Going Down the Rabbit Hole - Chaos, Curiosity & Creativity (The Inbounder, May 2017)

@hannah_bo_banna
going
down
the
rabbit hole…
chaos,
curiosity,
& creativity
@hannah_bo_banna

@hannah_bo_banna
my team’s job is to make things
that journalists want to write about
& people want to share

this was created for Expedia,
it’s a series of vintage travel posters commemorating the wildlife we’ve lost

this was created for Sage,
it explores what these $1bn start-ups & the people who founded them have in common

this was created for GoCompare,
it reveals the movies with the highest on-screen death counts over the past 80 years

@hannah_bo_banna
last year we created 50 thingers
(so we were launching at a rate of about one per week)

@hannah_bo_banna
this year we’re doing 75
(or maybe more…)

@hannah_bo_banna
here’s the thing I don’t normally admit

@hannah_bo_banna
for every twenty ideas I come up with,
only one is likely to be worth making

@hannah_bo_banna
on this basis I’ll need to come up with
around 1,500 ideas this year

{insert your own expletive here}

@hannah_bo_banna
nevertheless, on this basis
we’ll need to come up with
around 1,500 ideas this year

@hannah_bo_banna
so creativity is something I think about a lot

@hannah_bo_banna
or, more accurately,
what it means to be creative

@hannah_bo_banna
creative
having a good imagination or original ideas

@hannah_bo_banna
raise your hand if you think you’re creative

@hannah_bo_banna
so the rest of you
do not consider yourselves creative

@hannah_bo_banna
raise your hand if you used to
make up games as a child

as an adult you see a cardboard box

but as a child you saw a treasure chest

@hannah_bo_banna
we were all creative

@hannah_bo_banna
raise your hand if you used to
make up stories as a child

after I saw jaws for the first time, aged 7,
I wrote my own version

@hannah_bo_banna
I felt that the sea was too limiting in terms of
potential terror

@hannah_bo_banna
so in my version jaws could
swim through the earth’s mantle
& pop up through the crust to terrorise people

@hannah_bo_banna
as stories go I thought it was pretty great

@hannah_bo_banna
I gave it to my dad to read

@hannah_bo_banna
my dad said that the earth’s mantle
was mainly solid so jaws
couldn’t swim through it

@hannah_bo_banna
he also said that the mantle was too hot
(between 500-900 degrees)

@hannah_bo_banna
he said jaws would not be able to breathe
in the mantle

@hannah_bo_banna
he mentioned something about it being
pretty tough to break through the earth’s crust

@hannah_bo_banna
[tough review]

@hannah_bo_banna
I responded that jaws had been stung by a
radioactive jellyfish & had special powers now

@hannah_bo_banna
I said it was a bit like what happened
to Peter Parker

@hannah_bo_banna
I took two things I liked & mashed them
together to make something new

@hannah_bo_banna
jaws + spiderman = a better story
(according to me, aged 7)

@hannah_bo_banna
we all used to do this,
it’s how we came up with games & stories

@hannah_bo_banna
somewhere along the way
most of us stopped

@hannah_bo_banna
& now we say we’re not creative

@hannah_bo_banna
I just think that how we define creative
is a bit broken

@hannah_bo_banna
children are creative

@hannah_bo_banna
they imagine all sorts of things

@hannah_bo_banna
but they don’t sweat the originality bit

@hannah_bo_banna
or rather, they arrive at originality
via a roundabout route

@hannah_bo_banna
two ideas smooshed together = an original idea

@hannah_bo_banna
right now you’re probably thinking

@hannah_bo_banna
what has this:
jaws + spiderman = a better story

@hannah_bo_banna
got to do with stuff like this…

@hannah_bo_banna
I think that if you need to come up
with 1,500 ideas

@hannah_bo_banna
you stand a better chance of succeeding if you
ditch your obsession with originality

@hannah_bo_banna
(trying to be original is crippling in any case)

@hannah_bo_banna
instead,
find things you love
& build upon them to make something new

@hannah_bo_banna
were inspired by these…

@hannah_bo_banna
Mythical Beasts - a series of vintage travel
posters by graphic designer Fro Reza
(who was likely inspire...

@hannah_bo_banna
was inspired by this…

@hannah_bo_banna
find things you love
& build upon them to make something new

@hannah_bo_banna
I feel like I sort of knew this already

@hannah_bo_banna
but it wasn’t until I read this
that it clicked for me

@hannah_bo_banna
but wait, stealing is bad, right?

@hannah_bo_banna
don’t *just* steal

@hannah_bo_banna
steal like an artist

@hannah_bo_banna
know the difference between
‘good’ and ‘bad’ theft

bad theft = just make some more vintage travel posters of mythical beasts

bad theft = steal the data, redesign it, maybe change the name

bad theft = just make this beautiful

@hannah_bo_banna
sometimes the line between
good and bad theft is blurry

@hannah_bo_banna
I can’t tell you where the line is

@hannah_bo_banna
but just because you *can* get away with it
doesn’t mean that you should

@hannah_bo_banna
steal responsibly
in order to come up with ideas

@hannah_bo_banna
what does that look like?

@hannah_bo_banna
in the past, when people asked me
how I came up with ideas
this was my answer

@hannah_bo_banna
I do hours and hours and hours of research,
I drink a lot of coffee,
I lose my mind because all my ideas ...

@hannah_bo_banna
the next day…
I regret getting drunk,
I do more research,
I try harder to come up with ideas,
I typically...

@hannah_bo_banna
I keep on doing this
until I come up with some stuff I think might work…

@hannah_bo_banna
it’s not an especially helpful answer, huh?

@hannah_bo_banna
today I want to try to give you
a slightly better answer

@hannah_bo_banna
this stealing like an artist thing helps

@hannah_bo_banna
do this constantly

@hannah_bo_banna
there’s likely to be something in
every book you read, every film you see,
every song you listen to, art ...

@hannah_bo_banna
here are a few examples…

@hannah_bo_banna
“it’s often a person’s mouth
that broke their nose”
~ overheard on the last train home

great ape-spectations
(http://windoodles.tumblr.com/)

@hannah_bo_banna
“making a killing on Wall Street
might be a harmless turn of phrase,
but it only enjoys traction because
...

@hannah_bo_banna
make it your mission to constantly
capture this stuff

@hannah_bo_banna
when it comes to concepts for clients
finding things *I* love can be tough

@hannah_bo_banna
but actually,
*I* might not need to love them

‘find things which provoke
an emotional response in your target audience’

@hannah_bo_banna
we only share things if they make us
feel something

@hannah_bo_banna
which makes social shares a reasonable proxy
for strength of emotional response

@hannah_bo_banna
to begin, figure out where you want coverage
(start with 5-10 sites)

@hannah_bo_banna
find out which content is most shared
on those sites

@hannah_bo_banna
actually, while we’re here…

@hannah_bo_banna
don’t just find out *what* people share,
try to figure out
*why* people are sharing this stuff

@hannah_bo_banna
especially if you it’s not something
you care about it

nearly 14k people shared this on facebook?!

@hannah_bo_banna
talk to a human being who cares about this stuff

@hannah_bo_banna
if you don’t get your target audience,
it’s likely they won’t get your content

@hannah_bo_banna
figure out where you want coverage
(start with 5-10 sites)

@hannah_bo_banna
find out which content is most shared
on those sites & why

money,
life hacks,
mindfulness,
happiness

leadership,
intuition,
intelligence,
instinct

money,
cost of living,
happiness
leadership,
power,
influence

@hannah_bo_banna
read the articles,
make notes,
& create a separate list of topics
to explore further

@hannah_bo_banna
now do this again with
[site + each topic]
(leadership, life hacks, money, happiness, intuition, intellig...

@hannah_bo_banna
start with 5-10 sites
[search site]
make a note of topics
[search site + topics]
note down more topics
[n...

@hannah_bo_banna
[each topic]
(leadership, life hacks, money, happiness, intuition, intelligence, i...

@hannah_bo_banna
create a separate list of sites
to explore further

@hannah_bo_banna
[new sites + each topic]

@hannah_bo_banna
now take your list of topics
& come up with a bunch more related topics

@hannah_bo_banna
[each new topic]
(efficiency, productivity, creativity, work life balance, problem...

@hannah_bo_banna
create another list of sites
to explore further

@hannah_bo_banna
[new sites + each of your previous topics]

@hannah_bo_banna
are your heads spinning?

@hannah_bo_banna
you’re not done yet

@hannah_bo_banna
now google your topics

@hannah_bo_banna
try google image search

@hannah_bo_banna
search reddit

@hannah_bo_banna
go to the library

@hannah_bo_banna
(these are just examples, there’s loads
more you can explore)

@hannah_bo_banna
by the end of this, you should have
tonnes of stuff worth stealing

@hannah_bo_banna
you’ll have a much clearer idea
of the content landscape

@hannah_bo_banna
& you’ll have a better understanding of what
your target audience share & why

@hannah_bo_banna
take the stuff you love

@hannah_bo_banna
& try to mash it up with the stuff
your target audience care about

@hannah_bo_banna
use both as building blocks
to make something new

@hannah_bo_banna
wait, that sounds hard…
how do you do that bit?

@hannah_bo_banna
I’ll try to explain with an example

@hannah_bo_banna
back in 2014
I had a client that sold books

@hannah_bo_banna
I love books
(so I thought this would be easy)

@hannah_bo_banna
research suggested that
the most voracious readers
are often would-be writers

@hannah_bo_banna
I wanted to make something for those
voracious readers & would-be writers

@hannah_bo_banna
they say everyone has a novel in them
& I wanted to prove that it’s never too late

I’d seen how successful this was…

& this is (very loosely) based on that -
it shows how many books the best loved authors published, & when they published
t...

@hannah_bo_banna
the message was,
there’s still time to write that first novel

@hannah_bo_banna
actually that’s a pretty sanitised version

@hannah_bo_banna
I eventually arrived at that piece
with a coherent message

but, I disappeared down a bunch of rabbit holes first

@hannah_bo_banna
I trawled the book sections of news sites and
book specific sites to try to get a handle on
what content ...

@hannah_bo_banna
at the time the most shared piece of content on Book Riot was:
16 things Calvin & Hobbes
said better than...

possibly the most true statement ever

@hannah_bo_banna
I spent a bunch of time on this
Calvin & Hobbes idea

@hannah_bo_banna
but no matter what I did I couldn’t get it to a
point where it was anything other than
a listicle of comi...

@hannah_bo_banna
comic strips that we weren’t likely
to be allowed to use

@hannah_bo_banna
& of course the client wasn’t likely to go for it

@hannah_bo_banna
rabbit hole L

there was also tonnes of stuff about amazing bookshelves

@hannah_bo_banna
but what do you do with that?

@hannah_bo_banna
could we design our own bookshelves?

@hannah_bo_banna
could we imagine how would famous authors
would design bookshelves?

@hannah_bo_banna
that’s crazily tenuous

@hannah_bo_banna
what would that even look like?

@hannah_bo_banna
wait… what about libraries?

@hannah_bo_banna
libraries are cool

@hannah_bo_banna
what about libraries in movies?

the breakfast club is set in a library

in ghostbusters, the 1st ghostly encounter occurs in the NYC public library

what about superman’s fortress of solitude?
that’s kind of a library right?

@hannah_bo_banna
oh god what am I doing?

@hannah_bo_banna
yet another rabbit hole L

@hannah_bo_banna
but I think you have to go with it
& allow yourself to get a little bit lost

@hannah_bo_banna
sometimes those ridiculous rabbit holes
will lead you to an idea that will work

@hannah_bo_banna
ok, let’s wrap this thing up

@hannah_bo_banna
rubbish in = rubbish out

@hannah_bo_banna
every day you’re exposed to stimuli –
there’s the damned internet,
but there’s also books, music,
convers...

@hannah_bo_banna
be mindful about what you’re
exposing yourself to

@hannah_bo_banna
seek out the things that your
target audience care about
& try to understand why

@hannah_bo_banna
especially if they’re things you don’t care about

@hannah_bo_banna
know the difference between
‘good’ & ‘bad’ theft

@hannah_bo_banna
do this first and foremost because
it’s the right thing to do

@hannah_bo_banna
‘bad’ theft
can lead you to create ‘bad’ content

@hannah_bo_banna
honor vs degrade
is this just a dumbed down version?
is it worse than the original?

@hannah_bo_banna
skim vs study
do you have a deep understanding, or are you
creating something shallow or patronising?

@hannah_bo_banna
steal from one vs steal from many
what are you adding here?
what’s new or different?

@hannah_bo_banna
the final 3 are really just about being a
decent human…

@hannah_bo_banna
credit vs plagiarise
you learned this at school

@hannah_bo_banna
transform vs imitate
imitation is not flattery

@hannah_bo_banna
remix vs rip-off
you know the difference

@hannah_bo_banna
embrace the chaos

@hannah_bo_banna
disappear down rabbit holes

@hannah_bo_banna
trust that one of them
will lead you somewhere

@hannah_bo_banna
“you can’t connect the dots looking forward;
you can only connect them
looking backward…”
~ Steve Jobs, S...

@hannah_bo_banna
others echo this sentiment

@hannah_bo_banna
“ideas are born out of the
stuff populating our memories…
creativity is simply the capacity to put those
...

@hannah_bo_banna
don’t lose heart

@hannah_bo_banna
plunging headlong into a sea of self-doubt
because you think all your ideas are ‘bad’
is counter-producti...

@hannah_bo_banna
we are all creative

@hannah_bo_banna
it’s just that no one really talks about
how much hard work is involved

@hannah_bo_banna
you will find it hard,
because it is hard

@hannah_bo_banna
work *really* hard

@hannah_bo_banna
for the most part,
the difference between an idea that will work
and one which won’t,
is just a whole bun...

@hannah_bo_banna
so do the work J

@hannah_bo_banna
it *might* get easier over time

Paula Scher designed the Citibank logo, in seconds, on the back of a napkin,
in an early client meeting

@hannah_bo_banna
“it’s done in a second, and 34 years…
it’s done in a second,
and every experience,
and every movie,
and e...

@hannah_bo_banna
when we’ve been doing this for 34 years,
maybe we’ll get there faster J

@hannah_bo_banna
Hannah Smith
Head of Creative
Verve Search
send questions and/or pictures of cats to: hannah@vervesearch....

@hannah_bo_banna
Big love to the team at Verve who helped me put this together J
Images:
down the rabbit hole: http://www....

Going Down the Rabbit Hole - Chaos, Curiosity & Creativity (The Inbounder, May 2017)