SXSW: What's so funny about innovation?

11 March 2013

Paul Valerio, the principal at Method, created a white paper titled 'What's So Funny About Innovation'. He and Baratunde Thurston put on a entertaining session exploring this white paper and how research and strategy for marketers and brands can have a lot of similarities with stand up comedy.

It was surprising, to me at least, how easily Baratunde could take a concept or process typical of a marketer and provide examples of  how the same process applies to comedians. We both need to know and understand our audience and we both understand that different audiences will react and respond differently to the same material.
 
Typically, it is the agencies and clients that grow tired of their campaigns well before the public. Comedians hear themselves repeat the same jokes every night. However while we may continue to push the same message we can seek new and exciting ways to execute and deliver this message to keep it fresh without needing to throw it out and start again.
 
A few key insights from the discussion:

- Be ahead of your audience but not so far ahead they don't have time to understand.
- Data does not replace insight, too much data can result in a confusing brand.
- You can't test your way to a decision.
- You don't create in a vacuum, you need to seek stimulus from the outside world.
- Exercise is often the route to inspired ideas. It's not always about the mind but the body as well.
- You become what you consume. If you spend too much time watching others, you start to become them

Check out the Vimeo vid here.

Aaron Collyer
Technical director
303Lowe

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