Tom started off with a quote from William Gibson, “The future is already here – it’s just not evenly distributed.” He touched on the principles of anarconomy and what this could mean for brands in the future. To be truly sustainable they need to ensure that innovation is part of their fabric, not just in what they produce but also the way they work.

Gavin and Caroline are just two of the guys behind Stoptober, an initiative to inspire the nation to have a crack at quitting smoking together during the month of October. It’s been hugely successful, with more people quitting in October than January last year.

For them, innovation wasn’t about technology; it was just about doing things differently. For Stoptober, this was:

1.     Flipping the approach. Almost every smoking cessation campaign around the world focuses on creating shock and fear. Stoptober was the complete opposite of that – it focused on positivity and hope to drive behavioural change (to give smokers the confidence to quit now, as opposed to thinking about quitting one day).

2.     To create a ‘thing’ rather than an ad. To drive mass quit attempts, they needed a mass, cultural idea. At it’s very core, Stoptober is a nation-wide quitting event… the advertising was used to tell people about it and drive sign up. Press coverage drove a sense of momentum and comms with partners, like supermarkets, pharmacies and employers brought the campaign to life in the everyday worlds of smokers.

3.     Being useful. Quitting smoking is hard, and smokers feel more confident when they have help. Stoptober gave people physical and digital products, such as packs and apps, to help track their quit attempt and stave off cravings. But they also built a social movement around something that is traditionally a very personal battle. This became an online support resource where people could talk to others just like them and help each other through the experience.

4.       Creating the conditions for genuine collaboration. They broke down the barriers between agencies (and the client too) wrapping everyone around a unified cause – to artificially recreate the magic conditions of January in October – which was going to need all the skills and expertise of every discipline in the room to make that happen. And they did.

Follow Gavin on Twitter – @gavobell

A whopping THANKS to our partners

and the newly launched Innovation Social.

Media Partner

CS had a chat with Sarah Buggle, Hyper Island graduate, and winner of  Collective’s  ‘Collective Upstarts’ competition last year. Her idea, The Buggle launched this week.

How would you describe ‘The Buggle’ to an alien?
I’d tell it that here on earth to advertise what music is playing in bars and clubs people use words. Instead of getting people to read what’s on, The Buggle app lets them listen in to the music that’s playing, in real time. It also directs them there and helps them share with friends but location-based live listening is the difference.

How does ‘The Buggle’ work?
Bars with the Buggle are plotted onto the map. People can tap on each pin to hear the live stream of music straight from the bar. There’s features to filter music by genre, share the music with friends and get directions.

Where did the idea come from?
I always felt I was missing out when I looked at club posters. I had no idea who these DJs were or what was ‘Aquatic House’. Reading just doesn’t make sense to me. I know what I like when I hear it so I thought it would be good to let people listen in real time.

What are the biggest challenges you’ve had to overcome during this project?
Besides the plenty of technical ones, the challenge that personally felt the biggest was the long walk to the abyss. How do you plan for the unknown? With variables in all directions, it’s enough to give any statistician a headache.

What’s been your biggest learning while working on this project?
Trust your gut and make a decision, because no one really knows anything, not really.

What’s the most interesting thing you’ve seen recently?
I went to the Do Lectures a couple of weeks ago and met a guy who reinvented the wheel –a wheel with suspension build inside the wheel frame. That was pretty cool. He’s called Sam Pearce and his wheel is called Loop wheels.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given?
‘Feed the white wolf.’ My godmother tells a story about a wise old man and a white wolf. She sent me a photo of a white wolf. It represents positivity.

Where do you do your best thinking?
In the shower, which often means frantically dashing for a pen and paper, half-blinded with mid-shampoo suds in the eyes.

If you could travel in time, where would you go and what would you do?
The art set in St Ives in the 50’s would have been quite cool. I’m not sure how I would deal with the gender inequality though if I’m honest.

If you could work with anyone on a project, who would it be and what would do?
I would make pots with Bernard Leach.

Tell us something about yourself that not many people know?
I once served Alan Rickman a mini cheese burger.

Who would you have on the line up at your fantasy nightclub?
I have a soft spot Fatboy Slim. I’d let him pick the others too.

What’s next?
For The Buggle it’s investment or sponsorships. I want to get it in working order in Shoreditch. Then look to spread it to festivals and different cities. To do this I need brands or investors on board.

http://thebuggle.com/

@TheBuggle

Latent wants are often the natural area to focus when you think about making stuff people want, but here’s something interesting about incipient wants: you can only arrive there through experimenting, and a combination of insight + serendipity. Thinking this way highlights the importance that role play and experimentation plays in innovation.

Alex talked about Project Fly, an innovation incubator set up by Mondelez with Contagious and +Castro. It brought together clients, top agency talent and students from Hyper Island for two weeks. The intensive journey allowed the team to fast track innovation from concept to reality. Maria Mujica leads the project (which due to its success has now become a permanent fixture) and had to be incredibly tough in negotiating with her CFO to get resources dedicated to do a series of the sessions, while also having budget committed to produce the ideas they came up with; a brave move for a completely unproven model, but one that she was absolutely correct to fight for.

- The ‘pre’ experience is richer than ever offering up a bespoke platform that allows you to connect with other attendees. It’s packed with content (including some great videos) to give you a hint of what to expect.

- The venue is absolutely huge, a 13 floor monster. Nearly every floor contains a labyrinth of rooms to explore, each with its own unique relevance to the film. The attention to detail on the set builds is stunning and the creativity that goes into translating the film into immersive theatre is top notch. As always the cast are impeccably professional and really take the experience to the next level.

- This time more than ever the experience is down to the individual. The more you give yourself to experience the more you will be blown away by it. Unlike the other shows I’ve been to the actual screening of the film feels less forced and instead you’re free to explore and move around during it. There is a rather fantastic crescendo of theatre at the peak of the film so make sure you don’t miss it.

11 June
7 – 11 pm
LBi, Brick Lane

TICKETS

Do you ever see an ad and find yourself asking ‘‘Where’s the ‘creative’ idea gone’ ? Yeah? Then come on over to our next CS Presents where we have assembled a kick-ass line up of Socials to talk about the value of great insight and developing ideas off the back of them:

Becky Power, Executive Creative Director, Lowe Open
Chris Baylis, ECD Tribal DDB, London
Sam Ball, Creative Partner, Lean Mean Fighting Machine
Tim Palmer, Digital Creative Director & Board Director, Inferno Ltd
George Prest, VP, Executive Creative Director, R/GA

Becky Power kicks off our session with ‘A planner in the works’ – a guide to how strategy can enhance your creativity, rather than bring it to a grinding halt.

“Some of my best friends are planners” – Chris Baylis points out how most advertising doesn’t talk to the audience, but instead talks back to the category. Car ads look like car ads, beer ads look like beer ads and lets not even go into fragrance advertising! If creative is to be more than a box ticking exercise, we need more imaginative planning.

“Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.” Abraham Lincoln said that. And Sam Ball will be saying the rest….

Next up, Tim Palmer poses the question: ‘Creative strategy or strategic creative – Where is the line, and who cares?’ Yes, there is ALWAYS room for ideas, but we as an industry are more sensitive to the issue of ‘planning showing’ than the people that matter, the people who buy the product!

Not afraid to shout ‘I love planning’, George Prest closes our evening with his talk about the intrinsic relationship between planning and creative – imagining a new way forward and defending our strategic friends.

As always after the talks there will be a panel Q+A and a good hour to get your networking heads on. Happy days.
Don’t miss out, and grab you ticket NOW:  TICKETS

Big thanks to our partners,

Because Source is all about Connected People, Connecting People, Creative Social is the perfect platform for people to network whilst benefiting from leading industry knowledge. To help conversation flow, there will be a sponsored bar, courtesy of our friends at Source

We would also like to say a special thanks to our venue partners LBi for providing us with ‘The home of Creative Social Presents..’ a top notch venue for creative thinking.

Please note: This event is for agency folk and students only

How would you describe your job to an alien?

Assuming that the alien in question speaks fluent business babble, I’d explain that I have ‘portfolio career’, something that sounded very groovy in the 90s but now suggests you’ve got Attention Deficit Syndrome.   I direct, I write, I devise and run workshops, I teach and I facilitate groups for discussions, conferences, etc. You could also say that I am a professional outsider (hey, I’m an alien too, let’s hug).  I don’t really belong to any one industry any more which gives me a useful perspective from which to see both the big picture and the stuff below the surface. An outsider can often ask the tricky questions that an insider can’t.

How did it all start, and how have you got to where you are today?

I was at Sussex University studying social psychology when I got involved in making a radio version of ‘The Hunting of the Snark’. That started it. After university, I worked in fringe theatre, took some radio courses, did a spell at a production company, and then set up my own radio company in the mid 80s. I directed programmes and drama, but mainly, in the early years, I made ads – a hell of a lot of ads. I also worked with Dick Orkin from the Radio Ranch in LA.    After 17 years of all this, I found I was being asked to write more and more, and to devise teaching workshops. When I got bored with hearing myself talk, I brought in an improv group and took to touring the country with a couple of improvisors, preaching the gospel of radio to anyone who would listen.

When the writing and the workshops started to take up more time than the radio, I set up Punch It Up – the name’s important – it’s that old Hollywood phrase: you ‘punch up’ a script to make it better. That’s what we do: we help talented people make things even better – books, scripts, presentations, performances. It’s simply a version of directing, which is where I started out, applied to other areas of creative work.  We take the same approach in the workshops, giving people ideas to help them punch up their professional skills. At the centre of it all is The Creative Detox, a workshop that brings together everything I’ve learnt about creativity over the years.

What are the biggest challenges you’re faced with in your job at the moment?

Getting people to turn off their mobile phones.

What’s the most interesting thing you’ve seen recently?

99% invisible – ‘A tiny radio show about design’. A wonderful, perfectly produced, radio show that tells stories about architecture and design – what’s not to love?

A puppetry workshop at the Little Angel Marionette Theatre.  I am fascinated by puppets and recently took a workshop with a puppeteer from the Folded Feather company. Extraordinary stuff that taught me a lot about hooking an audience’s imagination.

What’s been your biggest learning throughout your career so far?

To quote John Cleese: ‘Creativity isn’t a talent, it’s a way of being.’   And it’s not confined to creative departments.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given?

I have been notoriously bad at listening to advice but very good at watching and learning. Most of what I’ve learnt can be summed up as:  Ask questions. Then ask some more questions.  In particular ask the question: ‘What lies beneath?’

Where do you do your best thinking?

When I’m running. Though it’s a bit like drunk thinking, endorphins can make an idea seem rather more brilliant than it is.

If you could travel in time, where would you go and what would you do?

I once made a programme with a presenter who fronted the TV coverage of the moon landing.  I’d go back there and be in the studio, doing the live commentary.

Or, I would go back to the moment when the first person was about to draw the first exclamation mark at the end of the first shrieking sentence. I would wrench the pen/quill/flint out of their hand thus saving the world from this airhead bit of punctuation. They’d probably put up a statue in my honour.

If you could work with anyone on a project, who would it be and what would do?

Ira Glass and the This American Life team. We’d find a way to turn the UK creative industry on to radio stories.

Tell us something about yourself that not many people know?

If people don’t know, that suggests I am hiding it. Best keep it that way.

Who would you have in your fantasy workshop session?

My workshops are often about challenging assumptions and rules. With that in mind I would like to have the person who said that there are so few women in advertising because it is ‘too tough’.

What’s next?

I am rubbish at planning. I prefer to wait and see.

http://www.punchitup.co.uk

LIFESAVER is a crisis simulator, which fuses interactivity and live-action film to teach CPR in a new way, on your computer, smartphone or tablet. On the versions for phone and tablet, you actually move your device up and down, two times a second, to do CPR on the victim in the film. If you’re too slow, he’ll die. When someone’s choking, you move your device down sharply to hit her on the back.

Lifesaver Case Study from unit9 on Vimeo.

Play Lifesaver on your computer:  www.life-saver.org.uk/

iPad app: www.tinyurl.com/lifesaver-ipad

iPhone app: www.tinyurl.com/lifesaver-iphone

App for Android tablets: www.tinyurl.com/lifesaver-and-tablet

App for Android phones: www.tinyurl.com/lifesaver-and-mobile

They currently have twenty signed prints up for auction. Nine of them were created by the David Bailey’s recruited through the campaign and one by the legendary photographer himself.

There’s currently one way out in front, but is it the right Bailey? if you think you’ve got the skills to spot it you could grab yourself a bargain. The auction is open until 8pm on 14 May and all proceeds are going to Marie Curie, check it out here.