Creativity Comes from Everywhere

A few weeks ago, a rumor started circulating that a rep from Goodby, Silverstein & Partners would be coming to speak to a group of San Jose State University students. My first thought: Someone has been taking one too many happy pills. Flash forward a few weeks (and a few more rumors) and I'm sitting in a lecture hall with 80 other students listening to John Coyne, Worldwide Group Director for HP at Goodby.

I'm going to spare you the joyful expletives that filled my mind when John first stepped foot into the room - but lets just say that despite working with Goodby for 10 years, he still has the approachability of Joe Six-Pack.

The message of the day: Creativity Comes from Everywhere

John started his presentation with a brief background of Goodby, here's the Cliff Notes version:

• GSP has been around since 1983 (Sadly, I'm older than them)
• Currently employs a smidge over 500 employees
• Client list . . . well their client list is like Oscar role call (Sprint, CA Fluid Milk Processors, and Hewlett-Packard to name a few)
• GSP has experienced tremendous growth in the past two years in web/interactive campaigns (yes, traditional campaigns are still in play, but they no longer make up the majority of GSP puts out)

John continued with his message by presenting case studies from three clients

1. Haagen-Dazs: "Help the honey Bee's"
   
2. NBA: "There can only be one"
   
3. Wii Wario Land: "Shake It!"

The work:
Haagen-Dazs: "Help the Honey Bee's"











The beauty of this campaign isn't in its execution (though it is quite beautiful) it's that the idea originated from a Media Planner who after reading an article about the disappearance of honey bee's, began working with creatives at GSP that eventually led to the campaign as you see it today.


NBA: "There Can Only Be One"



Check out other "match-ups" here

Again, rather than coming from the expected source, this idea originated from a Media Strategist at GSP who understood how to use RSS feeds from the NBA homepage which allowed GSP to pair players from teams who were playing against each other that day (Warning: I could have screwed this up, I tried to get my head around it - really did).


Wii - Wario Land: "Shake It!"

Just go here


This approach by GSP emphasized the importance of approaching creativity from different angles - in particular, how to collaborate with media vendors (like Youtube).

Special thanks to Professor Tim Mitchell for inviting John Coyne to speak with the students at SJSU - Best presenter we've had at the school in the three years I've been here.