Kenny Harris, founder of Headsurfing, compares humour and creativity.
In my experience, when people are working together on coming up with ideas, there tends to be a lot of laughter around.
And conversely, when people are laughing and enjoying themselves, the ideas tend to flow.
To my mind, humour is almost identical to creativity.
Creativity – the generation of innovative and useful ideas – follows a pattern. There’s a problem (or a challenge, or an opportunity, call it what you will). That’s the creative brief. Then comes the solution – the big idea. And for the idea to be useful it has to be new, innovative – it has to be an unexpected resolution of the problem.
Humour, in the form of jokes, is very similar. There’s a set-up (three men walk into a pub…), and then a punch line. The punchline is an unexpected resolution of the set up. It has to be something we don’t expect, but which makes some sort of sense.
Last night, we were proud to host An Audience with Sir Terry Leahy, one of the UK’s most distinguished and inspiring leaders who has always placed marketing at the centre of business. Interviewed by former BBC newscaster and broadcaster Martyn Lewis, he reflected on his 14-year reign as CEO and how he took the retailer from £750m profit to £3.5bn, with a £62bn turnover. He gave us eight tips on how business can make progress in difficult times. It’s a chance to step back and think again. Read the rest of this entry »
As WWF, one of the world’s most recognised and trusted environmental organisations, celebrates its half-century we look back at its marketing successes.
Great marketing and campaigns have helped define WWF’s place in the 21st century from the early 60’s, moving sustainability from the fringes to the mainstream of public debate. In 1961 when WWF was formed the Daily Mirror published a front page about the dire situation facing endangered species, bringing the charities work to the public’s attention for the first time.
More recently Earth Hour has become an annual event, launching in 2007 in Sydney (2.2 million participants and more than 2,000 businesses turned their lights off for one hour to take a stand against climate change). A year later, it became a global movement with over 50 million people across 35 countries participating. Landmarks such as the Sydney Harbour Bridge, Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, and Rome’s Colosseum, all stood in darkness. Read the rest of this entry »
In between sipping cocktails and soaking up the atmosphere, Gemma has met with Anna Crona, marketing director, IKEA UK and Ireland, Bruce Haines, CSO, Cheil WW and more. She has attended parties with Ogilvy, Microsoft Advertising, SayMedia, Havas, Campaign and Shots, and enjoyed seminars from TED and Angry Birds. She has had the pleasure of hearing speakers including Edward de Bono, Piers Morgan, Carolyn Everson (VP and global marketing solutions Facebook), Jeff Bawkes, chairman, CEO, Time Warner, Eric Schmidt, executive chairman, Google, and Andy Berndt, VP Google Creative Lab. Gosh, does she have some stories to tell. Watch out for all the latest Cannes interviews and stories on our Blog.
In an exclusive interview with The Marketing Society, Rob Malcolm, former CMO, Diageo, says good marketers who become great leaders all possess three skills and reveals his early career as a movie star.
Last night, over 200 of us gathered to hear SABMiller’s CEO, Graham Mackay at The Royal College of Physicians, London. Today, SABMiller owns over 200 brands with interests in over 75 countries across six continents. Here is a short extract of his speech on how the beer industry is resisting globalisation
In an exclusive interview with The Marketing Society, Simon Clift, former CMO of Unilever, reveals how he might have been a teacher and why he has a book of 100 Chinese Characters beside his bed…
Giles Robertson, chairman of The Marketing Society’s Not For Profit group, asks whether environmental change is driven by charities or companies?
This question has been on my mind with the ‘Big Society’, using local leaders – whoever they are. Six years ago, Margaret Beckett, the then Secretary for the Environment, in her quest to accelerate emissions cuts from corporates, said: “We are at the foothills of dealing with the challenge of climate change and need business to take the lead.”
Businesses need frameworks and incentives to innovate. If they can make a difference that is distinctive, competitive and generates income then they’re on the right track. We’ve seen M&S Plan A, Walmart’s commitment to sustainable fish, The Co-Op’s ethical services and Cadbury’s commitment to fairtrade cocoa from Ghana. These are not having a large impact.
Environmental charities only have one agenda and that is to achieve change. They have passionate supporters – about 6.5 million. Charities are not afraid to campaign against environmental injustices like dangerous chemicals, drive real change with initiatives like the Marine Stewardship Council, or force new legislation like the Marine Bill and the Wildlife Trade Act.
But, perhaps more importantly, 7% of England (or 22,556,352 acres) is made up of charity-run land, managed by the National Trust, RSPB, Wildfowl and Wetlands and the Church of England. Collectively these spaces have inspired and changed many people’s views. You won’t hear about a Fizzy Drink Company stopping one of its Fizzy Drinks to enable it to fund a local beach clean up or to support a local wood. That’s because most company environmental policies are internally focused, short-term and about sorting out their own mess, rather than helping others.
Therefore the real powerhouse of environmental change has come from environmental charities, focused on long-term change, rather than the corporate big boys.
We’re most excited to announce on our blog that our first Under the Spotlight is hosted by marketing author Alan Mitchell who will be grilling entrepreneur Luke Johnson. Until then here’s five things you should know about Luke:
Luke Johnson calls himself a “projector”, a 17th century term for a man involved in many different businesses
Luke Johnson expanded Pizza Express from 12 restaurants to over 250
Luke Johnson as Chairman of Channel 4 Television saw the organisation enjoy record ratings and revenues.
Luke Johnson founded Integrated Dental Holdings with partners in 1996. Sold in 2006 for over £100 million.
Luke Johnson also started Strada restaurants from scratch and took the chain to 30 restaurants.
Learn more about Luke Johnson at our Under The Spotlight evening on 9 February, book your Under the Spotlight ticket onlinetodayor call our marketing team on 020 8973 1360.
We're here to curate inspiring and thought-provoking ideas and perspectives from our network and the marketing world at large. Read, listen, watch, comment and be inspired. The Marketing Society is the exclusive membership network for discerning marketers to learn, develop and share knowledge.
#WLTM: Marketing Society Business Leader Paul Wilson, CMO, Sunguard http://t.co/xZYSkyovFebruary 3, 2012 2:39
@BrainJuicer: How Can Brands Show Us They Care? http://t.co/SoDI8XQnFebruary 3, 2012 12:13
@RobinHoughton Thanks for braving the cold last night and joining us @SohoHouse. We will send you another book to review for #bookclub soon.February 3, 2012 12:03
Kenny Harris, founder of Headsurfing, compares humour and creativity.
As WWF, one of the world’s most recognised and trusted environmental organisations, celebrates its half-century we look back at its marketing successes. 
Our marketing director, Gemma Greaves was thoroughly busy last week hobnobbing with thought leaders at the 
In an exclusive interview with The Marketing Society, Rob Malcolm, former CMO, Diageo, says good marketers who become great leaders all possess three skills and reveals his early career as a movie star. 
In an exclusive interview with The Marketing Society, Simon Clift, former CMO of Unilever, reveals how he might have been a teacher and why he has a book of 100 Chinese Characters beside his bed…
