hannah_bo_banna

@hannah_bo_banna

those were not ideas

@hannah_bo_banna

you won’t be surprised to hear that sign off was an issue

@hannah_bo_banna

today we present creative ideas in person, with a slide deckwe also spend significantly longer on the ideation process

@hannah_bo_banna

3. keep on keeping on

@hannah_bo_banna

we continually evolve our approach & our processes

@hannah_bo_banna

@hannah_bo_banna

good luck out there x

@hannah_bo_banna

Hannah SmithContent Strategist, Distilled caffeine addict; book worm; would really like a unicorn...

send cat pictures or questions to:

hannah.smith@distilled.net

credits

Images:alien: http://www.wired.com/2010/02/0205hr-giger-born-science-fiction-artist/kidney heist: http://www.marthastewart.com/275076/a-housewarming-cocktail-party/@center/277004/kevin-sharkeys-home-makeover#222626 unexpected - http://thabto.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/shocked-face.jpgdaily rituals - http://24.media.tumblr.com/011d7a30de400a6f5f9244775f95781a/tumblr_mmg8etEJt81qzlz5go1_r1_1280.jpgemotional - http://adland.tv/ooh/feed-sa-trolley-ambient-south-africaswing - https://www.flickr.com/photos/21745851@N00/4805435840facepalm - http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=facepalm no finish line - http://www.quotesvalley.com/images/50/there-is-no-finish-line-5.jpgdanbo - https://www.flickr.com/photos/nomadic_lass/6889892777/in/set-72157629144987013unicorn - http://queenofheartsonthesleeve.tumblr.com/post/58736423727/ok-not-much-but-here-it-is-3

Big love to to the wonderful Distilled folks who helped me put this together.