Creative Minds Don’t Think Alike

Creative | krē’ātiv | – relating to or involving the imagination or original ideas.

Wow, starting a blog post with the dictionary definition of a word that you already know? Talk about not being creative. When you want your company to get ahead of the competition, you have to get creative. Innovation doesn’t come from playing it safe – taking risks is all a part of the process.

Online, your consumers are bombarded with information in every site they visit. To ensure that your content is memorable, you should strive for a unique aspect that sticks with them because, chances are, you’re not the only company with the services and products you offer. Let’s take a look at Spotify’s “Thanks, 2016. It’s been weird” campaign that ran at the end of last year:

Spotify is one of many music streaming services, yet they were the first to run a campaign like this. Simple, yet effective, it opens their users’ minds to the amount of data Spotify has about our music listening habits and presents that information in a humorous way. This is a truly different way to advertise a music streaming service, and even though there are multiple other companies that they compete with, none of them have marketed themselves in this way.

Photos of this campaign have been shared across multiple social media sites, meaning that Spotify’s reach goes far beyond those who live in the vicinity of these billboards. People like things they can relate to, so what better way to reach them than using their own music listening habits?

When it comes to marketing, Spotify simply raised the bar for other companies in this industry. This campaign could have gone unnoticed (think of the amount of billboards people see daily) yet, since it was so unique, people couldn’t help but snap a picture and write article after article after article about it. You get the picture.

Creativity is no longer an option in marketing, it’s a necessity if you want to set your brand apart from your competition. Whether it’s utilizing humor or reaching your customers in a unique way, innovation is the key to stand apart from the crowd. And that begins with thinking outside the box.