how to produce better content
ideas by mark johnstone

how do you come up
with ideas?

they just come to you,
right?

not quite

there is a certain mystery
to the ‘light bulb moment’

but to say ideas ‘just
come to you’ is to overlook everything you do beforehand that allows you to reach that point

the 4 things you need
to know about ideas 10 steps to producing better ideas this presentation is in 2 parts

but first, a little background…

3 years ago, I was
an SEO Consultant at Distilled https://www.distilled.net/about/people/mark-johnstone/

then I started the Creative
team at Distilled

we’ve since grown the team
to 10 people (only 9 in shot)

we make digital content to
earn attention for our clients online

for example

755 likes 67 LRDs
http://www.rasmussen.edu/resources/what-career-should-i-choose/

755 likes 67 LRDs LRDs
= Linking Root Domains, i.e. the number of other websites that linked to this piece of content http://www.rasmussen.edu/resources/what-career-should-i-choose/

755 likes 67 LRDs we
track more meaningful metrics than just likes and linking root domains, but for the purpose of this presentation, I will take these 2 metrics to indicate whether or not the piece of content was compelling http://www.rasmussen.edu/resources/what-career-should-i-choose/

25,000 likes 201 LRDs
http://www.concerthotels.com/ipod-visualized-as-vinyl

1,700 likes 220 LRDs
http://www.simplybusiness.co.uk/microsites/hungry-tech/

2,100 likes 313 LRDs
http://www.simplybusiness.co.uk/microsites/google-analytics-guide/

7,400 likes 359 LRDs
https://www.worldpayzinc.com/tech-wealth

88,000 likes 566 LRDs
http://www.concerthotels.com/100-years-of-rock/

143,000 likes 599 LRDs (not
provided) under NDA(non-disclosure agreement)

148,000 likes 775 LRDs
http://www.thomson.co.uk/blog/wp-content/uploads/infographic/interactive-music-map/index.html

and we’ve earned coverage in
all of the following publications

but it hasn’t all been
plain sailing

37 likes
http://www.thomson.co.uk/blog/infographic/superbowl/index.html#2011

37 likes that’s me plus
only 36 other people!!! http://www.thomson.co.uk/blog/infographic/superbowl/index.html#2011

37 likes trial and error
is a great way to learn but it also sucks http://www.thomson.co.uk/blog/infographic/superbowl/index.html#2011

37 likes we’ve learned a
lot along the way, and this presentation aims to help give your content the best chance of success http://www.thomson.co.uk/blog/infographic/superbowl/index.html#2011

the 4 things you need
to know about ideas

an idea is a novel
combination of previously unconnected elements in a way that adds value

what they are and how
to find them what they look like and how to make them the elements: the connections: which means the 4 things you need to know are…

the elements: what they are

an example from the world
of advertising

http://www.bwm.com.au/category/work/bigpond/

Daaad, why’d they build the
Great Wall of China? it was to, erm, to keep the rabbits out... too many rabbits in China (teacher – off screen) now, Daniel’s going to give his talk on China http://www.bwm.com.au/category/work/bigpond/

http://www.bwm.com.au/category/work/bigpond/

the ad agency identified a
barrier to their objective at the time, a lot of people didn’t see why they needed broadband http://www.bwm.com.au/category/work/bigpond/

if your audience doesn’t care
about what you have to say, you need to find something they do care about

customer insight product truth competitor
insight http://www.bwm.com.au/category/work/bigpond/

customer insight product truth competitor
insight parents want the best for their children and worry about them being left behind at school http://www.bwm.com.au/category/work/bigpond/

customer insight product truth competitor
insight broadband gives you faster access to a wealth of information http://www.bwm.com.au/category/work/bigpond/

customer insight product truth competitor
insight competitor messaging at the time was focused on coverage and price http://www.bwm.com.au/category/work/bigpond/

customer insight product truth competitor
insight resonant relevant different http://www.bwm.com.au/category/work/bigpond/

here’s an example from our
own work

the client provides insurance for
small business owners

but nobody wants to talk
about insurance

customer insight competitor insight product
truth a lot of small business owners still wanted to know what they should be doing with social media

customer insight competitor insight product
truth the (content) competitors had guides which were too long, so unlikely to be read, and often left too many decisions up to the reader

customer insight competitor insight product
truth insurance supports the interests of small business owners

we produced a series of
visually concise guides for small business owners, which has been a very successful campaign http://www.simplybusiness.co.uk/microsites/guide-to-social-media-success/

the elements: how to find
them

the advertising industry uses focus
groups to mine for insight in one focus group, a woman spoke of eating ice cream in intimate settings with her partner. the rest of the group gave a knowing giggle. that was the insight that launched an entire brand.

use the internet as your
focus group

“love [your brand]” “hate [your
brand]” “love [your competitor]” “hate [your competitor]” “love [category]” “hate [category]”

“love [your brand]” “hate [your
brand]” “love [your competitor]” “hate [your competitor]” “love [category]” “hate [category]” this is just one example. there are loads of ways you can use search and social media to find out how people feel. think creatively about it.

one important thing to note

it’s not about the product

it’s not about the product
Red Bull does not make content about caffeinated drinks. the content is about energy, adrenaline and pushing life to the limits.

It’s not about the product
you need to think laterally about your brand

It’s not about the product
but what does that mean?

a quick example

Dove soap dove soap simplicity
Italy song opera split ends flowers iris lily scent bubbles lather flying bird hair care presentation finish hair olive branch peace pond strands power tangled

Dove soap dove soap simplicity
Italy song opera split ends flowers iris lily scent bubbles lather flying bird hair care presentation finish hair olive branch peace pond strands power tangled map out associations with your product and brand

Dove soap dove soap simplicity
Italy song opera split ends flowers iris lily scent bubbles lather flying bird hair care presentation finish hair olive branch peace pond strands power tangled you should separate creative and analytical mode. creative mode is fast and intuitive. analytical mode is slow and deliberate. if you try to do both at the same time, it can lead to writer’s block.

Dove soap dove soap simplicity
Italy song opera split ends flowers iris lily scent bubbles lather flying bird hair care presentation finish hair olive branch peace pond strands power tangled at the time, I had no idea where to go next from ‘simplicity’. rather than get stuck, I just hopped onto a new thread and kept moving.

Dove soap dove soap simplicity
Italy song opera split ends flowers iris lily scent bubbles lather flying bird hair care presentation finish hair olive branch peace pond strands power tangled you don’t want your content tied too closely to your product, but you don’t want the link to be tenuous. don’t worry about this while you’re free-associating. you want to keep creative mode and analytical mode separate, remember.

Dove soap dove soap simplicity
Italy song opera split ends flowers iris lily scent bubbles lather flying bird hair care presentation finish hair olive branch peace pond strands power tangled wait, how did we go from soap to hair? isn’t that wrong? when you’re doing this, don’t think in terms of right and wrong. you can come back and edit later.

Dove soap dove soap simplicity
Italy song opera split ends flowers iris lily scent bubbles lather flying bird hair care presentation finish hair olive branch peace pond strands power tangled possible opportunity? women in business is a hot topic

Dove soap dove soap simplicity
Italy song opera split ends flowers iris lily scent bubbles lather flying bird hair care presentation finish hair olive branch peace pond strands power tangled consciously, I wasn’t sure why I made this leap, but it’s these unexpected connections that could lead somewhere

“of course, I’ve always taken
a lot of notes… I mean you never know what the things going to be, do you? a little detail, somewhere down the line, makes you say [gasps]… …cracks the case wide open.” Rust, True Detective

stories are often misleading about
the path actually taken

expand the number of elements
you gather to give yourself the best chance of making a connection

the connections: what they look
like

if I asked you to
reassemble this car, could you do it?

what if you had taken
a car apart before?

what if you had taken
10,20, or 100 cars apart?

what if you had taken
10,20, or 100 cars apart? it would significantly improve your chances of putting it together, right? that’s why it’s valuable to understand how great content (e.g. advertising) is constructed.

we’ve all seen this ad,
but what were the insights that led to it?

customer insight competitor insight product
truth a lot of customers were actually girls buying for their partner

customer insight competitor insight product
truth the leading competitor focused on the unlikely guy getting the girl, but the customer (the girl) doesn’t want the unlikely guy, she wants A MAN!

customer insight competitor insight product
truth Old Spice was something your Dad wore. but what do you associate with your Dad? he comes from a time when men were men!

wolf in wolf’s clothing

wolf in wolf’s clothing this
was the headline on a billboard I saw in London recently

wolf in wolf’s clothing how
would you deconstruct this ad?

competitor insight product truth customer
insight BMW’s main competitor is Mercedes, who make high-performance cars, typically with an elegant or stately image (a wolf in sheep’s clothing?)

competitor insight product truth customer
insight the new BMW M3 is a very muscular high-performance car (a wolf in wolf’s clothing)

competitor insight product truth customer
insight but what do you suppose was the customer insight that led to this idea?

competitor insight product truth customer
insight hint: huge billboards of this ad were placed on the main roads to the financial district in London

got it?

they all want to be
this guy (or a lot of them do)

the connections: how to make
them

ever wracked your brains trying
to remember someone’s name, only to have it pop into your mind when you’re having a shower? http://www.amazon.com/Technique-Producing-Ideas-James-Young/dp/1477428690

there is a natural process
for making connections that we can use to our advantage http://www.amazon.com/Technique-Producing-Ideas-James-Young/dp/1477428690

information
saturation
incubation
illumination
verification

information we’ve already discussed gathering
lots of information

saturation

saturation you need to actively
force connections. doing this physically is faster, and it gets the elements outside your head, freeing you up to focus on the connections between them.

saturation you will hit a
wall. push through it. you’ll get a second wind. when you hit another wall, it may be appropriate to stop.

incubation

incubation you need to actively
disengage. go and do something that fully absorbs your attention.

incubation I experienced this recently
when I got absorbed in a conversation in the pub. it genuinely wasn’t the beer that led to the breakthrough (sadly).

illumination
illumination

illumination illumination we can’t wait
around for the light bulb moment, but we can jump start the process

illumination illumination after a period
of incubation and preferably a night’s sleep…

illumination illumination write the question
you’re trying to solve at the top of the page, and as quickly as you can, write down 20-30 answers

illumination illumination first thing in
the morning can be a great time to do this

illumination illumination writing deliberately bad
answers can be a good trick if you get stuck

verification

verification you need to verify
your ideas. the easiest way to do this is to tell people and watch their reaction.

verification we were thinking of
doing a grammar quiz. we emailed our colleagues for input. it turned into the longest email thread in our company’s history. we figured we were onto something.

verification note: we didn’t say
‘we’re doing a grammar quiz, what do you think?’

verification if you’re met with
confusion or indifference, that means one of 2 things. you don’t have an idea or you haven’t articulated it in the right way. you have to judge which it is.

start small

product truth customer insight competitor
insight our client sold a large range of products for going back to school. when we thought of going back to school, we thought of exams, and different subjects like English, which led us to grammar.

product truth customer insight competitor
insight content about grammatical errors like this piece from the Oatmeal, can do extremely well online. http://theoatmeal.com/comics/misspelling

product truth customer insight competitor
insight we thought about a quiz, so checked what had been done. the Guardian & Telegraph both had popular quizzes, but they weren’t brilliantly executed. http://www.theguardian.com/teacher-network/teacher-blog/quiz/2013/feb/04/grammar-punctuation-quiz-test

46,000 likes (grammar quiz -
not provided) under NDA(non-disclosure agreement)

but, isn’t it all just
luck?

yes, but only in the
sense that the more you practise (and prepare), the luckier you get

and yes, ideas are serendipitous,
but you can manufacture serendipity

and, yes, sometimes you just
get lucky! http://techcrunch.com/2014/02/25/the-age-of-acquisitions/

we were working on this
content when Facebook acquired Whatsapp http://techcrunch.com/2014/02/25/the-age-of-acquisitions/

we quickly included the new
dataset and launched it http://techcrunch.com/2014/02/25/the-age-of-acquisitions/

we secured a front page
exclusive with TechCrunch http://techcrunch.com/2014/02/25/the-age-of-acquisitions/

remember the grammar quiz we
spoke about? we launched that on national grammar day without even realising! http://techcrunch.com/2014/02/25/the-age-of-acquisitions/

10 steps to producing better
ideas

1. learn about the thinking
behind the ads http://www.amazon.com/Truth-Lies-Advertising-Account-Planning/dp/0471189626

2. mine the web for
insight

Dove soap dove soap simplicity
Italy song opera split ends flowers iris lily scent bubbles lather bird hair care presentation finish hair olive branch peace pond strands 3. think laterally about your brand

4. try to force connections
http://www.amazon.com/Gamestorming-Playbook-Innovators-Rulebreakers-Changemakers/dp/0596804172

5. actively disengage

6. jump start the light
bulb

7. verify your ideas
http://www.amazon.com/Made-Stick-Ideas-Survive-Others/dp/1400064287

information saturation incubation illumination verification
8. iterate

9. start small the idea
of a grammar quiz is not nearly as profound as some of the advertising ideas we discussed

10. practise practise taking ideas
apart and putting together your own

10. practise brainstorming once a
month and saying you’re not creative is like going to the gym once a month and wondering why you don’t have a six pack

if you practise, practise, practise,
you’ll give yourself a much better chance of success

create your own luck

good luck!

p.s. you should read these
books @epicgraphic