Creativity is often seen as a fleeting and even magical force that, if you’re lucky, you can occasionally harness. It’s easy to understand why this perception exits, especially when somebody hits you with an incredible idea, or you see a piece of media that really grabs and affects you. Creativity has that kind of power – but it really isn’t as mysterious as it seems. It all comes down to finding the right creative process.
This can vary wildly depending on the individual, organisation, industry, and type of ideas that are needed. To find the right process, you need to have absolute clarity on what you’re trying to achieve and why you are trying to achieve it. You also need to identify and play to your strengths.
Our not-so-secret sauce for big ideas
At Tyto, our creative process is all about generating the ideas that create impact for our clients and best solve their business and communications challenges. We have always been purposeful about harnessing insights because repeatedly they prove to be the sparks that drive creativity and lead to our best ideas. I’m aware that saying ‘harnessing insights’ may sound vague and amorphous – but typically these come from a few reliable places.
The people we can draw upon is one example. At Tyto, we have built a world-class, multi-market team across a range of disciplines and specialisms that bring unique perspectives and expertise. And we work with clients and partners across a range of technology sectors and regions that bring sector-specific expertise. Our creative process ensures we don’t let that invaluable resource go to waste.
Tools are another way of generating insights. We use several market-leading services to help us identify trends and connect the dots but, crucially, we also create our own. Our proprietary tools like the Tyto Tech 500 and Tyto Relevance Index™ give us insights that are distinct to us.
Part of the DNA of our creative process since the agency began has been our Creative Sprints, based on established creative methodology. This focuses our team’s attention on specific challenges and the insights we think will spur the most interesting conversations and impactful angles.
Traditional brainstorms focus on generating ideas live, typically leaving you with a few half-baked ideas brute-forced in a short space of time, with little to no time for people to prepare. Instead, our Creative Sprints equip people with a well-defined creative brief and, crucially, the time to think about it. We can then be much more productive with the time we spend together, discussing, and iterating a good selection of ideas that already meet a high quality threshold.
Chasing inspiration: our creative evolution
Parts of our creative process have evolved naturally as Tyto has grown, while other aspects have been created to take advantage of our best assets and our company culture. ‘Insight Ignites Impact’ sums up our approach and our unique mix of characteristics. It also acts as shorthand for our creative process: a regular reminder of what sets us apart, and what’s important to us and our clients.
One of my favourite quotes about creativity says: ‘You can’t wait for inspiration, you have to go after it with a club’ – but I’d argue you also need to know where inspiration may be hiding before you can give it a good whack. That’s what our creative process aims to do.