The Creative Business Coach: Posted on 12 August 2012 14:24
We eagerly awaited the London 2012 Olympics Opening Ceremony - masterminded by Film and Theatre Director Danny Boyle - and it did not disappoint!

The Closing Ceremony tonight promises to be just as awe-inspiring.  The hand-picked Creative Team has been drawn from Theatre, live television and international production, and is headed by Kim Gavin.

Stephen Daldry CBE, Executive Producer (Creative), has won innumerable Theatre awards in London’s  West End and on Broadway . His production of stage musical Billy Elliot won 10 Tony Awards on Broadway, after an acclaimed London run.
 
Mark Fisher, (Production Design), designs the most amazing live entertainment events, including Cirque du Soleil’s scenery and acrobatic effects for their productions at the MGM Grand, Las Vegas.   His credits also include the Beijing Olympic games opening and closing ceremonies (2008), and numerous spectacular big-name rock concerts.  He has long been a recognised expert in the field of stage lighting and live performance design. 

Mark says “I never had any vision (for my future) beyond wanting to have a fulfilling creative life. Working in entertainment has allowed me to pursue my design interests and have a lot of fun.”  (source: tpimagazine.com).

Hamish Hamilton  (Broadcast)  is a highly accredited live television director, brought in to make sure that the creative ideas for the ceremony are designed to work on television.
 
Catherine Ugwu (Production) has been a consultant for some of the world’s largest international arts festivals and high-calibre public events.

(Sources of this information and photograph include the official London 2012.com website)
With such a massive undertaking, the success lies in putting together the right team each playing to their strengths, but dovetailing together to produce a whole.   We can learn a lot from this about running a creative business, or putting together a creative project for our business. 
 

For more information, see my earlier blog on creative business lessons to be learned from the London 2012 Olympics Opening Ceremony, part 1 and part 2.

Creative Business Consultant: Posted on 08 August 2012 12:22

Give them a taster -  the ‘Pringle’ effect
 
As mentioned elsewhere on this site, the internet has ‘moved the free line’ – customers are able to find more free information than ever before, so this has raised expectation.  Prospects now need to have an average of 10 interactions with a business before buying from you.  They have to ‘knowy ou, like you, trust you’ ... and only then buy from you.  So, find something which is low cost to create but represents high quality and value to the customer, and give it away. This can be a free sample, or information - tips, tricks and resources relevant to your business and something your customer needs and will appreciate.  They will remember you when they are ready to buy.   In exchange for the free information, you can collect details of prospective customers – their name and email address at minimum.   This is the beginning of your customer list which can then be used to offer further products and services later.
 
Theatricality – not drama!
 
Be theatrical in your creative business, be dynamic, be attractive to your customers ... but remove the ‘drama’ from the purchase process, and make it as smooth and easy as possible for the customer to buy from you.   Make sure your ‘customer service’ supports the whole process every step of the way, including ‘after sales’.
 
Work as a team
 
The Olympic opening ceremony was an incredible exercise in team work.   Despite most of the 10,000 volunteers being untrained, they attended 100’s of rehearsals to learn to movese amlessly in unison.  Apparently the show Directors used specialists in ‘crowd movement’ to organise the movements of all those people with mathematical precision – resulting in the smooth flow of the action witnessed on the night.
 
All elements of your business should work together.  Marketing should dovetail with production - if you can’t produce the item the marketing department directs customers to, the customer will soon go elsewhere.  If customers are flooding to a special offer but the sales department is not staffed well enough to handle all the sales, the same will happen.  All this applies even if *you alone* are the production team, the marketing and the customer service department all rolled into one!
 
Leave happiness in your wake
 
The 80,000-strong stadium audience left the opening ceremony on a ‘high’ after the amazing spectacle they witnessed, and audiences around the world endlessly discussed it with friends and colleagues the following day.   A business needs to go the ‘extra mile’ to delight their customers nowadays, and keep them coming back for more.   It is 5 times less expensive to sell to a current customer than to find a new one.  So nurture your customers consistently, and keep them coming back for more. 
 
Depending on the type of business, you could follow up a month or so after a purchase to find out how things are going, or offer them an upgrade or complimentary product which would dovetail with what they have bought.  Many businesses even go so far as to send customers a birthday card – this is an especially good idea if your business offers something to do with ‘life events’ e.g. birthdays, anniversaries, weddings,  event management,  gift supplier,  and so on.

Posted on 08 August 2012 11:44
 
What the Olympics Opening Ceremony can teach us - creative tips for running a business
 
With the superbly theatrical spectacle of the 2012 London Olympics Opening Ceremony behind us,  time to reflect on some parallels with running a creative business.
 
 
Create expectation
 
The build-up to the event was phenomenal.  For weeks beforehand we heard  how Danny Boyle – with his film and live theatre background  - was likely to produce some incredible surprises,  and we were not disappointed.   A buzz was created about the event in advance which led to high expectations and excitement.  I’m not a fan of sports at all, but I couldn’t wait to see the opening ceremony after everything I had heard. 
 
But ‘everything’ wasn’t very much – just a tiny, tantalising detail here and there, without giving the game away at all.   We were told that all 10,000 participants (and 100,000 people viewing rehearsals) had been asked to ‘keep the secret’ – and they did.  Quite remarkable in this ‘tell–all’ age … but I digress.
 
The point is that as small businesses we need to create a buzz of excitement about our products and services.  If you are launching something new, ‘drip-feed’  titbits of information about it in tiny chunks, beginning a few weeks beforehand – not so long ahead of time that everyone forgets about it in between, but just long enough to create anticipation. 
 
For example, you might be writing an e-book incorporating your knowledge.   Send your customer list an email or text to tell them about the writing process, the expected publication date and the type of information they will be able to learn from the book.   A while later you may want to give away sample paragraphs or a chapter, to whet the appetite.
 
If you are bringing out a new line of clothing,  tell customers little bits of information about the design process,  the preparations for the launch party, or a ‘behind the scenes’ preview of what will happen at the launch. 
 
In this way, customers (or prospective customers on your list – you do have a customer list don’t you?) will be eagerly anticipating the event and will be primed to buy when the time comes.
 
Tell a story
 
One of the best aspects of the Opening Ceremony was the very clever way in which Boyle interwove aspects of British History, to tell a story in a very visual way.  

Kenneth Brannagh(playing industrialist Brunel) read from Shakespeare’s ‘The Tempest’ over music evoking the industrial revolution, and actors dressed as characters from The Beatles’  ‘Sargeant Pepper’ marched past, mingled with the sight of a model ship representing the Windrush bringing the first Jamaican immigrants to Britain.  

Dozens of  Mary Poppins characters were flown in to vanquish evil doers from British childrens’ literature,  alongside a ‘Peter Pan’ based tribute to the NHS service formed in the UK after the second world war, and the delighted audience lapped it all up.  

People love stories.  Tell your customers the story of your business, how it came to be, what made you decide to come up with the new product or service you are about to launch soon.  Make them feel involved.