Award-Winning Creativity, Brought to You By Constraint

Matthew Quint Director, Center on Global Brand Leadership Columbia Business School @mattquint Advertising Week – September 24, 2013

“To be creative, an idea must also

be appropriate, useful and

actionable.”

- Prof. Teresa M. Amabile

“The best way to get a good idea is to get a lot of ideas”

- Linus Pauling

Outside the Box

Inside the Box

Principle 1:

Use the CLOSED WORLD Think about adapting or using parts of a product or service, or its immediate environment, in new ways

World Rally Championships

Principle 2: Beware FIXEDNESS Functional & Structural

Dunker’s Candle Problem

FIVE TEMPLATES to constrain your options and spur creativity

SUBTRACTION

The How To

• List the components of the product or service

• Imagine removing (in full or part) something essential

• Who would see a benefit from this? – Consider also whether a replacement from the Closed World would also

provide benefits

• Would it be feasible to create the product/service?

Vitco rethinking detergent

• Components – Active ingredient (the detergent) – Perfumes – Binding agents

• What if you removed the detergent?

• Welcome to the “Clothing Freshner” (aka Febreze)

Masaru Ibuka – Sony Co-Founder

DIVISION

The How To

• List the components of the product or service

• Imagine dividing out a component (functional or structural) and then – rearranging its location, or – the time when it appears

• Who would see a benefit from this?

• Would it be feasible to create the product/service?

GE and the refrigerator

Houston Cellular Telephone Company

MULTIPLICATION

The How To

• List the components of a product or service

• Take a component and imagine multiple copies of it – List that component’s essential attributes – Modify an attribute and put back these copies into the product or service

• Who would see a benefit from this?

• Would it be feasible to create the product/service?

Building the world’s tallest building

Kapro Industries and the “unlevel”

TASK UNIFICATION

The How To

• List the components of a product or service

• Imagine adding an additional task (or function) to a component – The task can be new, or one that was already performed by another

component

• Who would see a benefit from this?

• Would it be feasible to create the product/service?

Three types of Task Unification

• Outsourcing

• Do More with What You Have

• Inside Out

Outsourcing

Do More with What You Have

Inside Out

ATTRIBUTE DEPENDENCY

Who is this?

Color changing labels

How to 1. Create a list of variables about a product/service and its Closed World

2. Assign dependent/independent variables to columns/rows

– Dependent variables are what can be changed (e.g. in the product)

3. Fill in the table based on market dynamics – Mark out where dependencies already exist in the market

4. Fill in the table based on possible new dependencies

5. Does a possible dependency have benefits and values to any particular market?

6. Is it feasible?

The baby and its ointment

Viscosity Odor Amount of Active Substance Color Amount of

Fatty Substance

The baby and its ointment

Viscosity Odor Amount of Active Substance Color Amount of

Fatty Substance

Amount of excretions at any given moment

Acidity of the excretion

Sensitivity of the skin

Age

Type of food

Time of day

The baby and its ointment

Viscosity Odor Amount of Active Substance Color Amount of

Fatty Substance

Amount of excretions at any given moment 0 0 0 0 0

Acidity of the excretion 0 0 0 0 0

Sensitivity of the skin 0 0 0 0 0

Age 0 0 0 0 0

Type of food 0 0 0 0 0

Time of day 0 0 0 0 0

The baby and its ointment

Viscosity Odor Amount of Active Substance Color Amount of

Fatty Substance

Amount of excretions at any given moment 0 1 1 0 0

Acidity of the excretion 0 0 1 0 0

Sensitivity of the skin 0 0 1 0 0

Age 0 0 1 0 0

Type of food 0 0 1 0 0

Time of day 1 0 1 0 0

Applying TEMPLATES to the world of advertising

89% of award-winning ads fell into a few simple, well-defined

design structures

MEDIUM

Design structures

Unification

Metaphor Subtraction

Activation

MESSAGE

Extreme Consequence

Inversion Extreme Effort

Absurd Alternative

The MEDIUM

Unification

Activation

Metaphor

Subtraction

The MESSAGE

Extreme consequences

Absurd alternative

Inversion

Extreme effort

But what do viewers think?.... More Original Unique Sophisticated, and… They favor them

Questions?

Matthew Quint Director, Center on Global Brand Leadership Columbia Business School @mattquint matthew@globalbrands.org Advertising Week – September 24, 2013