As we go about our lives, we leave behind a constant stream of data, everywhere we go. This shadow of ourselves, upon closer inspection, can give brands insight into our behavior unlike ever before. New digital devices like Twine (essentially a box with sensors that sends data back to the user based on preset rules) are also empowering consumers with new  insight into their own behavior and those around them.

According to the Twine forum, one parent  uses Twine’s magnetic switch to send him an alert if the kids break into the closet where their Christmas presents are hidden. In my household, we now know how many sips go into the average cup of tea (average number of sips per cup 11.2, average time to sip a cup: 0:00:06) and when the tree needs watering.

Useful links: http://community.supermechanical.com/index.php?p=/

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/supermechanical/twine-listen-to-your-world-talk-to-the-internet

Challenging conventional wisdom on brainstorms

We enter creative workshops and brainstorming sessions with such optimism, eager to switch off the left brain and plunge into a world where anything is possible. Inspired by the real possibility that you, today, could come up with the next Swiffer, Post-It or Go-Gurt. You right here with this Sharpie are about to become a hero.

However, despite our best intentions, we often leave with a load of superficial free associations and feeling overwhelmed, directionless, and as Beth Comstock at GE explains, “paralyzed by possibility.”

As I meander through the supermarket, I am struck with a similar feeling. The abundance of “me too” products and predictable insights leaves me feeling uninspired and directionless.

While more than enough brain power, blog posts, pop sci books, TED Talks and diary pages have been devoted to exploring what makes a good idea, I have to wonder are we still relying too heavily on the wisdom of the past?

In the 1930s the father of organized ideation, Alex Osborn, framed brainstorming as “a creative conference for producing a list of ideas.” Quantity produces quality and there should always be an open dialogue without criticism or negative feedback. To Osborn, “creativity is so delicate a flower that praise tends to make it bloom while discouragement often nips it in the bud.” It’s the notion that we always have to play together and nice that I’d like to challenge here.

Playing together?

Ironically introverts have been getting a lot of attention lately. In her recent book “Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking” Susan Cain explains that even in a world where one third to one half of us are introverts, “we are increasingly focused on the values of extroverts – the outgoing, the lovers of crowds – but not the quiet types.” “We’re living with this value system that I call the new group think, where I think we really believe on some deep level that creativity emerges from this group process. And we have forgotten that a crucial role of creativity is also solitude.”

To me, this highlights the importance of not merely relying on creative exercises to get the job done, but sensitively designing a workshop which recognizes that not all people think the same. Understanding how to play to individual strengths will result in more valuable, creative ideas and keep people more engaged and stimulated. Taking the workshop beyond the walls of the meeting room, by formalizing pre and post creative sessions will also allow introverts to relish in their solitude and extroverts to socialize with the outside world.

Playing nice?

Now that we have established that we don’t always have to play together, what about playing nice? Traditional brainstorming has taught us to generate lots of ideas and to withhold criticism and negative feedback.  Is all this politeness getting us to better ideas or are we becoming less than the sum of our parts?

In 2003, Charlan Nemeth, a professor of psychology at the University of California at Berkeley, conducted an experiment which asked three groups of people to solve a problem using three different approaches to brainstorming. A traditional group was instructed to hold back all criticism and negative feedback, a debate group was told that “most research and advice suggest that the best way to come up with good solutions is to come up with many solutions. Freewheeling is welcome; don’t be afraid to say anything that comes to mind. However, in addition, most studies suggest that you should debate and even criticize each other’s ideas” and a third group was given no guidance at all.

The experiment found that surprisingly debate sparked creativity and enthusiasm. Not only did the debate group come up with more creative ideas, they came up with more of them during and after the session. Nemeth explained that “exposure to a persistent minority dissenter sparks more flexible, open-minded, and multi-perspective thinking which, in turn, produces less conformist and more creative outcomes.”

While the art of brainstorming has been debated since its inception, both of these arguments serve a reminder that breaking tradition is not only bold, but can be quite sensible as well.

Recently the NYC Advertising Association brought marketers together to hear a tale of how a small airline revolutionized an industry by behaving completely opposite of everyone else. 

According to Marty St. George, SVP of Marketing and Commercial Strategy at JetBlue, their success has resulted from a return to basics: a deeply engaging brand vision and a clear understanding of the consumer target. Weaving these two together has created profound customer intimacy, brand equity and growth.

For the past decade Jet Blue has brought both elements to life in one, powerful reference point – bringing humanity back to air travel – from which all decisions are made. Proudly, Marty describes their strategy as one which aims to exceed customer expectations in a category where many carriers advise flyers no expectation is a good expectation. They’ve done so by reversing several negative clichés associated with airline travel and by leveraging consumer advocacy as a primary measure of success throughout the entire organization, baggage carousel to boardroom.

Specifically, they obsess over Net Promoter Scores, using this measure as a way to drive prioritization and resource management among the executive team, accountability among leadership and behavior on the frontlines. Using an internal dashboard, every employee can track NPS scores by flight to understand how their performance impacts the business.

As they move into their second decade of service, JetBlue has evolved its brand vision to renew its commitment to always put people first. “In so many ways this exciting new marketing campaign speaks to the core of who we are as a brand. ‘You Above All’ is authentic. It’s transparent. It’s understandable. Quite simply, it’s very JetBlue” explains Marty.

The campaign is intended to provide “emotional differentiation” for JetBlue, said Alex Leikikh, managing partner and director for account service at Mullen. “Airline advertising today is chock full of smiley, happy business people,” Mr. Leikikh said. “We wanted to do something different.”

And they did, in a series of video advertisements that ask If you wouldn’t take it on the ground, don’t take it in the air.

Others are beginning to take notice, a recent PWC consumer based industry report asks, “What if carriers decided to stop relying on the same old Madison Avenue “strategies” offered up by the branding “experts” and go in a different direction? Of course there is another way—one that starts with keeping the flyer first and relying on what real customers have to say about their preferences.”

As the discussion came to an end, we felt evangelized as marketers and empowered as frequent travelers. JetBlue has proved the power of a value based culture by staying innovative and nimble – why can’t we all?

In the 1990s, digital was all about browsing.  The following decade brought search engines, and today we talk a lot about connecting online.  Facebook connects us to people from our past and those we meet in the present.  We can follow anyone and everything on Twitter, and now we can use social technology to create a spontaneous connection to people around us with similar interests.

This latest evolution in digital is called ‘social discovery’, and was the hot topic at this year’s SXSW festival.  Social discovery brands such as Highlight, Kismet, Sonar and Ban.Jo are GPS-enabled apps that allow users to learn more about others in their vicinity.

There are several interesting developments here.  To date, many of us have put a huge amount of effort into connecting and expanding our social network online.  Social Discovery changes this dynamic, encouraging users to emerge from the comfort of the digital world into the real one.  It’s great news for brands, as roughly 90% of all money is still being spent in the real world.

Second, social discovery apps leverage our interests rather than our existing networks to spark a connection.  Using information on our personal interests, these apps “passively monitor” the space around us, searching for people we should meet.  Paul Davison, founder and CEO of San Francisco-based Highlight explains his inspiration:

“What if you just sort of had this bird’s eye view of the world? [You could] play God and take two people and put them together… [We] love the ambient intimacy we get from looking into other people’s lives.”

I believe that in the pre-digital dark ages, this intimacy was often a result of being in the right place at the right time: an act of serendipity brought to us by fate.  My first reaction is to ask: where’s the romance? What is serendipity without its unpredictability? As we continue to share more and more personal moments online, I’m forced to wonder: are we losing out on real connections?

One thing is for sure: a fundamental shift is taking place in the way all of us are connecting as people.  We are exploring and hunting for more meaningful connections, which leaves me feeling optimistic about the future.  After all, all of this creates an incredible opportunity for brands to create more meaningful connections with consumers – and perhaps even be there for the moment when sparks fly!