On his CNC blog,
ad man Donny Deutsch shared his principles of success. I thought it would be
interesting to give you one of these each day for five days. Don’t let their
simplicity fool you—the secret of making them work is to actually implement
them. Here’s his fifth principle, and an assignment I suggest:
DO IT DIFFERENTLY - One of the first pitches I worked on was for Tri-State Pontiac. At the time, we had no car experience and no TV experience which is exactly what Tri-State Pontiac was looking for! My colleagues and I were trying to figure out something "out of the box" to get us noticed. And then it came to us - used car parts! Over the course of a twelve-hour day we delivered a different car part to the client every half hour. A headlight with a tag that read "We'll give you bright ideas", a fender that read "We'll protect your rear-end". Our idea could have backfired and upset the client but luckily the client thought it was clever. Winners think outside the box. They do it cheaper, faster, better, smarter and more colorful.
Your assignment, should you choose to accept it: Decide on the next step you need to take on your road to writing success. Then brainstorm at least three different ways to do it (different from the conventional way). Choose the one that you believe has the best chance of working, and do it. [Warning: not everybody responds well to gimmicks!]
That ends our five-day mini-course, with thanks to Donny Deutsch for his ideas. If you have any thoughts about it, or comments on how it’s working for you, please do let me know, either in a comment here, or in an email to me at [email protected].
(for more tips and techniques on how to be more creative and productive, sign up for my free monthly Brainstorm e-bulletin. Just send an e-mail request now to [email protected])
