How to turn on your creative light bulb

Is there a way to massage inspiration? Alcohol (or worse) may have worked in past years, but what drives modern creative thinking? Jennifer Chan finds out.

Ask any professional what the key is to creativity in this multi-billion dollar advertising industry and the answer is most likely to be something quite simple. A flash of inspiration – or what some call the light bulb moment – is really all it takes.

If you look up the definition of inspiration in the Oxford Dictionary, it means: “The process of being mentally stimulated to do or feel something, especially to do something creative.”

In Hong Kong, a city that has long been criticised as a creative desert, rarely have we seen mind-blowing advertising stake its claim on the world stage.

But perhaps a city such as this is more suited for some rather than others. One of those is SK Lam, the creative director of independent creative outfit, AllRightsReserved.

“Stress fosters creativity,” says Lam, whose agency was behind the widely known Doraemon 100 Birthday Exhibition; adidas’ “We Print Originals”; and 2013 local favourite, Rubber Duck@Harbour city.

“Hong Kong is an overly crowded city under land constraints, and pressure is a by-product when you don’t enjoy your surroundings.

“That may hamper creativity because inspiration comes from our surroundings and things happen in it. But if you know how to convert negative energies into stimulations, it opens up the pathways to creative thinking.

He emphasises the importance of transforming stress into stimulation for creativity, ironically, with more practice.

“Inspiration may originally come from gut feelings but self-criticism is also important, especially when most creatives believe they are the only ones in the world who can come up with such ideas.”

“But creativity doesn’t work this way in advertising. Creativity is used to provide solutions to existing problems for clients and to communicate. It should be logic.”

This theory is supported by Andrew Lee and Snowman Tsang, the founders of another local digital firm Rice 5.

“Creativity is all about the skill set of problem solving, and a process of analysing problems. It’s something that is inspired from daily life that is waiting to be translated into creative ideas and content,” Tsang says.

Says Lee: “It’s from daily happenings being converted into something with empathy. “Everything you come across is an input or a resource for creativity.”

So are we born with creativity or is it fostered? Lee considers them equal.

“You may be born with higher curiosity and sensitivity, but further development is required before evolving into creative ideas.”

But both Lee and Tsang are concerned evolving technology may quell creativity.

“Technology helps realise an idea. But the increase of creative ideas on the internet makes audiences more savvy and more difficult to satisfy then ever. Technology is making creativity harder in this sense,” Tsang says.

Adds Lee: “Entering information is almost too easy on the internet nowadays.

“At the same time technology facilitates the collection of creative ideas, it also dilutes the potential of cognitive and creative stimulation.”

This statement would not have TBWA\Hong Kong’s group creative director Sami Thessman’s vote. By collaborating with technology start-ups, the creative agency is now using what it calls data-driven creativity as a method to get ideas down in digits and mathematics.

This programmatic system is for making creative decisions based on data, Thessman explains.

“It kicks off with social listening to data from the internet before creative planning. That allows us to dive into consumers’ psyche and to learn how information is perceived. It hands agencies the power to influence clients’ briefs, where business problems are addressed.”

Data-collecting may help big companies such as TBWA\ generate big ideas to cater for the rapidly growing digital trend.

But KC Tsang, assistant professor at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University School of Design, brings the conversation onto a theological level by suggesting creativity is spurred by a theme that will never age – self-cultivation.

“In advertising, there’s no textbook to teach you how to think or no rule to follow to be creative.

“Creative people need to be indomitable, which is defined by experiential growth and personal development in your life.”

He stresses unique insights are developed from observation and contemplation.

“You won’t stay long in the creative business when you overvalue superficial layers, such as packaging, while overlooking the meaning within. You need to go deeper to reach into behavioural insights in order to add value to your works.”

After more than 20 years of juggling leading creative roles at Ogilvy & Mather Hong Kong and BBDO Hong Kong, to setting up his own business, Chan Tsang Wong Chu & Mee Advertising, the brain behind the most well-known ad classics in the past decade for brands such as Optical 88, HGC, Sunday, ING and Kowloon Motor Bus, persists that inspiration is a godsend.

“In most cases, good advertising always comes from a flash of inspiration out of thin air,” the Christian believes.

To KC Tsang, creativity lies in how people respond to ideas.

“The key is to well-equip ourselves to get ready when an idea hits. This is the reason why an enriching life experience is essential as it provides the ability to recognise and to translate ideas into something creative.

“They say opportunity comes to those who are prepared. This is an old cliché, but nothing could be truer.”

KC Tsang cut his teeth in the industry with great help of the famous local philosopher Tin-Ming Lee, who is known for his “impeccable way of logical thinking and precise semantic analysis”.

Taking advertising back to the basics, it keeps a tight grip on philosophy, he believes.

“Creativity is basically taking philosophical thinking backwards. The evolution from idea to creativity encouraged by critical thinking, and the ability to apply a philosophical and a logical mode of thinking.”