A Condensed List of Some of the Stuff I Teach at SCAD.

sull2I once read that smart companies should give away what they know. I didn’t get it at first but the more I read, the more I saw how these “generous brands” actually attract paying customers. Cool. So, with that in mind, here is a condensed version of pretty much everything I try to cram in my students’ heads every quarter.

What is the truest thing I can say about my product or category?

It’s not a very big idea if it doesn’t fit on a Post-It note.

Platforms start talking to you and won’t shut up.

Where is the emotion in this product, service, or category?

Identify and leverage the conflicts/tensions/polarities in your product or category.

All drama is conflict. Find a “bad guy.”

When everything is okay, people are not interested.

Bad is stronger than good.

Without is stronger than with.

Remember, it’s “got milk?” not “have milk.”

If tension’s not evident in your category, make it up.

What is the wrong thing to do? Be disobedient at every turn of the way.

Will people talk about this idea?

Are you sure they’ll even let us do this idea?

Don’t make things for the internet, make things out of the internet.

It’s less about messaging, more about content.

It’s less about ads, more about experiences.

It’s less about talking to, more about talking with.

It’s less about making people want stuff, more about making stuff people want.

The new ideas may not look like ads as we know them.

The new ideas come from culture not commerce.

The new ideas don’t just fill media spaces, they create them.

The new ideas are shareable and participatory.

Would the press cover it?

Would a person use it?

Would a person share it?

“Is what I’m working on beautiful useful or entertaining?” (from R/GA)

You can’t become X by saying you are X.

Brand actions speak louder than brand words.

A brand can’t claim it’s authentic. It must be authentic.

Authenticity doesn’t mean no agenda, just transparency.

Can you tell the idea to your best friend with a straight face?

Simplicity: You idea should communicate in a FLASH.

Product = Adjective

A platform is an idea that creates ideas.

A platform is not a story. It is the mother of stories.

Big ideas are good. Long ideas are great. (Doing one good idea is kind of like doing  one push-up. It’s pretty easy. The trick is to do it a lot.)

 

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Luke Sullivan

Author, speaker, and ad veteran available to recharge, reinvigorate, and refocus marketing, advertising, and branding firms.

I give a hugely energetic series of presentations on innovation, creativity, branding, and marketing. I spent 32 years in the trenches of advertising (at agencies like Martin, GSD&M, and Fallon) and I’ve put everything I learned into my book, Hey Whipple, Squeeze This. But for me nothing beats taking the message out and speaking to living breathing audiences at clients, agencies, and conferences. You can book me on the button below.

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