“The essence of creativity is holding things in mind and disassembling them and putting them together in new ways.” Adele Diamond, neurscientist

She was talking about a thing called working memory, which she says is needed for anything that unfolds over time and for creativity. She also discussed how this basic function is built up over time and helps us develop advance skills in areas like problem solving.

While Diamond was speaking about creativity, her quote can just as easily be applied to problem solving. Disassemble the problem, examine it, and put the solution together in a new way.

It made me think about how creativity and problem solving are really two sides of the same coin. While some problem solving may be highly analytical, if you are also creative you may find a new and better way to solve the problem. On the flip side, being creative without the ability to problem solve can lead to just a mishmash of ideas. Problem solving in that situation allows you to put structure to the creativity which means others will better understand your ideas.

Take the web video on the home page for Villebois, a neighborhood development project in Wilsonville just south of Portland, Oregon. In just a few seconds, the video lets people understand what they can expect from this neighborhood. But it isn’t a standard piece with boring VO, graphics and images.

Take a look for yourself. Does it pique your interest in Villebois?

www.Villebois.net

Stafford Hills Racquet & Fitness Club
staffordhills.com

Stafford Hills Racquet & Fitness Club developer Jim Zupancic asked us to help him bring a tour of the future facility to life. By combining the architectural renderings of the facility with a live tour guide we created a virtual tour that goes beyond still images. Web designer Vic Parker at Six Foot Eight Media & Design incorporated it into a website that draws viewers in and drives them to action. The feedback has been tremendous with initial membership reservations strong and anecdotal stories of the video tour motivating people to sign-up.

Scott Bruun for Congress
joinscott.com

Challenging an incumbent US Congressman is never easy, so Scott Bruun wanted his website to stand out and be a personal connection with voters. The Bruun campaign asked us to help integrate video into their website. Inspired by the website of another candidate for Congress, Sean Duffy in Wisconsin, they turned to us to help shoot the video and work with their web developer to make it come alive. Paul Bryant at Design Point Inc. improved on the Duffy idea by further integrating the video into the website. Check out how the colors flow behind the video of Scott and pay particular attention to when he points at the sign up section and the donate button as his hand crosses over the graphics.

Wellspring Heart
wsheart.com

Wellspring Heart, a revolutionary heart wellness program, turned to us to help them tell their story and motivate people to join their program. Through interviews with doctors, patients and program leaders, we explained in a powerful way the program and the success it can bring to participants’ health. This is an excellent example of how video can take a complex subject and engage viewers to learn about it in a manner that print simply cannot.

Tour of Remodeled Homes
remodeltourportland.com

In its 11th year, the Tour of Remodeled Homes in Portland, Oregon is the premier remodeling tour in the state. It is produced by the Professional Remodelers Organization (PRO) of the Home Builders Association of Metropolitan Portland. For this year’s event, the producers wanted to personalize it by highlighting the participating remodelers versus just showing their work. After all, success of a remodeling project hinges in large part on how well you get along with your remodeler. We produced a series of interview-based web videos that the producers are using in a variety of ways. In addition, a 30-second spot is being embedded in a web ad on Comcast.net.

How can video help you with your image, present your message, and drive your viewers to action?

When a story personally effects you, reach out for help, even if you know what to do. You are too close to the situation and will benefit from someone with some distance.

Jill knows about communicating a message and knows how to work with the media.  But she was also deeply and emotionally involved in the situation at hand. This was about her and Joe’s son and his safety. As such, that really should be her number one concern. My hope was that I could take as much as possible off her plate, and frankly as much as she was willing to give me. Her passion for the message was an invaluable resource, so I didn’t swoop in and just take over and tell her what to do. I acted in a support role while continually telling her to feel free to give me anything.

When I had ideas for additional media coverage or messaging, I presented them when appropriate. She was already overwhelmed with a variety of tasks, from fundraising to messaging to media coordination to just worrying about her son’s safety. I didn’t want to add more to that list by bombarding her with new ideas.

This approach required constraint and patience. Normally, I’m an idea guy coming up with creative approaches, new messages, and new ways to reach people. While I didn’t turn that part of my personality off, I did pick and choose carefully which ideas to present and, just as important, when to present them.

One key role I played was being a sounding board for Jill to bounce ideas off and give honest feedback. This required a level of trust on her part, for which I am honored to have been given, and a level of tact on my part when presenting feedback. Jill and Joe were in a very stressful situation, they were getting little sleep and inconsiderate feedback from me was the last thing they needed!

I remember very specific times where I needed to give feedback but was concerned about how it would come across. So I turned to my own communication adviser, my wife Katie, to make sure I was using the right words and right approach. As a communication expert in her own right and a mom as well, she was the perfect filter during these situations.

The role also required patience when waiting to hear back from Jill and Joe. With everything they were involved in it could be minutes or hours before I got an answer. If it was urgent enough, I would make multiple inquiries. But if I judged my inquiry to be less important, I would just wait. This required judgment calls on my part to determine when to push and when to let it lie.

It is important for those who are asked to be outside counsel to remember your proper place and be cognizant of what the person (or business) you are helping is going through emotionally and physically. (One thing I kept reminding Jill is to eat! We all get so busy we can forget the basics.) This means relying on your own analysis of situation and using proper discretion.

The bottom line in a crisis situation is don’t be afraid to ask for help from people you can trust. This advice applies to individuals, like Jill and Joe, as well as to businesses who might be facing a difficult situation. Outside counsel and support is valuable and will make the situation much easier to handle.

Next week – Managing Media v. Generating Media

Learn more about the Wilkins adoption effort by reading their great blog.

Here’s Joe’s blog about his trip to Haiti and work with God’s Littlest Angels Orphanage.

More on God’s Littlest Angels Orphanage here and here.

It all started with a simple email response to a friend: “If I can help out in some way, let me know.”

I’ve known my friends Joe and Jill Wilkins since our days at Linfield College. Today, my wife Katie and I have season tickets with the Wilkins for Linfield Wildcat football. So, offering to help with their current situation was a no-brainer.

Jill and Joe had been working for two years to adopt a son from Haiti. They were just 6-9 months away from being able to fly to Haiti and pick up their son, Samuel Chancelet. The earthquake on January 12th changed all of that. Suddenly, the safety of their son and the over 150 other children and staff at God’s Littlest Angels Orphanage south of Port au Prince became paramount. What also became paramount was finding a way to get those children, who already had adoptive families in the United States and were simply waiting to clear government red tape in the U.S. and Haiti, safely out of a country that had literally fallen apart.

Jill works in corporate communications for LSI Logic and Joe is a 3rd grade teacher, so both are smart and articulate. It was little surprise that local TV and newspapers picked up on their story as a way to localize the Haiti earthquake. Jill’s experience in communication also made her a natural to help other adoptive parents with children at God’s Littlest Angels connect with their local media and begin bringing attention to the needs of the children there. Just one day after the earthquake, nine media hits had already been made regarding the orphanage and the need to raise money to support it with food, water and supplies.

That was when I sent my email to Jill: “Great work on the media. If I can help out in some way, let me know.”

My phone range minutes later and I began my two week volunteer effort to do what little I could to help Jill and Joe get their son, help them and other volunteers get supplies to the orphanage, and help those same volunteers bring 81 adopted children safely to the United States. During that time, Joe would end up flying to Haiti with other volunteers to deliver supplies and eventually help bring the children home, Jill would end up in Miami to help coordinate efforts from the U.S., and they would make regular appearances on CNN with Larry King Live.

The lessons I learned about crisis communication were invaluable and so I want to share them with you over the next several weeks.

Next Week: You are too close to the situation, you need someone with some distance. Even if you know what to do.

Learn more about the Wilkins adoption effort by reading their great blog.

Here’s Joe’s blog about his trip to Haiti and work with God’s Littlest Angels Orphanage.

More on God’s Littlest Angels Orphanage here and here.

Oral communication to written communication.

Hand written communication to the printing press.

Print to electronic, first the telegraph then radio.

Radio to television.

Television to digital media.

At each step, the existing mass media had to adjust and change in order to respond to the new technology. In some cases, it just died out, like the telegraph.

Advertising Age recently posted a video of Rob Katz, CEO of Vail Resorts, discussing how digital media has changed their marketing strategy. It is an excellent presentation on how they are responding to digital media by changing their ad placement, message development etc. Bottom line is that their decision time has been reduced drastically because of the speed of digital media. Now, they can respond to specific market conditions and target their message.

AdAge Vail Resorts

One of the best ways to learn is analyze what others have done successfully as well as unsuccessfully. What’s even better is when they analyze their work for you. Engage, a political media firm based in Washington DC, did that last week when partner Mindy Finn posted an extensive look at their online strategy for Bob McDonnell and his race for the Virginia governorship.

While this case study is for a political campaign, there is much to learn in here that can be applied to products, businesses, and non-profits. The most important overall lesson I took away from the case study is that it is imperative that the online strategy be integrated into the overall strategy for the campaign. It cannot be an afterthought or relegated to a secondary tier of the campaign.

Personally, because of my interest in the use of video in campaigns, I was thrilled to read this part of the case study:

“Upon visiting the website, one would be greeted with a lead-off bio video that highlighted the candidate’s record of service, experience and personal character that was produced by the media team.

This video was not of the garage-level production type, but instead a well-produced piece that would captivate those who visited. The idea of investing in video production even when the particular videos will never air on television is still foreign to some campaigns; however, the McDonnell campaign retained early a web video professional who could both shoot and produce video press releases, rapid response videos, feature pieces and campaign updates.”

Of course, when you’re looking for that video professional, we encourage you to contact our sister company, Lyon Films!

Whether you are creating a campaign for a candidate or not, the Engage case study of their work on the McDonnell for Governor campaign is a valuable read.

Past clients, former businesses you partnered with on a project, and friends and family are some of your best advocates. You need to remain top of mind for those people so when they need your service, or have a colleague or friend needing your service, they recommend you. As we get busy running our businesses, we often forget to make time for these contacts.

The solution is to make networking a specific part of your marketing plan. Reconnect with key contacts on a regular basis. Take advantage of networking opportunities offered by trade associations and Chambers of Commerce. Use online resources, like email, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter to remain top of mind for colleagues, friends and family.

And the best thing about networking? It’s usually one of the most fun ways to market.

So be sure that networking and maintaining professional and personal contacts is an integral part of your marketing plan.

1. Know your audience is a key lesson I’ve been teaching my students this semester in the Persuasion class I’m teaching at Linfield College. Tailoring your persuasive appeal to your target audience, whether it’s when you’re giving a speech or designing a print ad, is vital to success.

2. When you’re buying TV ad time, knowing your audience is the key not only to being effective but to being COST effective. For example, targeted cable ads might be a better use of your money than the broader audience reached via broadcast stations if you can target the audience you want to reach.

3. For our sister company, Lyon Films, we are developing a couple of ideas for documentary films. As part of that effort, it is important for us to identify the potential audience for the film and the distribution needed to reach that audience.

So, on any communication-related project, large or small, be sure “Know Your Audience” is at the top of the list!

Why do people say they want to do things differently yet when it comes down to it they don’t? Social or peer pressure is probably one of the primary reasons. No one wants to be the person that tries and fails, even if in failing something new is learned. Sports is the perfect incubator to examine this phenomenon and I love reading articles and books that challenge convention and suggest new ways to do things. I love it not just because I love sports, but because I instantly begin thinking of how I can apply this to my own work.

Here are four I highly recommend:

Moneyball, by Michael Lewis: My all time favorite non-fiction/business writer. Lewis started a huge argument in baseball circles with the publication of Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game. Lewis chronicles Oakland A’s manager Billy Beane and his, at the time, unconventional approach to scouting, signing and drafting players. It’s a baseball book, but really a business book that makes you think about different approaches to analyzing things.

“How David Beats Goliath”, New Yorker article by Malcolm Gladwell: Another writer who has come to fame by analyzing how systems work and decisions are made. In “How David Beats Goliath”, Gladwell uses the full court press in basketball to discuss how underdogs can win, using a 12-year-old girls basketball team as his example. After reading Gladwell’s article, if you want to explore the idea further particularly how it might work in the NBA, check out his online chat with ESPN.com’s Bill Simmons.

(An Aside: Both of these writers are economists, so “sports” is just the subject they use to examine larger economic questions.)

“A Few Baseball Ideas”, by Joe Posnanski: Sports Illustrated writer and former sports columnist for the Kansas City Star, Posnanski is an interesting and prolific blogger in addition to his “day job”. In “A Few Baseball Ideas” he asks why more lower tier teams are unwilling to try unorthodox things. There is a brief update on some of Lewis’s Moneyball characters, too. Posnanski’s conclusion: Because teams are afraid to try and fail.

“Shunning Onside Kicks”, by Peter Keating: ESPN writer Peter Keating does for the onside kick what Gladwell did for the full court press. More people should be trying them all the time, he argues, because mathematically over time it puts them in a better position. “Shunning Onside Kicks” appears in the August 24th edition of ESPN the Magazine, where I read it, but is available online for those “ESPN Insider” subscribers. Like the arguments presented above about other sports, Keating assumes that embarrassment or unwillingness to buck “tradition” are the primary reasons coaches don’t try this more.

By the way, the Keating article inspired me to try a new kickoff idea for my daughters 5th grade soccer team. I’ll let you know how it goes…unless it fails.