Hannah Smith
Going
Down
the
Rabbit Hole
Chaos, Curiosity & Creativity @hannah_bo_banna

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

@hannah_bo_banna
hello there!

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

@hannah_bo_banna
huh?

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

links from over 150 domains

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

links from over 240 domains

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

links from over 500 domains

@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}

fortunately I’m not alone J

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

{insert your own expletive here}

@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

a boat

a transmogrifier

a time machine

@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
but we are

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

@hannah_bo_banna
creative
having a good imagination or original ideas

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

@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 inspired by someone like David Klein)

@hannah_bo_banna
was inspired by this…

@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 are terrible,
I decide f*ck it,
I get drunk…

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

@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

this is the research phase

@hannah_bo_banna
step one

‘find things you love’

@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 in all its forms,
the stuff you see online, on street signs,
in slogans, in overheard conversations…

@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
of the culture it takes place in”
~ Irvine Welsh, intro to American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis

@hannah_bo_banna
make it your mission to constantly
capture this stuff

‘find things you love’

@hannah_bo_banna
step two

@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 you love’

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

@hannah_bo_banna
huh?

@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

save anything worth stealing

@hannah_bo_banna
now do this again with
[site + each topic]
(leadership, life hacks, money, happiness, intuition, intelligence, instinct,
power, influence, cost of living)

save anything worth stealing

@hannah_bo_banna
start with 5-10 sites
[search site]
make a note of topics
[search site + topics]
note down more topics
[now you’ve explored a subset of topics across 5-10 sites]

@hannah_bo_banna
now do this again with
[each topic]
(leadership, life hacks, money, happiness, intuition, intelligence, instinct,
power, influence, cost of living)

@hannah_bo_banna
create a separate list of sites
to explore further

save anything worth stealing

@hannah_bo_banna
now do this again with
[new sites + each topic]

save anything worth stealing

@hannah_bo_banna
start with 5-10 sites
[search site]
make a note of topics
[search site + topics]
note down more topics
[now you’ve explored a subset of topics across 5-10 sites]
[search topics]
make a note of sites you’ve not explored yet
[search new sites + topics]
[now you’ve explored a subset of topics across many more sites]

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

@hannah_bo_banna
now do this again with
[each new topic]
(efficiency, productivity, creativity, work life balance, problem solving, prioritising,
all of the above + apps and tools)

@hannah_bo_banna
create another list of sites
to explore further

save anything worth stealing

@hannah_bo_banna
now do this again with
[new sites + each of your previous topics]

save anything worth stealing

@hannah_bo_banna
start with 5-10 sites
[search site]
make a note of topics
[search site + topics]
note down more topics
[now you’ve explored a subset of topics across 5-10 sites]
[search topics]
make a note of sites you’ve not explored yet
[search new sites + topics]
[now you’ve explored a subset of topics across many sites]
come up with more topics
[search new topics]
make a note of sites you’ve not explored yet
[search new sites + all the topics]
[now you’ve explored a bunch of topics across many sites]

@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
step three

@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
their breakthrough: from Jack Kerouac aged 26, to Rosamunde Pilcher aged 65

@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 was most shared

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

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 comic strips

@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