The Science Behind Creativity

What is creativity? Many of us would agree that it's the ability of our minds to invent something new and wonderfully different. 

Neuroscientists, using advanced functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI),  have looked into the brain to observe how creativity occurs. They found dopamine darting between neurons in pathways that eventually result in either a moment of perception or imagination.

Our eyes, ears and other senses transmit a vast array of ambiguous information to our brains. For perception, our brains follow a pathway that makes order out of chaos based on our past experiences and learned expectations. With imagination, the pathway takes a different trajectory and we no longer assume the obvious. It's like Magritte's icon of modern art, "This is not a pipe." We see something new in something we've seen countless times before.

Neuroscientists discovered that by the sixth time we encounter any combination of stimuli, our brains turn the pathway into a superhighway that processes and interprets with utmost efficiency. The path is set. Perception replaces imagination. The pipe is a pipe.

To engage in imagination and creativity, our brains need to move from the path of least resistance to the path not yet taken. We need to change the context of how we automatically categorize by experiences and disrupt that direct path to perception. When is a pipe not a pipe?

When our brains are challenged by stimuli they've never encountered previously, they invent new pathways. If we continually open ourselves to new information and experiences—and we open our minds to see things differently—our frontal cortices will create detours on the perceptual pathway that will lead us to new conclusions. We actually can reprogram ourselves to be more creative.

In our case, we began to look at the creative process and agency/client relationships differently. Our neural pathways left the straight and narrow. New ideas were unleashed. New opportunities came. We evolved into Red Lizard Creative.

Change and hope for healthcare reform?

Americans went to the polls and overwhelmingly voted for the change and hope promised by Barak Obama.

But how much change can we hope for? Maybe not so much when it comes to America's healthcare system.

The problem:

- double digit cost inflation and premium hikes

- $2 trillion in annual spending with questionable results

- 71 million Americans either uninsured or underinsured

The solution. Obama's proposed plan includes these numbers:

- $2,500 annual savings for the typical family

- $100 billion in upfront costs to bring coverage to most uninsured

- $50 billion to $65 billion annual cost after the plan is phased in

Some obstacles:

- 25% loss in value of the U.S. stock market

- massive bailouts for insurance and financial companies

- consensus on defining quality, affordability and universal coverage

Expectations:

- 60% of people who voted for Obama expect him to do something major to improve our healthcare system*

Of all the factors influencing the success of healthcare reform, overinflated expectations may be the most difficult to control.

America voted for change and hope. Let's be content with even the most incremental change in healthcare and not lose hope.

*Bob Blendon, Harvard School of Public Health

Healthcare Quality Ratings: Tuned In? Tuned out.

Have you noticed any quality ratings for healthcare organizations? More ratings are available than ever before, but fewer Americans recall seeing them or using them.

Between 2006 and 2008, the percentage of Americans who reported that they saw comparative health quality information for health insurance plans, hospitals or doctors dropped by 6 percent. (From 36 to 30 percent) The percentage of Americans who said they saw and used that same information fell from 20 to 14 percent.*

This downward trend has huge implications.

As the government continues to gather and publish healthcare data in hopes of increasing efficiency and reducing costs, fewer citizens are interested.

As health insurers increasingly generate information to empower consumer-driven healthcare, fewer patients are taking action.

As hospitals and health systems seek to differentiate themselves based on comparative quality reports, fewer consumers are noticing.

Why? 

- too many data sources with too little standardization

- needless complexity with lack of simple interpretation

- oversimplification that betrays the underlying data

- exploitation and overexposure of ratings in marketing

The two-year downtrend demonstrates that merely providing additional data isn't enough. We need data that is simple, consistent and relevant. Otherwise, consumers will continue to tune out. 

* Keiser Family Foundation's 2008 Update on Consumers' Views of Patient Safety and Quality Information  

Is Your Annual Report an Underachiever?

Your annual report is a mighty ambassador. Are you using it to its full potential?

Properly planned annual reports can be workhorses for branding, marketing, recruitment, philanthropy, employee engagement, lobbying and many other vital tasks.

Often annual reports are seen as a yearly obligation and a burden. If you step back each year, plan ahead and engage the annual report in your overall strategy, it can be invaluable.

Analyze your audiences and current communications challenges and then brainstorm possibilities for all your annual report could accomplish. Set clear objectives and communicate them internally, long before you begin seeking input for content. This guidance will help protect your company or organization from becoming narcissistic and bombastic when generating content. It will also drive your annual report toward fulfilling its intended roles.

A disciplined process that engages organizations in providing content based on a well-defined—and well-communicated—purpose yields excellent, effective annual reports.

Branding and Family Dynamics

To successfully develop a strong brand across a large company, you must concentrate first on the internal dynamics that give rise to the brand. Think of your company as a family. We all have members who are different, cranky and maybe even weird. But we need to bring everyone into the fold and build each other up. That's what creating a strong central brand is all about.

How can you do it? Approach branding as if you're organizing a family reunion.

1. Decide which family members you want to invite into the planning process.

2. Plan what you want to do to bring everyone together (figuratively and possibly literally) and estimate how much it will cost.

3. Talk to all a wide cross-section of family members; learn all you can about them.

4. Figure out how everyone is related and what they all have in common.

5. Distill out a clear description of what makes them special or unique as a family.

6. Express this unique attribute clearly and decide how you'll share your discovery.

7. Get the family's leaders together, address expectations, smooth out differences and make final decisions.

8. Prepare communications to the family and invite them to a big celebration about who you are and what you do.

9. Hold the big event and excite everyone enough to brag about the unique attribute that makes the family special. 

10. Keep sharing experiences that prove it and keep on celebrating.

This process will ensure that your brand is alive and full of energy BEFORE you invest in marketing communications to support it.

Dying for a Vacation?

Dying for a vacation? Take it. A vacation may help you from dying.

It's official. A 9-year study* recently released concluded that "vacations might have protective effects on health."

Vacations reduce stress by removing its ongoing sources and providing a "period of signaled safety." The health benefits of reducing stress—and the anticipation of stress—are well documented, especially for coronary heart disease.

Vacations also provide social contact with family and friends, as well as increased physical activity. These behaviors have "restorative effects on anabolic physiological processes."

Nothing is more important than your health. Protect it. Go on vacation.

*Are Vacations Good for Your Health? The 9-year mortality experience after the multiple risk factor intervention trial by Brook B. Gump, PhD, MPH and Laren A. Matthews, PhD  

Angie's List® Adds Doctors;Continuing the Conversation

Kiplinger’s calls Angie’s List, “a virtual backyard fence—with talk about the dry cleaner, the drywaller and everything in-between.” Now Angie’s List is soliciting members’ feedback on medical professionals so it can compile ratings in 55 categories, ranging from allergy/immunology to vascular surgery.

Not long ago, managed-care gatekeepers limited open discussion and selection of physicians. The move toward consumerism is changing all that.

Adding medical categories to Angie’s List revives and amplifies people’s ability to seek opinions from neighbors. To its credit, Angie’s List advises members that its ratings should be used only to gain perspective on healthcare decisions.

Patient-experience rating sites are proliferating rapidly and have quickly overtaken efforts to quantify and publish accurate outcomes data. Angie’s List has earned a rightful place among healthcare information resources, as long as people realize the best healthcare decisions are made when we balance our physicians’ advice with information on service experiences and outcomes.

Does a grading physician in tandem with tradesmen signal decreasing respect for the training, experience and skills of physicians? Or, as Kiplinger's suggests does it help improve healthcare by providing a mainstream forum where patients can share their experiences?

No matter how you feel about consumer-generated ratings, the discussion now includes doctors and healthcare. Red Lizard Creative can help you take part in the conversation with a positive and proactive approach.

'Tough love' for the advertising industry

As longtime members of the American Association of Advertising Agencies, otherwise known as the 4 A’s, the Lizards recently attended their national conference held in Laguna Niguel, CA, where advertising and communication experts provided some “tough love” for the advertising industry.

The conference focused on how the advertising industry needs to stop worrying about the rapid changes in the industry and strategically move forward with the challenges. As a forward-thinking, creative agency, the Lizards already consider themselves agents of change, and therefore embrace the evolving advertising landscape.

We understand that change makes people nervous, but we are here to help. As agents of change, we ask our clients, “what keeps you up at night” and then we create solutions to solve their business problems. These solutions 9 times out of 10, involve change.

In developing creative campaigns, we create communications, pathways and avenues to move people to act and make decisions and it’s our job to make sure those people act in a way that is positive and relevant to our clients and their businesses.

As speakers talked about how agencies need to change and adapt to the shifts in media, technology, and consumer behavior, we feel good knowing we are constantly changing and adapting to the marketplace to support clients’ needs.

And of course, we have made conscious efforts to learn as much as we can about the many new facets the digital world, such as social media, online networking, and interactive and are successfully applying the strategies to our client’s needs.

The Spirit of Listening

Often overlooked, listening is a critical aspect of business. Whether you’re selling a product or service, garnering new business or retaining current business, listening is a marketing strategy repeatedly left in the dust, behind its more popular alternative - talking.

In an age of conversational marketing, businesses are jumping online, but ignoring the customer’s voice. As professionals, we are eager to offer tips, strategies, advice and punch lines – but many of us are forgetting to stop and listen to our customers. Competition can be fierce, therefore businesses need to spend a significant amount of time listening to what their customers want, feel, need and know. This marketing strategy, when used correctly, can be a competitive advantage.

Savvy professionals know that listening to consumer’s voices includes everything from a face-to-face meeting to a phone call to a blog posting about a product or service. Listening is a simple tactic to gather valuable information from customers, manage the relationships and learn how to make better brand decisions. In today’s world of consumer control, it greatly benefits businesses to honor customer’s voices and serve them better by listening to what they have to say. Hint: This helps create brand loyalty.

So, in the spirit of listening, we want to hear what you have to say. Do you have a burning question about:

· How to make your brand memorable in the customer’s mind or how your brand can capture market share?

· Do you have a compelling idea that needs to be shared?

· Ever wonder how to position your company as an expert or leader in your select industry?

Ask away and the Lizards will do their best to entertain your brewing questions and comments. Speak up! We love to listen.

Social media and meaning

What does social media mean for corporate communicators, consumers and influencers? 

A recent webinar focused on the industry’s new social media release and how to present its format to journalists and bloggers so they can effectively relay messages. 

After some debate between a panel of bloggers, entrepreneurs and communications professionals, the consensus was reached that the social media release isn’t a new kind of communication that needs to be presented, it’s an evolution of traditional marketing.
Social media, whether it’s a news release, a blog, or a YouTube video, gives communicators a new way to share information and facilitate conversation with their many audiences and their influencers. It's a complementary tactic that can make communication more complete.

Because the social media space is new and can be unfamiliar, many consumers don’t use it, don’t know how to use it, and don’t care to learn. But those same consumers continue to flip through magazines and be intrigued by a compelling, creative advertisement. We have an abundance of avenues to reach our targeted audiences/consumers. It's a great time to start conversations and keep them going.

Walk For A Change

We can't say we specialize in changing behavior without being able to do it ourselves. After the endless french fry lunches and most of us complaining about our thighs, our print production manager came up with the great idea to go walking at lunch! It was a New Year and many of us had some health-related resolutions like losing a dress size or two. Excitement grew as we stared down at a few empty plates of fries…walking suddenly turned into running a half-marathons which quickly turned back into walking 30 minutes at lunch. Everyone decided Monday, we’d bring in our sneakers.

Monday came and two people brought their sneakers and everyone else forgot. On Tuesday, all of us brought our kicks and we shut the phones off (unprecedented) and hit the streets in one big lounge (scientific term for a group of lizards). Our company president led the pack and the rest of us kept up with determination and intensity. (Cue theme song from Chariots of Fire)

That first day we battled some dicey conditions. It was HOT for San Diego in January…the thermometer was toying with 75 degrees. I think accounts payable almost passed out. No one brought water and we were seeing stars. Our lounge ended up looking more like a line, spread out along Scranton Road. Then we saw it...

Gasp! It was a hill. Most of us were relieved we changed into our “2002 Help the Homeless” walkathon t-shirt and/or old soccer shorts from college. The hill was no stroll. This was an obstacle, we would tackle head-on, together. The more in-shape of the group decided to pull a Jennifer Aniston and run up the hill backwards. Cheering the rest of us on. Some people bowed out before the hill and went back to the office offering to pick up a “healthy” lunch. The rest of us, climbed that hill, motivating one another and smiling just because we were outside, breaking up the day with some sunshine and exercise.

We go walking almost everyday now. The people who turned around and went back the first day now try to walk further and further each time, slowly building up the strength to go the entire 30 minutes. It’s great to see your co-workers as people in t-shirts and sneakers (bright red in Marcia’s case). Forgetting everything back at the office and taking a mental break and really REALLY talking to each other.

Productivity has improved. People are more motivated and we have changed because of that positive first experience. Everyone is getting a lot out of the walks. We are almost into February and we are sticking to our resolutions (although I did eat fries today).

Loose Change?

Change is so hot right now. Each presidential candidate uses the word as a platform to paint beautiful brush strokes of what it will mean to live in America if they are elected President. As election season gears up, there is a lot of talk about changing minds. You may have “Rallied for Change” or bought a “Change Rocks” t-shirt. Barack Obama leads the change charge with his campaign slogan “Change We Can Believe In.” Hillary seemed to take a change cue from Obama getting on the change train after her disappointing loss in Iowa. Change has served her well with voter turnout moving into Super Tuesday.

What does change exactly mean? It’s such a vacuous word that can be both positive and negative. In marketing, how do we make sure it means something grand for your brand and not just loose change?

Pretend your brand and or service will be running for President. Here are some tactics candidates are using to bring on change that we know can work for your brand/and or service too. Check it out:

Roadmap to Permanence
Creating a well-executed campaign with a solid strategy can help carry your brand “into the oval office.” A stable roadmap will help guide the campaign and creative process, ensuring a cohesive, strong final brand or service focused on the audience. The world can be forever changed by the presence of your brand or services. That means permanence. That means President. Gandhi wrote “we must be the change we wish to see.” Decide on your vision for the brand upfront and how you want it to change. Then, act the part for awhile as your brand goes through the necessary change for good. Do you think McCain wakes up every morning feeling like the President? George Bush probably still doesn’t, but he acts the part.

Issue definition and position propagation
Clearly define who you are and what you do. The right messaging should be compelling, clear, concise, and to the point. The hope is your audience then reinforces and enhances your messaging by repeating it. Think Obama with his “Change Rocks” t-shirts. They are all over the place.

Collaboration and communication
Establish one individual voice for your brand that effectively communicates what you do. That voice should open channels of communication to all interested parties (your potential audience). Eventually, your individual voice will become one strong collective voice as word gets out about you and your story is told. Think Bill Clinton, everyone knows his story about growing up in Hope, Arkansas.

Social networking
Definition: User-generated content on the Internet and guerilla “out of the box” marketing. Here is a way of connecting your audience propagating grassroots exposure, news, and sense of ownership to what you deliver. In the political world, you will have throngs of college students mobilizing, getting on buses to flyer and knock on doors in small towns. That same feeling of a “movement’ should and can happen with any brand or service you provide by connecting with the right people.

Donations (errr…purchasers/users)
An engaging experience with the brand or service will attract repeat customers and brand ambassadors. Key points are communicate clearly and tell em’ and tell em’ again. Users will feel a perceived connection to the brand/service and the other people who use it. No campaign can survive without fundraising.

Likeability for victory
By focusing on connecting with your audience and a positive experience with your brand or service, you will come across as savvy and competent. Likeability = usability and if your audience can use you and see you fitting into and potentially changing their life, you’ve won.

The next President of the United States of Marketing is ____________.