Creativity in the age of the machine 23 july2015

Chris ClarkeChief Creative Officer, International@albionics

To be creative is to be sure things can be better. To be creative is to be critical of where we are and point out where we might go.

More people use the WiFi in European hotels than use the shower

http://www.w3.org/Talks/OnlinePublishing93/

We began with a mission

A powerful global conversation has begun. Through the Internet, people are discovering and inventing new ways to share relevant knowledge with blinding speed. As a direct result, markets are getting smarter—and getting smarter faster than most companies.

Winner takes all

The capitalist’s dilemma

Internet is not democratic

The consumer is not in control

ATOMISATION

Niche!

• The OS of the internet is a bit worrying• It institutionalises into software

everybody has to use, the conceding of creative control in favour of an illusory kind of power

LOCK IN – an IT problem which limits creativity – e.g. MIDI

Dialogue and debate gives way to group think

BIG DATA gets it wrong!

With constant partial attention, we cleave to the banal

Why the internet makes things shit

Amount of media

Amount of attention

Read this

"When the news is decided not by what is important but by what readers are clicking; when the cycle is so fast that the news cannot be anything else but consistently and regularly incomplete; when dubious scandals pressure politicians to resign and scuttle election bids or knock millions from market caps of publicly traded companies; when the news frequently covers itself in stories about 'how the story unfolded'--unreality is the only word for it. It is, as Daniel Boorstin, author of 1962's The Image: A Guide to Pseudo-Events in America, put it, a 'thicket ... which stands between us and the facts of life.'"

Technologists revel in the removal of cultural gatekeepers. But they have replaced the well-read tastemaker with the algorithm and the tech platform. The world is turning into a lowest common denominator popularity contest.

We are not living in creative times

Breaking the language barrier? Really?

Culture eats itself

Buy this shit that’s slighter better than the other shit

We are no longer creators and consumers but rather we are all plugged into a kaleidoscope of choices, sharing and sifting, refining and disguarding

What can brands do about all this?

What can brands do about all this?

• Be morally and socially purposeful• Be tastemakers not followers• Create high quality experiences • Be useful and be entertaining • Lead culture, don’t follow

The digital marketing envelope

Client

Conversion rateNPS

Traffic

Loyalty

Sentiment Brand equity

Call centre costs

Beyond business as usual

Creativity can no longer be morally neutral

Corporations as a force for good

How to make more of this….

More essential than ever to ditch business as usual

To reach for the counter-intuitive

In a sea of rubbish, brands as a raft of quality

The two possibilities of marketing

Getting people to buy stuff they don’t need with money they don’t have to make themselves feel better about the fact they work all the time and aren’t famous

To add value richness and purposeand beauty to products and services, so economic dignity grows and we all get happier