This is an update to my last post titled Saudi is standing up

I call them the accountants, the artists and the leaders!

Those who have their minds in this world – The Accountants.

Those who have worlds inside their mind – The Artists.

And the visionaries – The Leaders!

Skeptical! read on, I have scientific evidence!

The 1^st kind are those with a great grip over reality. The rational minds driven by the frontal lobes! They know the rules, they know where the rules can be bent and where they can be stretched. They think laterally to solve new problems with old tactics. They come up with clever solutions, often misunderstood as ‘Ideas’. The end justifies the means type!

Methodical thinkers, in contrast, are more focused and, therefore, not as easily distracted as creative thinkers. Therefore, methodical thinkers tend to solve problems most effectively when the strategy for a solution is already known to them… (as explained in Science Daily)

The 2^nd kind, The Artists. Most actual artists (painters, sculptors, even creative directors etc) fall in this category in my opinion. (Most not all) Those who have worlds inside their minds. Those with the over active Parietal & Temporal lobes who live not only in the physical reality but also in the realities inside their minds where they spend a lot of time. Places where dreams and reality often overlap. These are people who can often break away from the norms and restrictions of the real world. The creative process is an end to them, not just the means!

While playing Jazz Improv, large portion of brain’s Prefrontal Region goes inactive to let Creativity Flow. The Prefrontal region is responsible for monitoring one’s performance, shuts down completely during improvisation, while the much smaller, centrally located region at the foremost part of the brain (medial prefrontal cortex) increases in activity. The medial prefrontal cortex is involved in self-initiated thoughts and behaviors, and is very active when a person describes an event that has happened to him or makes up a story

Then there are the ‘Visionaries’. The ones who have the ability to do a bit of both, actually a lot of both, grasp reality and break away from it. What sets them apart is how they can make connections. Connections that change the course of history. Connections between a crazy thought and a human truth, otherwise called ‘Ideas’. From the internal combustion engine to the lunar shuttle and from the Old Spice Guy to ‘Nike Write the future’, all of these, in my opinion are visions. A crazy thought connected to a deep rooted human insight, led the visionary to believe in its power and pursue it endlessly until it was achieved.

According to Science Daily, the study revealed that there is “a distinct pattern of brain activity — even while an individual is at rest — in people who tend to solve problems with a sudden creative insight. These creative individuals experience an “Aha! Moment,” – a method that’s different from the method utilized by individuals who tend to solve problems more methodically.”

Think of it like this.

An accountant sees a balloon and goes, ‘Nice, maybe I can take out the air, fill it with water and entertain people by throwing it at someone. The Artist will say, look how it defies gravity, maybe we can one day fly too! The leader says, lets make one big enough, tie a basket to it and go touch the sky!

Now you see why these ‘Aha moments’ are called ‘visions’!

My theory is, few people are born to be one of these, like maybe ‘da Vinci’ and ‘Hitler’. All the rest of us, can choose to be what we want to be, or rather, have already chosen what to settle with. But I’ll leave that for another post!

Life must be hard being a consumer these days.

There is just too much happening around you. It is actually hard to spend money on something and stay convinced that you made the right decision.

Wouldn’t it be great if for a few days only, there was no advertising!

Brands would only say something when they really need to. Instead of packaging and repackaging messages to sound better than the competition, they show faith in themselves and in all their consumers.

Instead of trying to surround you, they would speak the truth and speak it well.

This could actually be a great way to look at a marketing strategy.

Strip it down to the bare minimum, the absolutely critical stuff and focus on doing it really well.

Watch the clip below and you might agree. This video is the trailer of the famous movie Logorama made by H5 with more than 2,500 logos in it.

It won the best short movie award at the 2010 Oscars

Logorama

Calling all marketers, social media experts, friends, foes everyone!

If you are reading this, you have already become part of the experiment.

Below is an idea, with the potential to bring about a positive change in the world.

How big the change will be, depends entirely on how much you contribute to perfect it.

The next 5 minutes can decide whether you help change the world, or will this idea die on paper.

Here is what you have to do:

1) Go through the short presentation below

2) Think about it with an open mind

3) Identify the flaws and let me know through twitter, facebook, email, linked in or comments

4) Spread it. The more people comment on it, the more our chances of success

I recently came across this brilliant video on ADVERBLOG. It puts across a critical point in a very interesting manner, which is:

The communication game is changing! Conventional media led thinking has it’s days numbered. It is about time advertising agencies stop thinking advertising ideas and start thinking communication ideas. Call it Media Neutral, 360 Degrees, Integrated or anything else.

One thing in the video I disagree with is that it downplays the importance of TV commercials. I don’t think we can totally scrap that as a touch point. Any touch point, for that matter is not good or bad inherently, it’s what we do with it that decides!

The Last Advertising Agency On Earth from FITC on Vimeo.