Shesays is a global creative network for women that runs networking events and mentorship to see more women at the top.
On August 25th 2011 they held an event in Sydney called “What makes women tick?” THe invite said: “Ever wanted to know how women who made it to the top got there? And what keeps them going? Join us for our first SheSays Event in 2011 and listen to some of our industry’s leading ladies strut their stuff Pecha Kucha style!”
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They say you should never trust anyone who says “trust me” unless they’re a doctor.
Doctors have at least seven years of med school experience, social media has only been around for five and we’re all just getting to grips with what it is and how we can use it effectively.
It’s a brave new world, marketing in beta testing if you like.
And there are few rules.
Many firms will tell you they have the inside track on measurement and ROI for social media messaging, but honestly a simple google search will give you links to all the analytics tools you could ever need (and most likely what they use).
Others will tell you they have proven track records in the area, which is great, but the landscape is so rapidly changing that what worked two weeks ago may no longer be effective.
The only way to demonstrate any kind of expertise is to jump in and start experimenting.
Social media is freedom of thought as Mahatma Ghandi said “Freedom is not worth having if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes”.
We’ve all heard the horror stories - who would be surprised if Nestlé abandoned the platforms altogether?
But quick thinking and creativity can turn the most deadly tweet into an incredible opportunity.
Imagine the horror of The American Red Cross when they saw this late night tweet on their feed:
Ryan found two more 4 bottle pack Dogfish Head’s Midas touch beer..when we drink we do it right #gettingslizzered
You think Ryan and his mate would be facing the sack, they probably were until an observant member of the Dogfish Head Brewery made a meme out of the hashtag #gettingslizzered asking people to donate.
And donate they did, @ereed812 put it most succinctly: “After I drop off a pint of blood to the @redcross, I’m replacing it with a pint of @dogfishbeer #gettingslizzered.
Why did this work? Because we all appreciate honesty, cleverness and creativity.
So if you want to succeed in social media, choose an expert in creativity, who’s honest enough to say they don’t know exactly how it all works and is clever enough to make it up as they go along.
Giant Leap has always prided itself on working with some of the world’s best designers and Mario Milostic is 
certainly no exception.
We chose Mario to compliment the team because of the beautiful simplicity of his work and the gentle sense of humour that runs through everything he does.
You can view his portfolio here:
But most of all, we are thrilled to have Mario on the team because he’s fun to be around, shares our values and doesn’t believe anything’s possible. – he knows it.
In all forms of storytelling there is a mythic structure. It is a magical formula that resonates deeply within the psyche of the audience; all stories consist of a few common structural elements found universally in myths, fairy tales, novels and movies.
This is not some new age gobbledegook, this is ancient wisdom studied by philosophers and academics for centuries and it applies to every single story from Homer’s Odyssey to his Halloween Special.
At Giant Leap we have studied these teachings and strategically apply them to the brands we work on to create brand pathways that span a lifetime.
How can we show you this?
Here’s one we created earlier:
The James Squire Hero’s Journey.
Act 1.
World of the common day.
The marketing department of Lion Nathan brief Principals to create some new premium beer brands
Call to adventure
Jane Evans and the Principals team create the James Squire concept.
At this point in the story, there is usually a significant statement that will define the true nature of the story. In this case the poignant comment was “How do we create a big brand while keeping all of the positive attributes of being small?”
Refusal of the call
The marketing department rejects the concept.
Supernatural aid
Chuck Hahn hears about the idea, sees it as the perfect opportunity to launch the craft beer category in Australia takes it to the top and gets the backing of the board to reclaim his brewery and start production.
Crossing the first threshold.
With packaging and point of sale designed by Giant Leap and with a magnificent brew, James Squire Original Amber Ale was born. The first threshold was crossed with the brewers walking into pubs with cases on their shoulder and the story of this great beer to share.
Belly of the whale
Since then the brand has grown into a fine family of beers. Safely tucked away in the brewery in Camperdown and relying on little more than the quality of the beer and modest marketing the brand has grown very nicely. But other beer companies have started to replicate your success rather than follow their own destiny, they are in the belly – leave them there.
Act 11
The road of trials.
The Malt Shovel have beaten the early challenges easily and now find themselves facing their tests, allies and enemies.
One of the biggest challenges is to allow the brand to mature without losing the power of its rebellious nature, this is particularly important in the brand’s relationship with its father (Lion Nathan). A big struggle will be the father figure’s imposition of discipline and structure while still allowing the brand to break the rules and defy convention.
Enemies will take the form of the competition, they will try and replicate our success, but they are further back on the road and have a lot of catching up to do, keep a couple of sentries keeping an eye on but keep the leaders looking at the unknown road ahead.
Meeting with the Goddess
The challenge is now to grow more than just the James Squire brand, but to own the craft beer category on a number of fronts. The Malt Shovel does not meet the Goddess, but become one. This is the time for Malt Shovel to grow eight arms in the form of various new brands, experiment, try new things – move quicker and further than the competition who are plodding behind. All while nurturing and growing the first fruit – James Squire. Each new member of the family will be given the same care and attention and opportunities to reach their full potential. And each will be permitted to try new things, knowing that sometimes they may not work, but usually lead to better things.
Woman as temptress.
The craft beer craze won’t last forever this is the time to be aware of the lure of fashion (temptress) and to stay true to your beer values
Atonement with the father
The Malt Shovel’s father figure will only be atoned by proof of concept, measurable success and solid consistent profit. Plus he will notice the positive result of having an energised and entrepreneurial marketing department brimming with new ideas.
Apotheosis (which means the healing of a broken bone)
The Malt Shovel Brewery and Lion Nathan will knit together seamlessly to unite as a passionate group of beer and life-loving individuals who nurture the growth with care.
The Ultimate Boon
The Malt Shovel Brewery produces “Industrial Beer” quantities, but divided up among a stream of innovative and interesting beers hand crafted with care at a number of small craft breweries.
Unfortunately Lion Nathan (the father) decided at this point to take back all marketing and strategy for the James Squire brand, Giant Leap didn’t get past the first scene in act 3 – the refusal of the return.
Someone else is writing the end of this story:
The magic flight
Rescue from within
Crossing the threshold
Return
Master of the two worlds
Freedom to live
But maybe we can write a whole new one for you.
It is so easy to see how Gap failed in their re-brand (and why the boss allegedly lost her job)
It’s not hard to imagine the brief: Gap is now moving to the online space and requires a new brand identity that reflects a more modern, tech savvy image.
A couple of tech-savvy logos would then be placed in the presentation:
Along with research insights: “We like the blue box, but the word Gap is too stretched and hard to read.”
Then some genius in the design comes up with the idea of keeping the blue box and making the typeface more legible (and web friendly).
Ta Da!
But what did they forget?
Oh that’s right, the business they are in.
And their most effective advertising tool:
Gap customers don’t want to feel like they’ve just come out of the Apple Store (they’ll go to the Apple store for that). They want to feel as though they are carrying a bag full of cool new clothes that they are going to look fabulous in.
They’ll even recycle a GAP bag to still feel fabulous even though it now contains their laundry, gym kit or walking shoes.
There’s nothing wrong with the gap branding.
Yes, the GAP is hard to read, like the mastheads of the fashion mags it was originally designed to mimic.
Sadly the client couldn’t understand or the brand guardians let their guard down and forgot that, like all good logos, the Gap logo had transcended readability and transformed itself into a pattern of lines that mean something – fashion and quality.
(Bet a research participant couldn’t express that so eloquently.)
To boldly take Gap into a brand new space they should have adapted their visual language to enhance that space, just like any new store they open.
What should have been a small hop across a gap now needs to be a Giant Leap over a huge divide.
You’d think footage of a UFO hovering over one of the holiest places on earth would be front-page news. It’s not.
Are we getting cynical?
Do we need proof?
Of course we do, we know how clever movie marketers are and exactly where technology’s at these days. It wouldn’t be hard to get three different people to stand at three different points and pretend to see a UFO to be CGI’d in later and released as the latest Sci-fi thriller a few weeks later (anyone know what Brad Pitt’s been filming lately?)
Or it could be some elaborate viral marketing campaign for a product that’s about to take over the world.
Either way we’ll know in a few weeks.
In the meantime it’s a boom time for the conspiracy theorists; they have been saying for years that Barack Obama will reveal contact with alien life forms at exactly this time (here’s one of the funnier ones)
Of course, it could be a bizarre weather phenomenon; apparently ball lightening can produce that effect (it seems conspiracy theorists abound on both sides of the fence). Hoax busters and cynics are working furiously – to date one of the 4 videos has been disproved –no sign yet of trickery on the other three though.
So, currently, we just don’t know.
But honestly, just quietly deep down in your heart, don’t you wish it were true?
Isn’t it time for a miracle?
One witnessed by over 2million people all over the earth of every creed and colour?
They say only about 600,000 people saw the splitting of the red sea, 5,000 saw Jesus loaves and fishes miracle, and sadly, only a handful were there to hear Mohammed’s last words:
The Prophet said, “On the night of my Ascent to the Heaven, I saw Moses who was a tall brown curly-haired man as if he was one of the men of Shan’awa tribe, and I saw Jesus, a man of medium height and moderate complexion inclined to the red and white colors and of lank hair…”
The location of his ascent was the place where these three great men came together.
The Foundation stone, the dome of the rock, the temple mount, Masjid Qubbat As-Sakhrah (or whatever you want to call it) – a magical place where something came to shine a little light the other night.
The question is will we get the message?
Let’s pray it’s not from Coca Cola!
There is an advertising magazine called Archive which every quarter asks a creative person “Why are you so creative?” The responses range from a simple visual, to a page crammed with copy or a single word (beautifully type set).
If they ever asked me I would put a picture of David Beckham.
When he is asked “What makes you such a good footballer?” his response is that when all his friends stopped playing and went home, he carried on kicking the ball against a wall.
That’s basically what I do – when other people think they’ve got the idea to solve a problem, I carry on kicking it up against the wall.
I hear so many people who say that they are not “creative”, of course we are all creative, it’s just we’ve been taught non-creative behaviour.
Adults can generally think of 3 – 6 alternatives for any situation.
A child thinks of 60.
How would a child hit an idea up against a wall? They would hit it high, hit it low, quick, slow, with a bounce, with a double bounce, on the eighth row down or the fifth brick on the left, behind their back, through their knees.
Creativity is basically collecting seemingly disparate elements and rearranging them to create something of interest, beauty or use.
That leads to a million paradoxes. The first is that creativity requires space, time and freedom (starting to work out why kids are so much better at it than us?)
Yet the best ideas are always the ones that have had some restrictions put on them, a few reality road blocks always seems to make the final product so much more powerful.
I’m sure it’s because ideas come in the space between thoughts.
Freedom is required to give your brain the space to stop thinking and start creating.
But if ideas come in the middle of the thinking, then the quality of the thoughts being punctuated must make the creations more relevant.
When you’re trying to solve a problem creatively, first make sure you understand the task at hand totally, define it, learn as much as you can about it ask as many questions as you can.
Write down everything you can about it, don’t censor your thoughts in any way (those dumb ideas will keep nagging away till they are deposited onto paper). If you think you’ve written everything you know, give it another ten minutes you’d be surprised what occurs to you.
Then forget all about it. Take a bath, read a book, drive your car or do the ironing. The most important thing is to wait for inspiration, hold it in the back of your thoughts, think about it idle moments, but don’t spend too long, a deadline is useful, a ridiculous deadline is stressful and counter productive.
Write down all your ideas and notions, or scribble if you’re visual.
If you haven’t found an answer you must need either more information or inspiration.Why not try filling your creative brain with related stimuli to the problem? For instance, if you’re trying to think of a business idea that will sell to a teenage market, go see a Miley Cirus film, something to do with travel or people from different countries? Go to the airport and just sit there – something will occur to you. Be creative with how you fill your thoughts.
And don’t be afraid to share you ideas with others, particularly people you respect and spark off, it’s amazing what a quantum leap your idea can take just from a simple observation of a friend.
I can’t stress enough the every idea down, because you’ve got to go through them with a fine toothcomb to see what is of value, what will work and what are all the ramifications of the solution. I’m sure when Leonardo Da Vinci looked at his sketch of a helicopter in the cold light of day, he decided it probably was a waste of time taking it further, but like all good creatives he kept the idea knowing it would come in useful one day.
So by now you should have found your idea, but ideas alone are not enough, now you have to act on them and make them real, to make them into the something interesting, beautiful or useful.
And if after all this you haven’t managed to find your idea , don’t give up, be imaginative in finding someone who can solve the problem for you, after all we may all be creative, but we don’t all have the skill and training to throw a pot (except maybe at a wall).
There are no guarantees in the world of film, TV or social media, but the rewards for pulling a hit out of the ether are unbelievable.
Grand Misconceptions is based on the true story of Eliza Donnithorne, the inspiration for Miss Havisham in Charles Dickens Great Expectations. A sweeping story that travels from the court of mad King George to the early settlement of Australia
“Fascinating” Working Title films
“Evocative and well done” BBC flms
“fascinating story” Film 4
“A wonderful Australian story and part of history that should be shared” Blossom Films.
Down load the screenplay here:
