INSPIRING CREATIVE INNOVATION

How do you get from great thinking to really innovative thinking? How do you disrupt in the digital space with something totally unexpected? During our journey past 90 BILLION views on our campaigns, we’ve continually pushed the envelope to drive innovative marketing for our incredible clients. And now, we’re so honored to be named one of Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies of 2021 alongside Nike, Epic Games, Shopify and SpaceX!!

How did we get here? Today, we’re excited to share a few tips we’ve developed on creative innovation.

Find Inspiration Everywhere

What does it mean to be innovative? We often tie innovation with novelty, but we’ve found that to be innovative, you don’t always have to come up with something completely new. You can bring thinking from one arena into a space where it’s never been used before!

If you are a car brand looking to connect with millennials for example, don’t just look at what other car brands are doing, look to brands outside of automotive that excel at engaging millennials. What are they doing? Your first instinct will probably be to think, “Well, that would never work for us, for XYZ reasons.” Challenge yourself to reframe your thinking to HOW can it work for your brand? Not every idea will turn into the next big thing, but give each spark the chance to turn into a flame. Nurture the ember and see how you can make it ignite.

Wait Until the Last Minute

While this probably sounds a little uncomfortable (or reckless?!), planning too much can actually stunt innovation. The further out you are trying to plan, the more likely you are to be wrong about the future. What will the world look like when your project finally launches?

If we’re doing a TikTok influencer campaign in four months, we’re not going to select the influencers now. Four months is an eternity in TikTok years. We’ll wait until much closer to launch to pick our talent, based on who’s trending in the moment.

By postponing key decisions, you’ll have the most information and the most insights on what is relevant and what matters most to your audience. Structure your team to allow quick decision-making, and trust yourselves to be able to execute.

Continue to Innovate and Pivot

Innovation doesn’t stop once your campaign launches. For us, that’s when the fun begins! Now you get to see how your work is being received by the market, and you can use those insights to pivot and evolve. Do you add fuel to the fire? Do you pivot the concept? 

When we launched our famous e.l.f. #eyeslipsface campaign, we only created 15 seconds of music. Consumers began commenting “love the song -- why can’t I find it on Spotify?” So within the week, we had extended the 15 seconds into a full song, and published it to Spotify & Apple Music. Most people look back and assume we had that planned the whole time.

If you’re interested in more insights, join us for one of our webinars. We’d love to see you there!