The Press Box

Bark’s Central Media Hub

The Press Box is a unique place where we share thoughts on innovation, brand strategy, client insights, and our latest SAAS projects.

Today, I want to engage the idea that there aren't really any new creative ideas out there. If that's the case, then whether it be music, painting, sculpture, or a design that represents a corporate brand identity, what is the meaning, and where is the value of creativity? Here's my attempt at an answering those questions.

There’s a really interesting video of an interview with singer-songwriter, John Mayer, where he talks about his relationship with Steve Jobs. You can watch it here (it’s 9.5 minutes long). Mayer draws a few very important conclusions from his relationship with Jobs in his talk, but I wanted to focus on one today. He shares the

Smoke detectors save lives. They are the early warning system that everyone should have in their house to alert them to the fact that there is a threat. Because, where there’s smoke, there’s fire. These days, Big Tobacco is playing the part of a smoke detector for your organization because there’s definitely smoke to report on - literally and figuratively - and with it comes a flame that could threaten your organization.

Advertising is, in part, an art of persuasion - awakening people to a personal reason to choose one product or service over another. But while advertisers help other's peddle their wares, they also have to 'sell' themselves to get firms to choose them. Unfortunately, the side effect of advertisers advertising has been the development of unrealistic expectations of what agencies actually offer on a day-to-day basis.

Between seeing highlights of the Australian Open tennis tournament two weeks ago, and my favourite team in British soccer, Manchester United, I’ve been thinking about individual sports vs. team sports, and what we can learn about advertising from them.

There is a high cost associated to not paying attention to how you look on a day-to-day basis. I'm not talking about the things you can't change, but there are things that you can change which, if ignored, say something about you - and it's not great...