The Planning Lab

Change starts from within

The internet has gone from an information society to a knowledge society. From being a huge database of information, today’s internet is full of prepackaged insightful knowledge in terms of blogs, tweets, slideshare, and so forth. Theoretically, the easy access to knowledge can change the whole world. Or can it? 

There are masses of people who believe so. Usually, the same people are communication consultants or self-proclaimed evangelists who claim to have the solution right in their pockets. Be innovative like Apple! Use social media! Reinvent your company! Imagine this! 

If the world was easy to change it would look different from what does today. But even though inspiring ideas are abundant, these are hardly solutions to the problems companies face today. 

Instead of dumbfounding companies, we as providers of creative services should think about how we can achieve change rather than what we want to achieve. There’s a huge difference. Achieving real change is as difficult as ever, because it’s about changing people’s behaviours. And until you’ve managed to do change people, talk is cheap. 

Change starts from within

The internet has gone from an information society to a knowledge society. From being a huge database of information, today’s internet is full of prepackaged insightful knowledge in terms of blogs, tweets, slideshare, and so forth. Theoretically, the easy access to knowledge can change the whole world. Or can it? 

There are masses of people who believe so. Usually, the same people are communication consultants or self-proclaimed evangelists who claim to have the solution right in their pockets. Be innovative like Apple! Use social media! Reinvent your company! Imagine this! 

If the world was easy to change it would look different from what does today. But even though inspiring ideas are abundant, these are hardly solutions to the problems companies face today. 

Instead of dumbfounding companies, we as providers of creative services should think about how we can achieve change rather than what we want to achieve. There’s a huge difference. Achieving real change is as difficult as ever, because it’s about changing people’s behaviours. And until you’ve managed to do change people, talk is cheap. 

Creativity and behaviour in the advertising agency

Creativity is probably the most important asset to any ad agency. So it would be stupid of one to not dig deeper into an agency's creative processes and try to improve these. There are of course many aspects of creativity and ways of improving things. One way of looking at creativity is from a behavioural perspective. That is, looking at things that are not in the human mind, but rather at things can be observable. This perspective is interesting from two respects. First, cognitive psychology has a strong scientific foundation. Second, its tools are well-suited for real-life application.

Here are some slides (in Swedish) from a seminar that my psychologist friend Samuel Hugosson held a couple of weeks ago. The brief was simple: How can we improve the conditions under which creative work takes place?

| View | Upload your own

The slideshow does of course not tell the whole story, but there are some interesting bits in there. If you're interested in hearing more about creativity at the workplace, let me know!

Creativity and behaviour in the advertising agency

Creativity is probably the most important asset to any ad agency. So it would be stupid of one to not dig deeper into an agency's creative processes and try to improve these. There are of course many aspects of creativity and ways of improving things. One way of looking at creativity is from a behavioural perspective. That is, looking at things that are not in the human mind, but rather at things can be observable. This perspective is interesting from two respects. First, cognitive psychology has a strong scientific foundation. Second, its tools are well-suited for real-life application.

Here are some slides (in Swedish) from a seminar that my psychologist friend Samuel Hugosson held a couple of weeks ago. The brief was simple: How can we improve the conditions under which creative work takes place?

| View | Upload your own

The slideshow does of course not tell the whole story, but there are some interesting bits in there. If you're interested in hearing more about creativity at the workplace, let me know!

A new hope for neuromarketing?

Neuromarketing as the potential to be an interesting tool for understanding human brain activity and behavior. There's a significant bottleneck in application, however: performing brain scans (fMRI) is incredibly expensive. As an example, Omnicom, a global marketing coms network, bases its global neuro-based media planning on a sample of 16 people. So, for neuromarketing to grow as a concept, research needs to be cheaper, and more convenient.

Neuroscientist Christopher deCharms shows how fMRI can be conducted in real time. Maybe this will lead the way to the next gen neuromarketing research.

A new hope for neuromarketing?

Neuromarketing as the potential to be an interesting tool for understanding human brain activity and behavior. There's a significant bottleneck in application, however: performing brain scans (fMRI) is incredibly expensive. As an example, Omnicom, a global marketing coms network, bases its global neuro-based media planning on a sample of 16 people. So, for neuromarketing to grow as a concept, research needs to be cheaper, and more convenient.

Neuroscientist Christopher deCharms shows how fMRI can be conducted in real time. Maybe this will lead the way to the next gen neuromarketing research.

Does the mind control the body or does the body control the mind?

Last weekend I had a half-drunken discussion with my a good friend of mine who also happens to be a behavioural psychologist about the merits of neuromarketing. Not surprisingly for a seasoned behaviourist, the usefulness of understanding "the brain" is limited when isolating factors such as behaviour. An argument that left me thinking, though, was that behaviour and thoughts cannot be "separated". They are the same. It is therefore quite useless to look inside the brain (i.e. neuromarketing) without looking at corresponding behavior. Worth thinking about.

Does the mind control the body or does the body control the mind?

Last weekend I had a half-drunken discussion with my a good friend of mine who also happens to be a behavioural psychologist about the merits of neuromarketing. Not surprisingly for a seasoned behaviourist, the usefulness of understanding "the brain" is limited when isolating factors such as behaviour. An argument that left me thinking, though, was that behaviour and thoughts cannot be "separated". They are the same. It is therefore quite useless to look inside the brain (i.e. neuromarketing) without looking at corresponding behavior. Worth thinking about.

The end of creativity is near

In the future, we don't need ad agencies, only brain helmets.

Here's an APG seminar you don't want to miss: on February 20th Anna Bodin and Ebba Horn from media agency PHD (part of Omnicom) will talk about neuroplanning. What is it, and how will it change the way media strategy is designed? Don't know, but it sure sounds creepy.

What: What is neuroplanning?
Where: Reklamförbundet
When: February 20th @ 18.00

APG Sweden

The end of creativity is near

In the future, we don't need ad agencies, only brain helmets.

Here's an APG seminar you don't want to miss: on February 20th Anna Bodin and Ebba Horn from media agency PHD (part of Omnicom) will talk about neuroplanning. What is it, and how will it change the way media strategy is designed? Don't know, but it sure sounds creepy.

What: What is neuroplanning?
Where: Reklamförbundet
When: February 20th @ 18.00

APG Sweden