Communicants, our advice to stay creative 

🇬🇧  Version française available

One question plagues every corporate communications professional: how do we cultivate creativity in the office? Humans have been creating and innovating since the dawn of time! Yet, finding the right idea when you need it is anything but easy. In our line of work, many of us delegate this quest for the holy grail to our beloved agencies. How do we integrate creativity into the company? How do we nurture it? And besides… is creativity content or a container for brands?

To answer our questions, the Club We Are COM We welcomed Maxime Delmas, founder of Creapills – a leading media outlet for creative ideas from around the world. An insatiable discoverer and communicator himself, he demonstrated that creativity is everywhere: in all sectors and even in our own daily lives.

How are ideas born?

« In this new world, it's not the big fish that eats the little fish, but the fastest that eats the slowest. Here, Klaud Schwab, founder of the World Economic Forum, reminds us that the weight of organizations too often slows down the creative process. So, how can we be proactive and unleash our ideas at the right moment?

So " There are four driving forces behind creation: having a problem to solve, curiosity, dreams, and chance. “In other words, no creation is possible without a new idea,” explains Cédric Villani, mathematician and 2010 Fields Medalist. The imperative to innovate—or simply to be new—pushes us to our limits. So let’s dare to think outside the box! To boost creativity, we must be able to overcome our own limitations (or those of our company).

Are we all creative?

✅ Check the statements that apply to you 

If you score at least 3/5, good news: you're a creative! 👏

A world tour of the most creative campaigns 🌍

#1 Getting creative on Facebook with Maes

If you come from the Low Countries, you probably know her. Maes is the 2^rd The most consumed beer in Belgium. But it's also… the third most common surname in the country! To boost its marketing, Maes decided to play on this shared surname by appealing to the "extended Meas family." Each person with the surname Maes was offered a keg of beer. By visiting the brand's Facebook page, those named Maes were invited to choose the bar where they would share their beer. As you can imagine, many internet users changed their names to Maes, making it the most common surname in the country. The media impact? A Facebook page generating over 500,000 users and 75,000 new fans. Another striking fact: one in 20 Belgians visited the brewer's website.

 🎓 Maxime's Lesson

1. Optimize the participation strategy
2. Developing brand image
3. Leveraging the organic virality of social networks

#2 Being creative with a website – Dorcels

What if creativity were boosted by the adult film industry? To promote his website, Marc Dorcel simply offered free access to his entire paid catalog. The only condition? #HandsFree: users were required to keep both hands on the keyboard, simultaneously pressing the ASP and L keys. Within hours, the hashtag #HandsFree became one of the most trending on Twitter. Users shared every possible trick to enjoy the site's content hands-free. With this campaign, Dorcel gained significant visibility on social media while simultaneously showcasing his content. And what a recruitment opportunity it was!

 🎓 Maxime's Lesson

1. Un misappropriation clever and relevant
2. A creative idea that attracts curiosity
3. An innovation that brings business

# 3 Getting creative with virtual reality – Old Irish

Do you believe in virtual reality? The Old Irish whiskey brand cleverly blended the virtual and the real to surprise passersby. How? By offering them a VR headset and physically recreating the Irish pub setting they had virtually viewed around them. The brand thus managed to reach a broad audience via sharing of genuine reactionsIn short, a simple yet impressive experience and a very successful marketing activation.

 🎓 Maxime's Lesson

1. An effect surprising which plays on emotions
2. An operation viral : +100M views on FB
3. A communication innovative for a spirit

#4 Be creative with internal communication

Reversing roles to make a lasting impression. That's the gamble taken by PrimaDonna, a women's lingerie brand specializing in larger cup sizes. To highlight the comfort and support of its products, the brand created a surprising video featuring its employees. The idea of ​​CEO and video narrator Ignace Van Doorselaere? To have all his male employees wear weights equivalent to an E-cup bra for a day. A funny and clever initiative to raise awareness among men about the challenges faced by curvy women.

 🎓 Maxime's Lesson

1. To laugh around a serious cause
2. Develop the solidarity internally
3. Create empathy. between collaborators

Maxime's tips to boost your creativity 👌

Dare to!

The creative process is a long and arduous journey, fraught with challenges, where chance cannot prevail. Above all, it requires questioning one's assumptions and learning to venture into the unknown. Consider the social dimensions of your operations to leverage the power of social media to your advantage.

Listen!

The best idea is the one that resonates with your audience. It's therefore crucial to understand your community. Ask yourself: what content will work, based on your past performance and your vision? Twitter is one of the best stress tests in my opinion: if it takes off on Twitter, it will likely work on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram as well. Prioritize video for impactful and socially engaging communication.

Breathe in!

For effective monitoring, there's no secret. Multiply your sources and draw inspiration from the creativity of social media. Curiosity is a prerequisite for identifying the best initiatives. And inventiveness is a skill best shared. Developing your inspiration begins by exchanging ideas with other communications professionals. Brainstorming is often an excellent starting point.

Top 5 identified best practices💡by clubbers

1. Listening to your customers, giving them a voice at every stage and allowing them to innovate alongside you.
2. Develop a relationship of trust with your teams to encourage them to share their ideas
3. To encourage curiosity and questions, Be a society of researchers and solution finders!
4. Create diversity, To enable communicators to be creative, let them be themselves.
5. Encourage and reward creativity, with a monthly prize for the most creative idea. After all, we reward salespeople... why not creative people!

The replay and presentation materials