Creative thinking allows MCI to come up with fresh ideas that solve the audience’s problems in entirely new ways and nurture increased interest in a brand through engaged communities that integrate diversity, and through activations.
Creative thinking is about taking the mundane, the ordinary and the expected and transforming it into something extraordinary. It is about activating the experience for both consumers and the brand itself. It is about cultivating a sense of connection with the audience and helping them to feel represented and understood. As a result, creative thinking leads to higher levels of engagement.
How does creative thinking power engagement?
A critical component of successful community building and audience activation, creative thinking encompasses both strategic and intelligent thinking in order to create powerful and impactful marketing solutions and innovative ways to engage audiences. These can include interactive content,
interactive experiences and activations, and even audience-led solutions.
Creative thinking is all about challenging normal and common assumptions, and coming up with fresh, unique ideas that solve the audience’s problems in entirely new ways and nurture increased interest in a brand or product.
Creative thinking helps to create memorable experiences, and tell compelling stories that inspire, captivate and make an emotional connection. No matter what the sector or industry, creative thinking can provide the solutions needed to increase engagement and promote success.
Building engaged communities
Building engaged communities is an essential facet of any successful marketing strategy that aims to develop a real connection between brand and consumer.
Identifying, targeting and attracting the attention of the right audience allows businesses to then use strategic intelligence to develop, build and activate a sense of community. This can involve activating existing networks through events, setting up loyalty programs, or providing a platform for customer-generated content.
Whatever the approach, the aim should always be to start a conversation that brings your brand to life, driving engagement by making sure customers are at the heart of the brand's activities.
Data-mining will then reveal new intelligence, uncovering customer insights that facilitate the creation of content and activations that resonate with your audience, and engage your community through interactive social media channels.
Creative engagement tactics can result in increased customer loyalty, brand advocates, larger reach, reduced customer attrition and potentially increased profit. It forges strong communities, while simultaneously acknowledging individuals.
All these elements come together to create an engaged and energised community that has a deeper connection to the brand.
Integrating diversity and inclusion
Diversity and inclusion are key components of successful engagement, marketing and community building strategies. Everyone wants to be seen as an individual and by focusing on diversity and inclusion, we can bring together like-minded people, ensure everyone’s voice is heard and build something that’s bigger than the sum of its parts.
At MCI, we incorporate creative thinking into our strategies and campaigns to connect with audiences in a way that is meaningful.
Activations are a great opportunity to create environments of inclusion and positive change where participation is actively encouraged and leads to unique experiences that bring together multiple perspectives.
It’s essential that we use our creativity to tap into the collective intelligence of different communities to foster enhanced, deeper engagement and to empower everyone to make their voices heard.
Creative interaction with audiences
Creative thinking is essential for conceptualising activations that spark curiosity and foster an emotional connection with the content being viewed or the brand being engaged with.
Activations are a great way to build relationships with audiences and create a community where trust is pervasive. Interactions with audiences can include activities such as immersive media content, clever product/service launches, and unique customer experiences that can be further exploited
in marketing campaigns.
Activations also allow brands to gain a better understanding of their target audience: what encourages them to take action and engage with a brand or product is a critical component of effective and successful strategic planning. Creative activations have been proved to encourage active engagement and loyalty among audiences.
Applying creative thinking to drive engagement
Creative thinking unlocks diverse opportunities that can propel a brand’s engagement figures and create positive results. Brainstorming with a strategic mindset can help build relationships with your target audiences and create campaigns that effectively trigger participation, while the creative mining of data will reveal what is important to the audience and ways to deliver it that resonate.
Creative thinking reveals engaging solutions that captivate audiences, content ideas that hit just the right note, ways to spark meaningful conversations, and concepts for unique experiences with unique messages. Through innovation, creativity and strategic thinking, successful marketers can raise engagement with the right target audience and achieve their goals.
Creative thinking is an integral part of marketing initiatives. It is a powerful tool for building communities and fostering engagement with audiences. It is a form of intelligence that allows users to create strategic plans to actively engage the target market. And of course, without creative thinking, businesses cannot create great marketing campaigns and won’t reach their maximum potential.
Find out how at MCI we leverage creative thinking for live and virtual events, strategic and digital communications, and build communities for exponential growth in your engagement rates.
Sylvia André - Chief Creativity Officer, mci group
