Creative15 Jan 2024
Unlocking the strategies and value of creativity
Is there a science behind creativity?
In the world of branding and marketing, there’s an ongoing push for a ‘creative edge’ – that unique idea or concept that sets a brand, business, or product apart in today’s attention economy. As an experienced brand or communications professional, you’ve probably come across creative output that feels formulaic or predictable, leaving you wondering if genuine creativity is as elusive as spotting a koala in the wild.
The truth is creativity often doesn’t come naturally or spontaneously. There’s a science behind it that’s brought to life by true collaboration, whether that be within your organisation or with a creative partner who gets it. In this article, we unpack the science and strategies that will help unlock creativity for your next project.
The neuroscience behind creative thinking
The concept of creativity is hardwired into our brains. We know creativity when we see it, but while we have an intrinsic understanding of what it is, unlocking it doesn’t come so naturally. To better understand creativity, let’s consider the three distinct brain networks neuroscientists have identified as the key to creative thinking.
The imagination network
Allowing us to daydream, this network helps us picture potential future scenarios, generate mental imagery, and consider perspectives other than our own.
The executive control network
This network regulates attention and working memory, allowing us to focus on a task and switch between different mental processes.
The salience network
Acting as a neural switchboard, this network helps you identify things you already know and link them to what you’re seeing or thinking in the present.
When these networks work together, we can connect ideas and concepts, link observations to what we already know, and imagine new ways to apply that knowledge. This creates the perfect conditions for creative thinking.
While creativity can be elusive, it’s not undefinable. The challenge is that it can mean different things to different people, so what feels creative to one person can feel completely ordinary to another. This is why it’s important to be clear on what creativity means to you and your organisation at the start of any project.
According to our clients, this can look like:
✔ Ideas that push boundaries to create fresh, unique, and meaningful solutions.
✔ The ability to see what everyone else sees but imagine it differently.
✔ A simple, fresh, and engaging idea that seems obvious in retrospect, but not in the beginning.
✔ Ideas that challenge the norm and lead to bespoke solutions.
✔ Something unexpected that triggers an emotion.
To ensure creativity isn’t left to chance and everyone is on the same page, a 'creativity barometer' can be used at the beginning of each project (see our Barometer in the graphic below). This can help set clearer boundaries and definitions of what creative success for your marketing or branding project looks like as a starting point and be a conversation starter.
For example, it can help inspire discussion around:
• To what capacity do we surprise and delight the target audience?
• How will we distil complex ideas into simple, powerful messages?
• Can we create concepts that not only sell but also tell a story?
While the definitions of creativity may vary, a common theme in feedback from our clients and collaborators is the idea that creativity is as much about connection as it is about innovation. This is why we see collaboration as the secret sauce behind true creativity.
The myth of the lone creative genius
John Steinbeck, who was one of the world’s leading scholars on creativity, believed the lone thinker was the best representation of human creativity.
While romantic, this concept is incorrect.
In reality, connection drives creativity. Just think of how Steve Jobs collaborated with Steve Wozniak, John Lennon with Paul McCartney, and Michelangelo with Sebastiano. Often, it’s these connections between people that can generate powerful ideas that an individual simply wouldn’t have on their own.
The creative process
Now that we’ve defined creativity, it’s time to delve into the creative process. What steps can you take to generate new ideas and create genuinely novel solutions? Over our years working closely with clients, we’ve created and refined a structured yet flexible framework to unleash creativity. You’ll see that our framework places collaboration at its heart, ensuring that a range of perspectives are captured to enrich the creative output.
1. Discover
Gather the information and insights relevant to the project.
2. Understand
Dive deep into the objectives, audiences, outcomes, and success metrics.
3. Reframe
Make sense of the information and think of potential angles or approaches.
4. Incubate
Allow ideas to simmer below the surface, giving the subconscious time to work.
5. Ideate
Produce a wide range of ideas – good and bad - without judgment. Collaborate with others to expand your ideas.
6. Evaluate
Assess which ideas are the most promising and best meet the brief.
7. Refine
Use creative tools to polish and perfect the ideas into finished concepts.
8. Explain
Demonstrate how and why the ideas will work.
You can use this process yourself, with your creative agency, or apply it within your own organisation when working with different teams. The key thing to remember is to separate the process of analysing and creating, and adopt a mindset where there are no wins or fails, only progress.
So, you’ve developed some cracking ideas. But are they as good as you think? How do you objectively evaluate your ideas? And how do you capture the value of creativity?
At Belong Creative, we use an academic model (Stuhfaut & Yun Yoo) during the Evaluation step to help us stay objective. This means we review, measure, and critique our creative through three ways:
• Novelty - new, surprising, imaginative
• Affective - emotionally engaging, likeable
• Utility - persuasive, meaningful, relevant
Reviewing creativity against these criteria can help assess the overall value of an idea against others, helping you to progress and refine the stronger concepts.
Cultivating a creative environment doesn’t happen by accident. It requires creating a space where ideas are encouraged and shared regularly. If that’s a culture you’re keen to create, here are some strategies to consider:
Never stop learning – or teaching
Build structures where you and your team are continuously learning and actively teaching. This might look like ‘lunch and learns’ with external experts, training each other on new tools and facilitating peer review sessions.
Lead by example
Dedicate time for deep thinking and inspire your team to do the same. Show that creative thinking isn't just encouraged, but expected, and great ideas can come from anyone in the team.
Promote psychological safety
Ideas can only be considered if they are shared. Create an atmosphere where team members feel safe to express their ideas without fear of ridicule or reprimand.
Accept the iterative process
Ideas need to be viewed from different angles, and that means many will get pulled apart and reworked in the process. This iterative approach is essential to getting the best outcome, so find ways to reward effort and learning, not just successful outcomes.
Creativity within reach
At Belong Creative, we know that creativity isn’t a unique talent granted to a chosen few, but instead an innate capability enhanced by collaboration, strategy and a supportive environment. When done right, you can create experiences that resonate, brands that are remembered and customers that keep coming back.
Ready to ignite the creative spark in your next project? Reach out to Belong Creative, and we’ll be in touch to learn more about your project objectives and how we can apply creative strategies to solve your challenges.
