Sparking Our Creativity in public relations

Holyrood PR Blog

Constant learning helps the Holyrood PR team to keep coming up with clever ideas for our PR clients

lightbulbedit-to-useQUIZZICAL members of the Holyrood team attended a creativity workshop by innovative thinking expert Andy Green on the Scottish leg of his tour.

Andy regularly delivers events to organisations and individuals all over the world, for Microsoft in Seattle, and eBay in Paris; and has appeared on BBC, ITV, Sky News and in international media.

He is also a best selling author, with his book, Creativity in Public Relations now translated into 7 languages, which he juggles with his role as partner with GREEN Communications, as an associate with Working Word Communications and as the founder of the Flexible Thinking Forum.

When CIPR Scotland announced that Andy was to hold a workshop in Edinburgh we all jumped at the chance!  With most of the PR industry focused in the South East, it is brilliant that Scottish practitioners got the chance to experience such an event in Edinburgh from someone as esteemed and respected in the field as Andy.

In the PR industry, no matter the speciality of the agency, it is key that we make use of creative and flexible thinking to stay ahead of the field and to produce great results for our clients, all within an ever changing, more competitive environment.

Our session was delivered with the use of visual aids, including a slinky toy, various practical tasks, and collaborative thinking with a team spanning all areas of PR, from third sector to governmental communications.

PR Photography that shows creative Edinburgh PR Agency

Without giving too much away for future attendees, Andy began by challenging the phrase, ‘thinking outside the box’, introduced us to the concept of aptly named ‘idea poo’, and red and green thinking, and coordinated a PR surgery which sought to provide us with solutions to real life challenges.

The team also found themselves acting out PR’s answer to the YMCA – the information, incubation, illuminations, integration and illustration dance which represents the various stages of ideas!

Personally, I found the session extremely useful, and I looked forward to utilising Andy’s techniques back in the office.  I particularly loved his concept of thinking of the most absurd, inconceivable campaign ideas and then taking them to a more viable idea through team discussion.

Additionally, channelling another individual when generating new ideas was a helpful tool that Andy introduced.  For example, we were asked to think of a famous creative individual and consider what they would do in a certain situation.  I chose Damien Hirst, although probably not a great example as he would want to immerse the idea in formaldehyde or cover it in diamonds!

Andy’s training session was delivered ahead of the launch of the highly anticipated CIPR Innovation and Creativity Toolkit, which aims to improve our resourcefulness and helps us respond to our challenges more effectively.

You can follow Andy on Twitter at andygreencre8iv or visit his website: http://www.andygreencreativity.com/

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