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Meet ‘the 1’: the creative consumers

Creativity isn’t a luxury, it’s a necessity!” , says Duncan Wardle. With these words, the former Walt Disney Company’s Head of Creativity & Innovation argues that creativity can give companies a competitive edge. He refers to tech giant Apple as an example; this brand became a synonym for creativity; it also dominated BCG’s top 50 list of most innovative companies for the last 15 years.

And Apple is just one illustration. Companies that actively embrace creativity are reaping significant benefits; from revenue growth, to greater market share, to recognition as best workplace. Research by BCG even indicates that 14% of companies perform better during economic downturns. This is precisely because they invest in skills related to ideation and innovation. So, no wonder that creativity is in high demand. There is just one problem: creative minds are a rare breed.

Meet-‘the-1-the-creative-consumers

Experts by a hungry mind

Scientists found that the creative brain is ‘wired’ differently; creative people are better at engaging brain systems that typically don’t work together. As a result, creatives have this unique skill to think out of the box; they address situations in an atypical way and challenge the status quo. They are experts by a hungry mind. So, if we link this back to the 90-9-1 rule, they are the noteworthy 1%, which we label as ‘creative consumers’. The high demand for creativity in business combined with the fact that only 1 in 100 people is truly creative entails that brands need to look beyond company boundaries to step up their creativity game.

And this is where creative consumers come in. No organization will be able to permanently employ a pool of creatives; so brands can collaborate with creative consumers to get access to a continuous supply of fresh ideas and inspiration. This practice is often referred to as creative crowdsourcing, and is discussed in detail in our ‘Creativity Gap’ bookzine.

Bridging the Creativity Gap

The Creativity Gap

Involving the right crowd to get to ideas that spark. Creativity is the number one skill needed to survive and thrive in the current market reality. How do you unlock creativity for your brand? And how are you managing your creative capacity?

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The eÿeka network

To support brands in their creative challenges, we use our proprietary creative crowdsourcing network of designers, copywriters and creative thinkers, called eÿeka. This network counts over 449,471 members (75% of whom are Millennials) in more than 164 countries around the world. Its members are a mix of professionals and students; many of them have a creative background but haven’t gotten the chance to practice their creative skills for a living and are looking for a creative outlet.

James, for example, is a graphic designer from the UK. His experience with art lies in directing photoshoots, and creating fashion magazines and press adverts; he also works on lots of direct marketing and promotional materials. However, in his current role, he mainly focuses on the execution of creative concepts. Yet what he truly loves, is graphic design work for big brands in different sectors. That is why James joined eÿeka in 2016, where he already participated in 245 contests, having won 35 of them.

The eÿeka creators collaborate with brands to co-create solutions for various business challenges; these range from product and service innovation to communication campaigns and packaging innovation.

Kätapult

For Nestlé’s KitKat, for example, the eÿeka members created storyline ideas for its Australian campaign. They were invited to come up with funny and relatable stories where people react dramatically to frustrating situations, where only a KitKat would help the frustrated individual(s) to “snap out of it”. Which inspired the brand to launch the successful Kätapult video which quickly went viral. We also tapped into the eÿeka network to explore the power of creative collaboration during the COVID-19 pandemic and co-created brand innovations for the post-lockdown world. So, in just 12 days, the contest generated 142 ideas from 77 participants in 35 countries on how brands can prepare for the ‘new normal‘.

It’s by connecting and collaborating with this inventive group of consumers that marketers and other company stakeholders can extract strong, creative insights and inject the necessary spark of creativity into the business.

Unlocking the power of consumers

Unlocking the power of consumers

Different people come with a different set of unique skills and competences. Research has shown that out of every 100 people, 90 merely consume content, 9 will like, share or react to what is created, and only 1 will actually create something. And this is no different for consumers.

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