Stones of the stumbling block
Creative advertising on social media is advertising that inspires creativity. Read on and look at the images below to find out what that means and who actually deserves the Grand Prix at Cannes for inspiring creativity.
Creativity—A Neuroscientific Perspective. Daniel Goleman—psychologist, neuroscientist, New York Times editor, and bestselling author—describes creativity as the ability to work purposefully toward the moment of the gamma spike. He calls this impulse the «gamma spike»—the process that brings together existing thoughts from different regions of the brain and gives rise to a new thought, or, at best, a brilliant idea. James Webb Young (1886–1973), the first chairman of the American Advertising Council, sums up the path to the gamma spike in his remarkable little book *A Technique for Producing Ideas* with the saying, «Ideas Are New Combinations.».
LEGO – Building blocks of creative inspiration. Lego is plastic molded into bricks, with a clear mission: «Get kids to build things.» The secret to Lego’s success, however, lies above all in the precision with which Lego pieces are manufactured. The margin of error is two microns, which is equivalent to 0.000079 inches. Even the eager Chinese have now given up on copying and are instead focusing on collaboration. Collaboration is, in fact, the first of two magic words on the social web. The term “co-creation” is more commonly used: Lay the first brick, and let the social web community continue building the structures or writing the stories. “Combination” is the second magic word.
BRICKSY. Our first Lego story, *Bricksy*, is all about both co-creation and combination. Photographer Jeff Friesen is our co-creator, and the title already gives a hint of what he brings together. Friesen reimagines the works of the world-famous street artist and graffiti artist Bransky using LEGO bricks. You can check out more of Friesen’s LEGO stories at www.thebrickfanstatic.com. Take «50 States of Lego,» for example, where he recreates a typical scene from each U.S. state using LEGO bricks. One could also imagine this idea as “Brick Swiss” for Switzerland Tourism, featuring the 26 cantons. On social media, this kind of content goes viral faster than traditional postcard-perfect scenes. #Bricksy is leading the way and causing quite a stir on Twitter and other social media channels.
MOVIE SCENES. Our second Lego story takes us straight from the street into the world of film. More specifically, into well-known movie scenes that Vesa Lehtimäki reimagines through photography, blending Lego figures with real-life settings. Originally published on the social photo-sharing platform Imgur, these LEGO interpretations of scenes from movies such as «Indiana Jones» and «Star Wars,» have garnered 3,440 likes and over 400 comments on Reddit alone—the world’s leading social media review platform. Reddit user Disc-Golf jumps on the co-creation bandwagon and contributes ideas for new scenes: «Lego pirate ship next, please»—likely thinking of Johnny Depp, aka Captain Sparrow, on his Black Pearl.
LEGOGRAPHER. In our third story, we take an unusual look at the world. Andrew Whyte presents the settings of his world from the perspective of a little Lego figure. He places the little Lego man between his iPhone and the object and snaps a photo. He then edits the images using Instagram or another photo app. Whyte demonstrates what’s possible with a simple idea. His work is attracting a lot of attention across the web. On www.fastcocreate.com, a news website for creative professionals from around the world, the «Legographer» story has garnered 316 pins on Pinterest, 1,100 likes on Google+, 3,300 tweets, and 176,200 likes on Facebook. For Whyte, one thing has been clear ever since: “For the whole year, I really never left home without the figure.”
LEAH aka Lego. Adweek asks: «Most adorable résumé ever?» Our next story is about the exceptionally creative cover letter from an advertising assistant named Leah. Leah built a Lego model of herself and turned the whole thing into an original cover letter story. The best part: Recipients can assemble the 62-piece set into a miniature model of Leah. A delightful appeal to our inner child. «I wanted a fun way to stand out to agencies and get my résumé out of the trash can,» writes Leah, in true social media style, in a photo gallery on Imgur. On Reddit.com alone, Leah’s post has garnered over 2,300 comments and more than 3,000 upvotes.
BUSINESS BRICK. Time.com runs the headline: «This is what your business card looks like if you’re a Lego designer.‘ The creative fun usually ends with the business card. After all, it has to fit into the credit card slot of an average wallet. Lego has broken away from this run-of-the-mill solution: Instead of boring cards, the managers at the world’s largest toy manufacturer hand out Lego figures with their names on them. One enthusiastic recipient thought this original way of sharing contact information was worth a photo post on Imgur. From there, the story spread via Twitter on social media and via Time.com on the mainstream web.
CREATIVE PIXALATION. Marco Sodano is an Italian designer and a huge Lego fan. Last year, on his own initiative, he created a Lego series featuring famous paintings. In these works, Lego bricks are arranged in such a way that, when viewed from a distance, an image emerges, similar to a pixel grid. Thanks to social media, the series garnered significant attention worldwide, leading LEGO to hire Sodano as an art director for future projects. The Lego marketing managers were likely also impressed by the motivations behind the idea. Sodano says: «I want to convey the belief that every child with Lego can become a great artist like Da Vinci and Vermeer.» Creative advertising on social media is advertising that inspires creativity, and Lego is the prime example. Do you know of other examples, or do you use other strategies to inspire creativity? I look forward to your participation in the discussion on my blog at www.huerlimanncc.com. Lego Banksy – Balloon Girl.
Beat Hürlimann
