digging for the bone - make brilliant ideas
TRANSCRIPT
Mark Simon Burk
Twitter: @BRANDnv
SVA Course:(How to Do) Killer WorkDigging for the Bone
© 2017 Mark Simon Burk
Digging for the Bone © 2017 Mark Simon Burk
great ideasin advertising?
what’s it likecoming up with...
Digging for the Bone © 2017 Mark Simon Burk
great ideaswhen problem-solving?
in advertising?
what’s it likecoming up with...
great ideaswhat’s it likecoming up with...
when brain-storming new approaches?
when problem-solving?in advertising?
Digging for the Bone © 2017 Mark Simon Burk
creativity is not a magical thing that just happens.
great question!
Digging for the Bone © 2017 Mark Simon Burk
NO IDEAAnd, you have
Where in this yard the bones are buried.?Digging for the Bone
© 2017 Mark Simon Burk
NO IDEANot only that, you have
Digging for the Bone © 2017 Mark Simon Burk
How deep the bones are buried.
And if you want one of those bones,
there’s onlyone thing to do...
Digging for the Bone © 2017 Mark Simon Burk
And if you want one of those bones,
start digging
Digging for the Bone © 2017 Mark Simon Burk
there’s onlyone thing to do...
You plant your shovel into the ground in as many different places as possible.
Digging for the Bone © 2017 Mark Simon Burk
Until...
You plant your shovel into the ground in as many different places as possible.
Digging for the Bone © 2017 Mark Simon Burk
boneYou’re excited!
It’s your first
You pull it from the ground.But as you hold it up for all to see...
Digging for the Bone © 2017 Mark Simon Burk
Why? The truth is, 99% of the first ideas you’ll come up with
are garbage
Digging for the Bone © 2017 Mark Simon Burk
Digging for the Bone © 2014 Mark Simon Burk
You gotta dig past all those run-of-the-mill
ideas, obvious analogies and awful puns.
But that’s okay. Enjoy it!
Digging for the Bone © 2017 Mark Simon Burk
So what do you do?
?!(bummer)
Digging for the Bone © 2017 Mark Simon Burk
Well, you still have no bone.
And all the while you’re never sure whether
you should keep where you are,
or stop and go dig somewhere else for ideas.
diggingDigging for the Bone © 2017 Mark Simon Burk
just 3 inchesbelow
Because maybe that huge idea you’re searching for is
where you’re thinkingright now.
Digging for the Bone © 2017 Mark Simon Burk
And it’s why you sometimes go backto a hole you’d been digging before, because now you have…
a hunch.
Digging for the Bone © 2017 Mark Simon Burk
Almost as if you’d been given a glimpse of some
xx
x
secret hiddenbone map
Translation: You revisit an idea you’d dug up earlier, because now you have a better understanding of the problem or
Digging for the Bone © 2017 Mark Simon Burk
Translation: You revisit an idea you’d dug up earlier, because now you have a better understanding of the problem or
Almost as if you’d been given a glimpse of some
you’ve uncovered an insight into your customer’s behavior or...
secret hiddenbone map
xx
xDigging for the Bone © 2017 Mark Simon Burk
you found a new way into the problem by
Could be because of
happy accident.
Digging for the Bone © 2017 Mark Simon Burk
Could be because of
a conversation you overheardon the subway
or a song lyric that hits you.
happy accident.you found a new way into the problem by
Digging for the Bone © 2017 Mark Simon Burk
and then...
digdigAnd so you continue to
and
Digging for the Bone © 2014 Mark Simon Burk
Digging for the Bone © 2017 Mark Simon Burk
You hit something!
A rock? No.
How many times have you hit a rock before that you hoped was a bone?
Digging for the Bone © 2017 Mark Simon Burk
And remembering how easily the first one crumbled,You take it out gently and brush it off with your
bonebrush
Digging for the Bone © 2017 Mark Simon Burk
Translation:The idea that you had at 2 in the morning...
illusion?Digging for the Bone
© 2017 Mark Simon Burk
and you tuck it into your bone pouch.
And you’re very excitedabout this bone
so you carefully wrap it upin a linen cloth
Digging for the Bone © 2017 Mark Simon Burk
shove
lYou pick up your
and you getback to yourdigging
because nowyou’re hungryfor more bones.
Digging for the Bone © 2017 Mark Simon Burk
GOODat this bone-finding thing.
And after a while, you start getting pretty
Digging for the Bone © 2017 Mark Simon Burk
Good enough, that your bone bag
is filling up with allkinds of bones.
In fact, you’re getting so good at
it, that one day when you stop
for a breakDigging for the Bone © 2017 Mark Simon Burk
unwr
apyou that first real bone you found,
which you’d swaddled in linen...
Digging for the Bone © 2017 Mark Simon Burk
HUH?!Turning it over in your hands,
you say to yourself...
Digging for the Bone © 2017 Mark Simon Burk
And you can’t believe it!
Because since that
You’ve found
first bonemuch more insightful bones,
funnier bones,more thoughtful bones.
Digging for the Bone © 2017 Mark Simon Burk
And then you do something very BOLD
Because since that
You’ve found
first bonemuch more insightful bones,
funnier bones,more thoughtful bones.
Digging for the Bone © 2017 Mark Simon Burk
You let that bone roll out of your hand and
to the ground
fallDigging for the Bone
© 2017 Mark Simon Burk
When it hits the earth it
s plin erstinto a hundred pieces.
Digging for the Bone © 2017 Mark Simon Burk
There are others who see this happen.
And they can’t believe that youThey thought what you had was a pretty good idea!
dropped it!Digging for the Bone
© 2017 Mark Simon Burk
But now you know better.You know it
socavalier!wasn’t such a great bone after all.
Digging for the Bone © 2017 Mark Simon Burk
And so, you get back on your feet, and you continue
digging through the
dayDigging for the Bone
© 2017 Mark Simon Burk
nightDigging for the Bone © 2017 Mark Simon Burk
Until one late night yourshovel hits somethingthat sounds different.
Not like a rock, but also not like the other bones you’ve found.
WHAA?!Digging for the Bone © 2017 Mark Simon Burk
You throw down your
And get down on your paws and knees and dig around it.
shovel
Digging for the Bone © 2017 Mark Simon Burk
You paw around itand finally unearth it.
You take out your special bone brush and after a few strokes,
Digging for the Bone © 2017 Mark Simon Burk
And as you lift it from the ground, you think
This bone is...
this bone has
my lord!
weightlike I’ve never felt in a bone before.
Digging for the Bone © 2017 Mark Simon Burk
Digging for the Bone © 2014 Mark Simon Burk
GOLD.solid
Fully uncovered, this bone reflects the moon so brightly that the whole park is cast in its light.
Digging for the Bone © 2017 Mark Simon Burk
Digging for the Bone © 2014 Mark Simon Burk
GOLD.solid
One by one, all the otherdiggers stop and stare over at
the Golden Bone you alonehold in your hands.
Digging for the Bone © 2017 Mark Simon Burk
KILLER IDEA!Digging for the Bone © 2017 Mark Simon Burk
They areawestruck by its brillianceand truth be told
KILLER IDEA!
jealousyjealous?
uh, yeah!
Digging for the Bone © 2017 Mark Simon Burk
each one seers with a small pang of
KILLER IDEA!
jealousyYOU found it.because
jealous?
uh, yeah!
Digging for the Bone © 2017 Mark Simon Burk
each one seers with a small pang of
KILLER IDEA!
jealousyYOU found it.
not them.
because
And
jealous?
uh, yeah!
Digging for the Bone © 2017 Mark Simon Burk
each one seers with a small pang of
And that’s what it takes to dig up a Killer Idea.
It takes effort and
Digging for the Bone © 2017 Mark Simon Burk
INSIGHTSor the challenge you’re charged with solving.
into how people think and feel about a product or service
to find the
Digging for the Bone © 2017 Mark Simon Burk
INSIGHTSAnd it takes a lot of poking around the human behaviors that surround it.
Digging for the Bone © 2017 Mark Simon Burk
It also means paying close attention to your own creative process, so you can more efficientlytrigger
your ownthinking
Digging for the Bone © 2017 Mark Simon Burk
(very important, especially when under pressure!)
It also means paying close attention to your own creative process, so you can more efficientlytrigger
Like knowing what time of day, and where, you’re most productive.
your ownthinking
Digging for the Bone © 2017 Mark Simon Burk
Your ultimate job is to unearth a bagful of golden bones — each one presented in a gorgeous case called a campaign,
and all of them collected in a
gallery that is your digital portfolio.
Digging for the Bone © 2017 Mark Simon Burk
recap:shovel
So let’s
Put your
in the ground in as many different places as possible
right at the start!Digging for the Bone © 2017 Mark Simon Burk
Lots more on making ideas atmakebrilliantideas.com
To reach me:[email protected]
Mark Simon Burk teaches‘Killer Work: How to make ideas that make other people jealous’at SVA in NYC
‘Digging for the Bone’© 2017 Mark Simon Burk
Make BrilliantIdeas!