Hitting creative block too often? Equip your content team to overcome this

The saying ‘creativity has no limitations' could be contested if attached to a deadline. Creative teams often hit a roadblock called the writer's (or the creative) block. BuzzInContent.com compiles a list of ‘to-do list' to help agencies, content platforms and creators to navigate their way out of this challenge

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Akansha Srivastava
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Image courtesy: YouTheDesigner

For creative teams, creative block isn’t just frustrating. It could also affect the name that the agency or the content platform has built for itself over the years.

Consumers today are more aware than ever. Any half-baked ideas or a piece of content done half-heartedly can backfire for brands.

However, it is easier said than done as all content teams or creative minds, at some point or the other, do face ‘the creative block’, which isn’t easy to overcome.   

It’s imperative for the content creators to have their heart and soul in their content. Anything that doesn’t have the right ingredients doesn’t work with the internet audiences.

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Girish Bindal

Girish Bindal, Director, Content Marketing at Elara Group (Housing, PropTiger, Makaan), said, “Even the most creative minds sometimes draw a blank when it comes to thinking of new ideas. It is very difficult to control a creative mind. This is why some artists would sit on a blank canvas for days and writers before a blank paper for weeks and months before they create art or write a brilliant piece. When creative thinking becomes a team activity, it becomes even more difficult to guide all those minds in a single direction towards an outcome. The thought process of an individual ranges from ‘I don’t know where to start’ to ‘My idea is too outlandish to share’.”

But what happens when one runs out of unique ideas? It’s not easy to make the team to churn out brilliant ideas in tight deadlines, and deliver ROI (return on investment) on the same.

Creativity has no limitations — this saying could be contested if creativity is attached to a deadline. Creative teams entrusted with the job of coming up with ideas and brand solutions often hit a roadblock called the writer’s (or the creative) block.

BuzzInContent.com has compiled a list of ‘to-do list’ to help agencies, content platforms and creators to navigate their way out of this challenge.

Never brush off an idea

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Sameer Saxena

Sameer Saxena, Chief Content Officer and Head, TVF Originals Company: The Viral Fever (TVF)said that whenever his content team hits a roadblock, he uses some unconventional strategies to pull the best ideas of their brains. There is never a thing like the wrong idea. He said, “Big or small, relevant or irrelevant, no matter what, always acknowledge it. Let them know the status of their proposal. Provide them with the environment where there are no bad ideas. Sometimes the best way to encourage your team is to not discourage them.”

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Santosh Srivastava

Santosh Srivastava, Marketing Manager, Numero Uno, said that the teams should be given a blank canvas and asked to paint whatever they wish to, with some starting pointers thrown in. It has been seen that individuals can think better if we give them an open field rather than restricting them to a smaller area. This way more ideas would come up and with some refinement, some of them can definitely be a part of your content calendar.

Do not confine the team to just office brainstorm sessions

At times, the best ideas come to people when they are not confined to the walls of offices. Sometimes to think out of the box, you need to step out of it. Saxena added, “The best way to extract ideas from the team is to give them an open environment to think. So arrange that brainstorming session of yours outside the confines of the box, take them out.”

Think like a user

It’s also beneficial if one has to get into the shoes of the consumers and think like them. It’s very important to figure out the consumers’ expectations and needs from a brand. Bindal said, “We try to assign user profiles to each person in the team and the team together tries to visually draw the profile and list down detailed motivations and requirements. This allows the team to empathise with each of our user profiles, say a renter, buyer, developer, an NRI, a millennial or a tier-2 city user. This gives us an overall view of the problems our users face and guides our overall strategy — be it content, brand, or social.”

Keep a check on competitors

There is no harm in learning from your competitors. It is really important to stay updated with what’s happening around. This exercise even helps to figure out gaps in your competition. Bindal said, “When a team is trying to come up with ‘game-changing’ ideas, it is helpful to look at what other brands like you and not like you are doing in the market. This inspiration is coupled with learnings of competitors or simply other brands with a similar blueprint. It acts as a great starting point and helps the team truly think out of the box.”

Bring complementary thinking styles to the table

The chances of running out of ideas are more when the same set of people has been working in the team. They tend to think alike over a period of time. The best ideas come from discussion, deliberation and debate between people with different personalities and thinking. This helps when ideas conflict, critics happen thus giving birth to ‘game-changing ideas’.

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Shuchi Chawla

Shuchi Chawla, Head, Brand Marketing at ixigo, said, “Sometimes when brands (like us) have in-house talent driving campaigns, there is a risk of communication becoming repetitive from a creative point of view. To eliminate this risk, we try to include a diverse pool of mindsets from different teams be it tech, marketing, HR or the customer experience team to encourage fresh perspectives during the ideation stage. You’ll probably be surprised by the out-of-the-box ideas you get from a good mix of people.”

“A group is most productive when there are different types of thinkers trying to critique the idea from an exhaustive list of perspectives. Even the listeners are important because they are the real audiences for the ideas that are being worked out, and they would talk only when they want to contradict,” Bindal said.

 Walk the walk before you talk the talk

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Gautam Raheja

According to Gautam Raheja, Head of Marketing, Asics India, it’s really important to experience the situation at the grassroots level with active customer research. “As a leader, I always encourage my team to keep their eyes and ears open on the latest consumer trends and innovations taking shape around us. The best way to develop is by gaining first-hand knowledge built through real experiences rather than in theory. Brands need to evolve over time with changing consumer tastes and preferences and hence the marketing team has to be constantly updated to deliver out-of-the-box strategic ideas,” he said.

Chawla added, “Our marketing and tech teams often travel and conduct regular research to figure out some of the hardships travellers face in general. It is these learnings that help us build share-worthy and interesting content that adds value to our users' travel journey.”

Sharing the example of ixigo's recent viral video ‘Hotel Etiquette’, Chawla explained that the video encapsulated the dos and don’ts when it comes to hotel amenities. The video was created a year back on insights from customers and the brand’s hotel partners. The research showed a lot of seasoned and first-time travellers are in a grey area when it comes to travel etiquette, be it at an airport, public places or hotels.

 Stop thinking the advertising way

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Madhura Ranade

Content marketing and branded content is still a road lesser taken in India. One needs a completely different mindset to think content and we are still at the learning stage of content marketing. An ad or anything for that matter is content, but content marketing is not an ad. According to Madhura Ranade, Head, Branded Content and Partnerships, Isobar India, for brands, branded content begins where advertising ends. “One of the foremost ways to get teams to come up with the best content ideas is to get them to stop thinking the advertising way. When working in this space, it is critical to understand what can be construed as branded content and what is, well, any other content. I feel that once this distinction is clear, it is easier to focus and sharpen ideas or even identify the right kind of solutions and opportunities for clients,” she added.

Have a team of skilful people

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Terry Peigh

One very important factor that can help the whole process of creating good quality content ideas is to have the right skill set of people in the company. Terry Peigh, Managing Director, IPG, said, “It also depends on the quality of creative people. Good quality creative people are better than other people. It’s a professional skill like everything else. These people have a real understanding of the brand and brand insight. An idea is not relevant if it’s not true to brand insight. It’s better to have three well-educated and skilful people working on the brand than having 20 people working on it.”

Hitting creative block too often creativity has no limitations