Why 2020 is the year to set your creative sights further afield

 It’s a well-accepted cliché that travel broadens the mind but I think we often forget exactly how powerful broadening our horizons can be - not only in our personal lives but also in our day-to-day as marketers.

Marketing is arguably one of the fastest evolving business disciplines, with ever-changing and evolving tools, technologies and trends affecting how we approach strategies to engage customers. Alongside the demands of the every-day, keeping on top of the latest thinking can get pushed to the bottom of the to-do list. Where there is opportunity to seek inspiration marketers can often get stuck in a rut of looking only to their own industry, their own geography or their immediate competitors.

However, this is where many marketers are not only missing a trick but also missing an opportunity to fall in love with their profession all over again. We forget there is a whole world of inspiration out there - and we don’t necessarily need a plane ticket to gain insight that can be applied to our own corner of the planet. Over the last year I’ve applied this thinking to my own creative process and have set my sights on innovation from across the world. It’s rejuvenated my love for experience marketing and made me even more determined to make 2020 a year inspired by the afar.

Epson is not a brand that I would necessarily associate with emotional experiences but on a visit to Tokyo this year its partnership with art collective teamLab left me speechless. A vast, complex, three-dimensional 10,000 square meter digital museum Borderless is at the cutting-edge of immersive, digital experiences. It’s home in Japan’s capital makes perfect sense, in a country that is leading in digital artwork and the partnership of brands and artists.

Gentle Monster, an eyewear brand from South Korea has taken artful experience to a whole new level. Each store is a gallery of themed artworks, with eyewear displayed seamlessly among themed sculptures and installations which regularly change offering a reason to return.  

Visitors to London’s Bond Street will see art-experiential from Louis Vuitton with its recent collaboration with artist Sarah Crowner whose work adorns its renovated store. Part luxury retail store, part art gallery it features nine pieces of commissioned art which set the space apart.

 In the States broadcaster Comedy Central proved the political can pay off. The Trump Presidential Twitter Library Took a touring gallery of President Trump’s digital pearls of wisdom to the streets. An interactive Cannes Lion winning experience the satirical swipe aligned perfectly with the brand, made the most of partnering social and experience and perfectly appealed to their target audience. Simple yet brave and bold!

When worlds collide - East and West, art and experience, digital and political - amazing things can happen and borders broken down. Keeping ‘global’ in mind and seeking inspiration from outside your bubble won’t only win new brand fans, it will help create campaigns that translate, scale and adapt to markets across the world. In our ever-global economy this is the mark of truly great marketer - borderless creativity that translates.

This blog post was first featured in Field Marketing Magazine - Volume 15, Winter 2019