138 - BONUS Anna Synthesizing Insights On Creativity So Far

I’ve been having some very insightful conversations on the podcast about creativity, pushing boundaries, marketing experiments and innovation 
and I’ve had some time to think about the stuff we covered so far and just wanted to share these 5 points with you guys:  

1. Creativity comes in two forms:   

- for the sake of creativity (in art, writing, music, etc.) and  

- in business  

2. Creative means: trying new things, sharing new ideas, connecting seemingly unrelated concepts to share new ideas. It's gotta be NEW TO ME and hopefully to you as well.   

- Creative doesn’t necessarily mean “stunt” or “wild and crazy” 

- Something that’s creative evokes emotion (like awe) which makes it more likely to be shared  

3. More successful startups are more creative, and less successful startups are less creative.   A creative/innovative/experimental startup celebrates creativity at its core and creativity is part of its DNA.  

4. An over-reliance on measurement has made startups less creative, because it doesn’t allow for the full freedom needed to have creative ideas  I’ve heard about examples of startups that do creative/experimental things without the need to measure impact (on sales) only to find that the creative thing actually did impact growth, but not in a linear way that we’re used to measuring (e.g. during COVID those startups that brought value to their customers and prospects in unique ways)  In business, the goal is always revenue, but we need to revisit how we’re going to get there.  I’m curious what kinds of things we (at our companies) can learn from creatives like writers and artists and will be exploring that more on the show.

5. During an economic downturn, it’s even more important to be creative because we are more resource and people constrained. So we need to get creative with how we approach growth.  

Great marketers thrive on creativity and innovation and experimentation. Mediocre marketers just follow the rules someone else made. Great marketers are curious and constantly questioning the rules.  


So, more to come.

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