Do You Know The Way To Creativity?

There are many detours in our work lives that distract us or prevent us from being our creative best.  When we are focused on creativity it sometimes can become a chore given the pressures surrounding us. 

Here's a short deck of helpful thoughts on creativity. 

Help, I'm lost in creativity!

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Quotes of Creativity and Innovation

Enjoy this short presentation; it might inspire creativity or the desire to take a shower...you'll see.

Leadership Mashups: Innovation

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Game Over!

What game is over?  

The game of data-centric, company focused, cluster fitting, competitive landscape, Arbitron manipulating marketing and programming.  Anyone who knows me has heard me say one thousand times we must develop a "unique definable position" in order to cut through and achieve not only programming success but long term SALES success.  Unique and definable to listeners that is.  

Some examples of how we might fall short:

• A station does a music test (are there still stations doing music testing?) and the "cutoff" is, let's say, a 70 score.  A song gets a 69.7 and the song doesn't get considered for airplay.  Ridiculous!  
• A station gets the PPM ratings and drills down and notes that when the jock reads the liner card the ratings dip.  Solution:  reduce the chatter even more.  How about talking about things LISTENERS care about instead of a "work day liner?"
• A station website is nice to look at but misses the chance to truly interact with listeners by not having personality blogs, music sampling and polling, or other interactive listener-centric content that might emotionally connect listeners with the station.  
  
• Talking in radio-ese.  (see picture below)
• Fish where the fishes are.  That means be out in your community at festivals, events, concerts, and any other well attended places where you can shake hands, kiss babies, and communicate a positive impression about your brand--even if there's no sales component.

I could go on and on...but you get the idea.  

Creative thinking has all but disappeared from the programming process due to workloads, less people, and too much group think.  I should also include fear since many times "creative" doesn't always yield instant results. 

There's no naïveté here.  I like big ratings and I understand the importance of cluster strategies--not too mention economic realities.  However, we shouldn't be programming radio stations only in conference room bubbles.  We need better outreach and LISTEN to our desired audience--they might have something worthwhile to say.  

Listen, appropriately filter, and get creative!  Sounds like a plan.  

As I regularly do, I like scanning Slideshare looking for cool presentations worthy of sharing with you.  Today, I found a great one!  

Check out this slide and then take a look at a short 17 slide presentation.  

Why Community Matters

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I Wasn't Surprised

When the news broke on Friday about the sweeping major market changes taking place at the former ABC, now Citadel stations I wasn't surprised. It was hard not to see it coming.

You can rest assured this is not the last of the radio industry downsizing.

Our rapidly changing landscape combined with shrinking revenue call for change. But what are we changing to?

Let me suggest that whatever that change is it include the following four attributes:

• Creativity


• Curiosity


• Connectivity


• Interaction

Take a moment and apply each of these attributes to whatever you think is hot, cutting edge, viral , or whatever. If its good content, these words work every time.

If radio stations have good content, these words will work every time.

And attract listeners.