Special Marketing Edition of Chaos and Creativity

Chaos & Creativity

Chaos & Creativity: Special Marketing Edition special marketing edition
JasonTheodor.com

Introduction
to Nothing
Chaos & Creativity: Special Marketing Edition JasonTheodor.com

Jason Theodor


@jted

Jason Theodor


What is an interactive
Creative Director?


“ I facilitates ideas. I direct the
creation of communications so that
they solve a speciﬁc client problem
or need using the appropriate
digital channels, and then I oversee
the output of designers, art
directors, copywriters, information

programmers, planners and
“
architects, user experience experts,

marketing scientists, all the while
keeping the bigger vision in mind.


I make ads on the interweb.


2010 Global Ad Spend
$441,200,000,000.00

2010 Internet Ad Spend
$60,400,000,000.00
(13.7%)

and yet…


81% of GenY ﬁnd ads irrelevant.
$49,086,000,000.00 wasted


Scary, isn’t it?


Question:
What is a creative person
most afraid of?


Nothing


writer’s b
lock the fear
uninspire d mental barriers
inertia i dealess

Nothing
tabula rasa emptiness

b lank o ut creative cons tipation


What if I run out of ideas?


“The frightening &
most difﬁcult thing
about being a creative
person is that you have
absolutely no idea
where any of your
thoughts come from.”

-Hal Riney
Creative Director


Director is such a misnomer.
Like you are in ‘control’ of anything.


waterco o ler rebel
Alex Bogusky (CP+B)
Chief Creative Insurgent


ﬁ res tarter
Glen Hunt (Dentsu)
Creative Catalyst


ent p heno m e n is t
emerg
Jason Theodor (Blast Radius)
Creative Connector


Stop Directing
Start Connecting


Associations
not Assumptions


The Nine Dotswith
Problem


The Problem With Nine Dots
assumption one: you must stay within the perimeter of the dots

kes
ts i n fo ur s tro
connec t all the do
ing yo ur pencil
w itho ut lift


assumption one: you must stay within the perimeter of the dots

4 st rokes!

o ut si d e
t hink box!
of the


assumption two: you must go through the centre of the dots

3 s trokes!


assumption three: you must stay on a 2D plane

1 s troke!


other assumptions: you can’t shrink, fold, or rip


Think Outside the Box
what it really means

“I can’t articulate how you
could improve on the idea so I’ll
pressure you to change it with
no clear input or direction.”


There is No Box!
stop binary thinking

bad ideas good ideas
your ideas my ideas
inside the box outside the box

{ beautiful
grey area

Creativity is the act of
connecting things in
unexpected ways


Creativity is the act of
connecting things in
unexpected ways

conne
action ction

where the
deviation mag ic happens


In The Beginning
There was No Internet

what is chaos?


w ish to make
If yo u scratch,
{the intern et} f ro m
us t ﬁrs t invent
yo u m
the u niverse
-Car l Sagan

In the beginning there was nothing.
No internet. No nothing.


The Greeks called this
the void, or khaos.


Scientists call chaos
“formless primordial matter”
(the stuff before stuff)


Chaos = Nothing =
Inﬁnite Possibility


This lead to the
emergent phenomenon
of the universe.


BANG! When we think of
the Big Bang we
imagine it like this:


or this…


When really it
looked more
like this.


It took a full three minutes
before the Universe was cool enough
for light to shine.


The creation of the universe
was spawned from pure,
unadulterated chaos.


From inﬁnite possibility.


From
Nothing (so don’t be scared)


Termite Cathedrals
and Double Rainbows

Water is a series of hexagonal,
networked molecules.


networks of hexigons


The convergence
of multiple, simple
interactions can
lead to a complex
system which is
much greater
than the sum of
its parts.


ARPANET
advanced research projects agency network


Emergent Phenomena


Remind you of anything?


The internet is
an emergent
phenomenon,
ﬁlled with chaos
and order


chaos order
0 1


creation

chaos order
0 1
nothing something
inﬁnite singular
potential reality


“Unpredictable behaviour so
sensitive to changes and conditions
that it appears random.”


This is the deﬁnition of
Chaos Theory


aka
The Butterﬂy Effect


The beat of a butterﬂy wing can cause
small and increasingly complex
changes in weather patterns

and alter the course
of a hurricane.


Chaos Theory explains how
we cannot explain things.


Like the random,
unpredictable nature of
internet memes.


Brand Hijacking
Introducing Leonardo DeHapprio


SunnyD & Rum by u8a22


nothing but chaos


And the rapid rise and
fall of social networks.


I’m not
dead yet!

The Age of Interruption is Waning


Immersive to Social Marketing
the experience becomes a relationship

I do remember the
Subservient Chicken.
It was delicious.
@OldSpice


Some people think that by
observing, measuring and
recording best practices that
they can predict what will
happen next online.


Much like an internet meteorologist.


The human brain craves reason.
With hindsight, anything can be explained.


Viral vs. ‘Viral Marketing’


Temptation is to analyze
and clone this success


Nothing

3%


But it was made popular by a
conﬂuence of events (emergent
phenomena) too complex for anyone,
even a computer, to completely
understand (chaos theory).


Just because it’s rationalized
does not mean it becomes predictable.


Nassim Nicholas Taleb
calls this rationalized hindsight
the 3rd result of a Black Swan.


The Black Swan
of Chaos

Black Swan:
1. Unexpected
2. World-changing
3. Rationalized (in hindsight)


The Internet is a
chaotic emergent black swan.


WTF can you do with that?


How to brace yourself for
Black Swans, or even better,
take advantage of them?


1. What is fragile should break early
while it is still small. Nothing should
ever become Too Big to Fail.
—Taleb


Fail early and fail often.
Success is 99% failure.


Learn from
failure &
move on


You have to plan your
corporate strategy
around what the
internet does.
Google CEO Eric Schmidt


Create a FAIL! budget.


Chevy Tahoe’s UGC Mistake/Brilliance


Troll Defence!


Experiment. Iterate.
Learn.


COMPLEX
SIMPLE
5. Counter–balance
complexity with simplicity.
—Taleb


SIMPLE
COMPLEX
5. Counter–balance
complexity with simplicity.
—Taleb


First Banner Ad
AT&T online paid advertisment on HotWired, October 25th, 1994


As bandwidth improved,
ads got bigger and ‘ﬂashier’
(and smarter).


And yet, average
click-through rate:
0.2%


vokens
pop-ups
pop-unders
take-overs
interstitials
pre-rolls


Linguists deﬁne chaos as
disorder & confusion.


34,560 hours
of video uploaded every day.
2,000,000,000 views
streamed every day.


Don’t do everything at once!


Pick 1 or 2 things and do them well


10. Make an omelette
with broken eggs.
—Taleb


What do you think is the #1
Branded Viral Video?


134,246,499
views


Started with $50
No Agency


Some Items Blended:
Marbles
Golf Balls
Rake Handle
Rubik’s Cube
Wii Remote
Credit Cards
3 Hockey Pucks
Chuck Norris (ﬁgure)
Ford Fiesta
6 Bic Lighters
12 Glow Sticks
Avacados
iPad
Vuvuzela

“When life
gives you chaos,
will it blend?”


Conclusion


Chaos=Inﬁnite Possibilities
Make Associations, Not Assumptions
There is No Box
Fail Early, Fail Often
Simplicity Trumps Complexity
Use What You Have


Credits
some of these images are copyright protected by their respective owners

Angel Tears font 3D VRML Map of the Internet Termite Cathedral
by Billy Argel by the Opte Project, Jan. 15, 2005 by Yewenyi on Wikipedia

Triangulum Galaxy Noise! Noise! Noise! “1984”
by NASA by Chuck Jones & Dr. Seuss by Ridley Scott & Apple


Credits

The Internet Mapping Project I Don’t Know What I Did Before The Internet Subservient Chicken
by Kevin Kelly by Lee Crutchley by CP+B

Google Classic Another Caveman Cartoon Portrait of Google CEO Eric Schmidt
by g l u b on Flickr by Baloo by Albert Watson for Money


Credits

The Science of Coke and Mentos Double OMG! Caution - This is Sparta
by EepyBird.com by David Schwen by il0gical on deviantART

Pencil Sculpture Understanding the Creative Director First Node on ARPANET
by Dalton Ghetti by lunchbreath on Flickr UCLA, Sept. 2, 1969, Alex McKenzie


Credits

Primary Internet Gateways Life Before Google (Chuck & Beans) In Ur Reality
June 18th 1985, by Marty Lyons by Brian by xkcd

Symbol of Chaos Snowﬂakes 4chan memes
by Michael Moorcock by Wilson Bentley, 1865-1931 by *.externet.hu for 4chan.org


Credits

"shells redux" "Chaos on black" "NO CHAOS"
flickr photo by Darny flickr photo by daliborlev [too cold to shoot] flickr photo by alles-schlumpf

"Arcing Event" "Times Square Collage" (detail) "The Dark Blue Bird" (detail)
flickr photo by St Steve by Edward Lear (1812-88). Ink &
ﬂickr photo by leonardo.bonanni watercolour, one of six. England, 1880.


Credits

"Light drawing during insomnia" (detail) "91 variations on a theme" (detail) "Butterfly Wing"
flickr photo by Lucas Janin flickr photo by kevindooley flickr photo by Pikaluk

The Ultimate Social Media Diagram? "Sunrise" Free Hand Drawn Doodle Icon Set for Bloggers
by Tom Cunniff flickr photo by Krug6 by Chris Spooner


Credits

Hurricane Isabel Over The Atlantic Ocean Computer Monitor Screen Image Simulated A Cartoon
International Space Station (Expedition 7) by Andrew pmk by Mr. Fish for Harper’s Magazine

3 PS3s = (Part Of) A Human Brain
found by plunkett@Kotaku.com


Review & Share:
slideshare.net/jted

Contact

jason.theodor@gmail.com
JasonTheodor.com
@jted


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Special Marketing Edition of Chaos and Creativity

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