A State of play & creative alchemy in marketing

Exploring the state of play, creative alchemy, the role of curiosity in marketing and why ideas still matter in an increasingly data-driven world.

Are you in a state of play?  Can you leverage your creative alchemy?

What state are you actually in?

I’ve been thinking about this a lot recently, particularly through my experience of developing my art business Ada and Bo and now starting my creative marketing agency, Pink Moss Manor.

Marketing is, in many ways, about changing someone's state.

Moving someone from unaware, to curious. Curious to interested. Interested to connected. Then ultimately, to action.  It’s then about nurturing that state to create a long term relationship.  A journey from cold and unaware to warm, welcome and valued.

Often we forget that applies to ourselves as marketers.

What state are we working from? Are we creating from curiosity, or are we trying to force an answer? Are we open to possibilities or are we looking for certainty too early?  Are we replicating what we already know or are we trying new ideas?

I genuinely believe the best ideas come from being curious and playing with ideas.  Being in a state of play.

Letting go of certainty

When I started to develop the creative concepts for my art business, Ada and Bo, my ‘state’ was the single most important factor.  I had so many ideas for the business I wanted to build and as I worked through different models and ideas, I had to get comfortable with the fact the most of the work I was doing wouldn’t come to fruition.  These ideas would however, move me closer to the idea that would work.

That's quite a shift for someone who has spent more than 20 years working client-side in marketing, where data, insight, planning and certainty are understandably important.

I'm not suggesting we throw any of those things out of the window. Far from it.

But creativity doesn't always work backwards from the answer.

Sometimes you have to create the space for the answer to emerge.

From POP to BUBBLY AF

The first artwork I created for my collection was called POP.  The idea was energy. Movement. Joy.

But as I worked with it, something changed and my relationship with the meaning deepened.  Mostly because I let it.  I let go of the control and certainty.

It started to come to life and became BUBBLY AF.

The piece became connected to my own journey to living alcohol-free. It wasn't something I'd set out to create at the beginning. It emerged through the process.

Suddenly the artwork had more meaning.  It became about presence. About being fully here.  Free.

It became about celebrating life and all the small daily wins.

Now, the original idea hadn't failed.  It had evolved.  It came to life.

And that's the bit about creativity I find fascinating.

Does data come after the CREATIVE?

I love data.  Building a picture of what’s performing and when you’re managing complex multi channel campaigns it’s so important to know the numbers and it’s critically important in communicating value across the business.

The only thing is data can’t tell you everything that hasn’t happened yet.

So I’m wondering if we need to be more willing to try ideas, explore a different way of doing things.  Be willing to try because it’s in the trying and failing we learn.  We refine, we tune in and develop a much deeper understanding of the whole concept we’re building.

I worked on so many ideas which didn’t develop into anything but that was one of the most important elements of the whole experience.

Maybe it’s time to leverage creative alchemy

It’s going to be more important than ever to start leveraging creativity in a sense that we need human experience and insight to move ideas forward, to stand out in a world where most things feel a bit flat and there is so much sameness out there.

It’s also important the next generation of creative professionals get to know what really moves people.

Maybe we’re moving back to a world where being human is the competitive advantage… not rushing to replace the one thing that can give your business depth and feeling.

So are you in a state of play?  Can you leverage your creative alchemy?