MINDSCAPES TOOLS
Insights And Innovation
For Exponential Growth
By Susan Makau
I
recently had the privilege of watching
submissions of award winning
campaigns and was amazed at just
how powerful simplicity works, yet it's
one of the most difficult things to achieve,
especially in marketing communications.
Freshness burger, a small to medium sized
player in the fast food industry in Japan,
despite having popular mouth-watering
burgers, had little to no female customers.
Being a fairly small player, they didn’t
have the muscle to support a big budget
campaign. This got them thinking.
A research they conducted revealed
that the problem was rooted in a deeply
ingrained culture. For many centuries
‘Ochobo’, referring to small mouth was
culturally accepted and attractive for
women. Opening ones mouth wide open
was regarded as ugly and rude. To-date,
it is considered good manners to cover
the mouth when opening it. This means
women are denied the pleasure of enjoying
burgers in public. For this reason, women
were not consuming burgers.
So what did the agency do? The most
amazing yet simple idea. They disrupted
the convention and their big idea was,
‘Free women from the spell of ‘Ochobo’.
They introduced ‘The liberation wrapper’.
A dainty wrapper printed with on
‘Ochobo’ mouth on the exterior; for the
public to see, but which allows women
fulfil their desire of a large juicy burger,
without showing their open mouth.
Result, it was an instant success! Their
sales on women customers rose 213%
in only one month. The campaign was
covered on national media and attracted
stories which were widely shared on social
media.
To arrive at this idea, the agency used a
Mindscapes Insights tool called, Search
for Conflict.
Conflicts create tension and discomfort,
which help to develop brand solutions. The
approach is to learn to identify conflicting
or different views that people may have.
Two types of conflicts are internal and
external conflict. Territories of conflict
are determined by; Views and Beliefs,
Wants and Desires, Emotions, Needs and
Behaviours.
In this case it was the insight based on the
conflict between respecting tradition and
opening ones mouth wide in public.
The fact that the brand sympathised with
this conflict, meant that the chances of
people listening was enhanced, and so did
the chances of becoming more meaningful,
relevant and credible. This is what to look
Mindscapes Thinking Tools are thinking
patterns derived from the analysis of award
winning campaigns that resulted in expo-
nential growth for brands.
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out for in marketing communications.
Most creative agencies are still producing
mediocre campaigns that are banal and
brainwashing, thereby contributing to
the clutter in our media today. Creative
agencies and brands need to find a way to
think more creatively and start producing
more inventive campaigns that touch the
hearts of the people. Winning brands
are the brands that get people involved.
People share what they love, and for one
to know what the people love, it is crucial
to get better insights.
Insights on Insights that make a difference,
and Innovation in Product/Service
development will be one of the themes of
this years’ Mindscapes Workshops.
Mindscapes Thinking Tools are thinking
patterns derived from the analysis of
award winning campaigns that resulted in
exponential growth for brands.
Yonathan Dominitz, the founder of
Mindscapes, is a global renowned trainer
and leader of creativity enhancement
projects in advertising, media, marketing
and communications. He has personally
conducted projects in numerous companies
and leading global ad agencies. He is a
keynote speaker at various international
conferences, creative advertising festivals
(Cannes Lions, Spikes Asia, Golden
Drum, etc.) and associations worldwide.
He has over 10 years of experience
working in senior positions in the
advertising industry and over 17 years in
training in creative thinking.
For the last 4 years the International
School of Advertising (ISA Africa)
in partnership with Mindscapes, has
conducted
annual
workshops
for
marketing professionals and creatives
on creative enchantment tools for brand
innovation and creativity.
As a result we can proudly showcase local
brands that achieved exponential growth
as a result of using Mindscapes Tools.
Max Ngari (former Group Creative
Director of Ogilvy Africa), has been an
ardent Mindscapes tools user. I recently
asked him how often he uses the tools
and he said.’ Always’, in a rather ‘what
else do you expect manner’! Well, it has
borne fruit. Max is a four-time Cannes
Award winner. His work led to Ogilvy
Africa scooping 22 awards and taking the
number one position in the 2017 APA
(Kenya) awards. His work has also won
awards in other festivals including the
Clios, Dubai Lynx, One Show, Loeries,
Crystal, MSK, Digital Media Awards
amongst others.
And it's not just about creativity,
Mindscapes Tools bring exponential
growth to brands. Ol Pajeta gained an
increase in its campaign to raise money for
its endangered Rhino species, ‘Sudan’ by
325% in a matter of weeks. Intermarche
juice, a French juice brand, increased sales
over 400% after adopting a Mindscapes
product innovation tool. The retails chain
where they were stocked increased footfall
by 25%. Visit the Mindscapes site to see
many similar cases.
lives?’, He explains.
There’s been a big revolution and evolution
in the media industry. Gone are the days
when big brands with big budgets would
buy media space and say what they
want. That doesn’t work anymore. Today,
winning brands are those brands that
are creating ideas that matter to their
consumers. These are the brands that
realize that there’s a bigger purpose than
just selling their products and services. Once brands understand what they stand
for, what their vision is and what their
promise to the consumer is, they should
then do something that really makes the
world a better place. It doesn’t have to be
big things. It could be small things that
give people tools to make their lives better
- relationships with family and friends,
things at work, etc. - more than just
having a great brand. If it’s sugar, how do
you make people’s lives sweeter more than
just using sugar? If it’s beer, how do you
make people’s lives more fun more than
just drinking beer? If it’s a condom, how
do you make people’s lives safer more than
just using a condom? Catch the drift?
“The bigger purpose should always be
how to make people’s lives better and how
to make the world a better place to live in.
These brands ask themselves, ‘What is my
small contribution as a brand in people’s Mindscapes tools equip creative agencies
with a number of tools that help
agencies think creatively. These tools
have been tested over time and in fact
over 30 Cannes Lions and 3 Grand Prix
Having been in this industry for so long,
Yonathan has had the privilege to interact
with numerous marketing campaigns
globally. According to him, the power of
advertising is now with the consumer.
prestigious awards have been won by
agencies that used these tools. And who
doesn’t want to bag a Grand Prix? If you
missed the Mindscapes workshop, fret
not. ISA Africa will be holding fort as we
await the 2019 workshop.
Finally, how do you make a campaign
memorable? Yonathan opines “Surprise
your audience, touch their hearts and
make them want to engage with your
idea!”
Susan Makau is the Chief
Executive Officer, International
School of Advertising (ISA).
You can commune with her on this
or related matters vide email at:
[email protected].