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Martin Hofmann

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Communications

Ironing out some thoughts on brainstorming

by Martin · Oct 23, 2006

After Ed Lee posted his thoughts on brainstorming, Julie Rusciolelli provided her perspective:

If we rely on sanctioned brainstorms to come up with every creative solution for our clients it can be taxing on the staff and burn up valuable resources. […] The best creative ideas I’ve had, have not been inspired by a big group of people in the boardroom. Even those silly books on creativity, stimulus cards and there’s even a software program to help you harness the power of your right and left brain are all useless tools. It’s being alone with my thoughts; a clear unobstructed mind that allows new ideas and concepts to seep in and take over is a best practice I adhere to.

Julie Rusciolelli, Rusciolelli Blog

While I agree with Ed on some of the nutritional challenges of having too many brainstorms, I’d like to expand on Julie’s perspective. I don’t really understand why the concepts of boardroom brainstorming and thinking creatively on your own should be weighed against each other.

I don’t get my creativity kicks at the ironing board like Julie (maybe a newer iron and a better board would help me) but I have my own little ways of letting my mind wander and explore new creative territory.  Where and how doesn’t matter – as long as you do it. So, first of all, clearing your mind and allowing new ideas to seep in should be a no-brainer. If people aren’t thinking creatively on their own and need encouragement, what are they doing in a PR job? Inspiring people is important but it should only be the icing on the cake.

Second, the key to “sanctioned” brainstorms is preparation and discipline. Sounds boring? Maybe. But if you think that a boardroom brainstorm starts in the boardroom, you’re making a huge mistake from the get-go. It’s not about stimulus cards or software programs, it is about managing the process (if you are the organizer) and showing up prepared (if you are a participant).

If people haven’t started thinking on their own before the meeting, the whole group brainstorm could end up a huge waste of time. It’s about everybody doing some creative thinking on their own and then getting together as a team to develop something truly unique – based on everyone’s input. In other words, if Julie hasn’t ironed a few sheets on previous nights, she shouldn’t be in my brainstorm.

My High Road colleagues Natasha Compton and Hugh Scholey have taught me a thing or two about managing brainstorms:

  • Management starts days ahead of the brainstorm. It only works if you apply discipline to your process. To think outside the box you first have to know what’s inside the box.
  • Prepare and send out a brainstorm briefing. If you take care of the preparation and anticipate the biggest questions, you make it a lot easier for everyone else to free up their minds and focus on creative ideas
  • Choose your participants. Not everybody in the agency needs to come to every brainstorm. Everybody has a different background and a different way of thinking. Put together a good mix of people.
  • Ask everyone to come prepared with a few ideas based on your briefing.
  • Facilitating the brainstorm meeting is critical. Just like a good moderator improves a talk show or press conference, you need somebody to be leading the meeting and keeping it focused.
  • The biggest mistake made in brainstorms, and meetings in general, is keeping the participants thinking in the same direction. Brainstorms are made up of two essential elements – converging for ideas and diverging on one idea at a time to explore it further. If everyone in the room is converging and diverging separately then they’re not working toward the same end goal at the same time. You need to know how to run a good session.
  • There are a number of different brainstorm techniques. Apply them. It works. If you want to know more about it, I’ll be happy to put you in touch with Nat or Hugh. I found that the techniques that sounded the worst on paper actually helped me come up with some good stuff

We’ve used this approach for internal meetings and for joint brainstorms with our clients, and it has been quite a success. Not only does it help to come up with bright thinking, it also allows us to do it without wasting time or resources. And it makes it more fun for everyone.

However, I do agree with Julie that boardroom brainstorms don’t necessarily inspire creativity. They are just a productivity tool. You don’t need a team brainstorm for everything. Choose wisely!

It is important to keep finding new ways and stimuli to inspire creativity in people. But once you’ve got them inspired, putting heads together in boardrooms can be a smart way of coming up with the next brilliant strategy for your client.

Filed Under: Communications, Innovation

Links of note – October 9

by Martin · Oct 9, 2006

Temple of Technology: Interview with Amiga CEO – Who knew? Amiga is (still) developing a new operating system. Ah, the good old Commodore days…

Business Week: First, blame the software – Good article about the “human factor” behind Airbus’ software issues that caused the company to delay delivery of the new A380. The Airbus CEO stepped down this weekend (after the BW article was published), further highlighting the management issues at the aircraft manufacturer.

The New PR: Five steps to starting a successful blog – Ryan Anderson provides great advice for anyone looking to create a blog.

Filed Under: Communications, English, Technology

Get the new Canuck PR Toolbar – version 1.0

by Martin · Oct 3, 2006

As promised a couple weeks ago, here is a first version of a Canadian PR toolbar. Download it at http://canuckpr.communitytoolbars.com/.

The toolbar is based on a very cool, free service by Conduit. I am looking for a few people who are willing to test it and provide feedback. I hope this will be a community effort.

It is now called Canuck PR Toolbar because somebody else must have already reserved the term “Canadian PR Toolbar” (Ed?) on the Conduit site. Anyway, the Canuck PR toolbar includes:

SEARCH BOX

Google.ca is set as default but once you download the toolbar, you can change it to other search engines. I’ve added Technorati, MSN, Yahoo!, MSN News, Yahoo! News, Google News and Wikipedia. Other wishes?

It also comes with a “highlight pen”. If you put in words in the search box and click on the highlight button, it highlights those words on the current site in your browser.

PR BLOGS

The current list of Canadian PR blogs is just a start, it has nothing to do with a ranking or a “top list”. If you have or know of a Canadian PR blog that is missing, leave a comment and I will add it. Don’t be shy (you are in PR, remember). Nominate yourself and others. It makes it easier for me. 

The cool thing about this toolbar is that once you have it installed, your toolbar will be automatically updated whenever I update the list on my end. So it doesn’t matter if your blog isn’t on the initial list; everybody who has the toolbar will still get to see it once I’ve updated the list.

Question: do we want other related blogs (marketing, news, U.S. PR bloggers etc)? Let me know your opinion. I can include submenus to differentiate between different blog types.

PR RESOURCES

This is a list of links that includes events, associations, podcasts, publications and services. It will serve as a directory of PR resources. Again, just a start. If you have an idea for additional links, please leave a comment.

PR BLOG NEWS TICKER

The news ticker provides the latest headlines from Canadian PR blogs. Right now, everybody included in the blogs list is also included in the news ticker (except for one of the blogs where, ahem, I couldn’t find an RSS feed). Also included are two del.icio.us feeds with PR headlines from Constantin Basturea (Daily PR Digest – okay, let’s call it an honourary Canadian feed) and David Jones to broaden the scope a little bit.

I will try to include all new blogs that I am adding to the blog list in the news ticker, too. Since this toolbar is based on a free web service, there may be restrictions for the number of RSS feeds that can be added. It doesn’t say so but I am still trying to figure out the whole system, so I will add Canadian PR blog feeds for as long as possible.

OTHER FUNCTIONS

The toolbar also comes with the option of adding a few other features including weather forecast (you can input the city), a pop-up blocker tool, an email notifier (works with Hotmail, Yahoo Mail and Gmail) and buttons to open Windows programs such as Word, Media Player or a calculator. With the exception of the search box, all items can be activated/deactivated. 

Again, according to the instructions by Conduit, it is not necessary to download new versions of the toolbar to receive updates to the installed features such as the blog list, the resource list or the blog newsticker. A new download would only be necessary for a major change. So if you send me suggestions for Canadian PR blogs and sites, I can add them in (just give me a bit of time, I do have a day job).

So much for now. It was a fun project putting a first version together. Please go ahead and try it out if you are interested. And let me know if you like it or think it is a waste of time. Feedback welcome. 

[Please note that I have only tried the toolbar with IE7 Beta. There is a Firefox version for download, too. But I have not tested it]

Filed Under: Canada, Communications, English, Toolbar

Wired Woman Toronto event on October 24

by Martin · Sep 28, 2006

PR bloggers David Jones and Leona Hobbs apparently know more about High Road’s speaking engagements than I do. Just saw on their blogs that Leona is speaking at the Wired Woman Toronto event on October 24 – together with High Road co-founder and president Mia Wedgbury. More information about the event here. 

Filed Under: Communications, Events, High Road

What would a Canadian PR Toolbar look like?

by Martin · Sep 18, 2006

Just came across pr-toolbar.de, a free PR Toolbar created by a German agency. The  download offering for German PR professionals includes 380 PR links, a PR glossary, RSS feeds with PR news as well as gadgets like cookie cleaner, unified email notification and a chat function. I haven’t downloaded it but it looks like it also includes a couple features that are supposed to generate leads for this agency.

I am not a huge toolbar fan in general because it further diminishes the little screen space I have on my laptop  and the new IE7 Beta browser (just like Firefox) has an integrated search box anyway. But it is still a nice marketing and community-building idea. 

pr-toolbar.de was developed based on a free toolbar creation service from Conduit, so it would probably be easy to create a Canadian PR toolbar.

Not sure if anybody would be interested. But, just for the sake of an exercise, here’s a quick brainstorm of what could be included.

  • Sean over at Buzz Canuck has just created “The Power 50“, a list of Canadian marketing bloggers. Not all of them are PR blogs but it would be a good starting point for community links and/or RSS news. And why not cross over into other marketing territory for some of the links?
  • Third Tuesday, Third Monday and CaseCamp and other PR events
  • Inside PR for podcasting
  • Since it is not just about blogging but about PR in general, we should throw in links to  CPRS and IABC for good measure
  • prmeasurement.ca on the resources side of things, of course, and links to vendor partners like CNW, CCN Matthews, NewsCanada, Bacons, Vocus etc. 
  • And I am sure for additional resource links we could also take a look south of 49

Yes, there’s plenty more to be found in Canada. But it’s time for dinner. Other ideas anyone?

Filed Under: Communications, Toolbar

Links of note – September 16

by Martin · Sep 15, 2006

Totally pointless – Marketing Magazine’s article on youth loyalty marketing mentions my High Road colleague Heather Steele and provides an example of our digital marketing and social media work for clients.

Podcast consulting for Mark Evans – David Jones and Ed Lee are smart people. This is the 2.0 version (or “NGT” version?) of great relationship-building with journalists.

Filed Under: Communications, High Road, Media

Getting noticed at CTIA IT & Entertainment 2006

by Martin · Aug 4, 2006

High Road’s resident telecom and wireless PR experts Sarah Spence and Jo-Anne Stayner are hosting a webinar on best ways to get exposure at this important industry show. Brad Smith of Wireless Week will join them to provide insights and guidance from a media perspective. The seminar is on August 9th at 1 PM EST. Go here for more information and registration.

Filed Under: Communications, Events, High Road

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