How Do You Define Creativity?

COKE took the heat from the "so-called creative community" for using AI. As I wrote on Monday, I disagree as their basic use case was fine…and the output was in line with all their brand work. BTW, the same whiners use animation and CGI…other tools once decried by others…and beyond gratuitous use of AI (no doubt, as I suggested, with investors and Award Shows in mind), there was no real "sinning" in their application.?

Further, as I wrote in a previous IMAGINE: "Don't confuse DaVinci with AI," even with AI, we need fresh thinkers…new material…and output that is new, fresh, breaks the mold…and in AI terms, has not yet been ingested by the "Beast." Clearly, COKE missed that thought…cost seems to have been a bigger driver (cue the investor tape…).??

Creativity is one of those issues that often seem gratuitous in discussion. In the ad industry, creativity is "a given"—sort of. I say sort of because for "a given," people seem to talk a lot about it…bemoaning its absence, criticizing particular manifestations, and ripping it apart if it comes from someone or somewhere else other than themselves.

So, for "a given" that doesn't seem very "given," maybe we need to rethink creativity…particularly as we struggle with AI.?

I have written a lot about creativity…I guess I don't see it as "a given" either (trying not to be gratuitous…), and I have spoken on the topic at numerous conferences. Yet, I am always amazed at how for something so elemental to the business I'm in, so core to its success, so primal to its being (Hope I made my point), there seems to be little consensus as to what it is, how it's used, and who is accountable for its delivery. Frankly, lately, there's been a little too much on its sausage-making….

To begin with, everyone who has read my previous meanderings knows I don't view creativity as a domain, a group, or a department. I firmly and wholeheartedly believe that everything we do (we as in anyone reading this….) has to be creative…whatever that means. (Stay with me…I'll get to it.)?

I am in a business that demands creativity. As I said…I'd argue that all successful companies demand it, too. We are not alone, nor do we own the territory or lexicon. From the way your company presents itself at whatever your first touch point is…to the development of the most complex data programs, to the delivery of any message you might have created and shared (hopefully to the right person)…to the most brilliant retention campaign ever, to the way you answer your phone calls—if you do (you should)…to how you present ideas in meetings and communicate in general, everything requires creativity. In fact, they all demand creativity and will suffer in its absence.?

So, what is creativity? What does it really mean to be creative? I have seen highly paid "Creatives" who couldn't recognize a big idea if they were personally introduced to it. I have agonized for colleagues who tortured themselves because they thought they weren't creative and yet were able to inspire their clients and others to paradigm-shifting thinking.?

It all boils down to definitions. For example, if I define creativity in my business as primarily a TV spot….(Jump down the rabbit hole for a second: A few years ago, it was renamed an immersive video while "spot" was ridiculed. That's changed. Consider the Super Bowl and all streaming services…TV advertising in all its glory, no matter how it's viewed…is alive, well, and in demand), TikTok, or another social campaign…whatever, then I have severely limited the meaning of the word and have drastically limited the value I can bring to my clients.

I would argue the same is true of you…whatever business you are in. Define creativity in that same narrow sense, and you have applied the same basic limiter and perpetuated the same restrictive bias.

So, how do you define "creativity?" I have found that a fresh way to define words is to look at their opposites. If you can make the connection, see the link between a word and its other extreme, between a concept and its contradiction, and between a meaning and its reverse, it can bring new thinking to your own understanding.

The opposite of creativity? I am sure you all have thoughts….What comes to your mind first? Unimaginative? Boring? Maybe, but I find that obvious direction both unimaginative and boring. I was stuck. My Thesaurus was sucked dry, and then I found it:

“The opposite of creativity is cynicism." —Esa Saarinen

What a great, simple, and fresh thought! AND if you click on his name above and look him up, he is one that demands creativity of thought…..

What kills a creative idea quicker than scorn?

What causes creative thinking to retreat faster than jaded negativity? What destroys creative freshness and joy more thoroughly than sneering disbelief?

NOTHING!!!

?Here is the challenge and the thought….next time you get that negative urge, that little itch to make fun of an idea or to distrust the integrity of intuition and emotion….remember that you are not just being rationale (a good trait) you are being the polar opposite of creative (a bad trait) and the potential killer of new ideas….

Creativity is not good territory for cynics…..for CONTRARIANS, YES!!!!! (which I will delve deeper into another time) but it's not for cynics.?

Check out Creativity From The Other Side where I interview the creative leaders of the Ad Industry and elsewhere in a most non-cynical way. Let me know what you think….

What’s your view?

#NOCYNICS