Creativity - the new Holy Grail of the corporate world

Exclusive video: Architect-turned-advertiser Joe Howard on creativity, inspiration and Israel - "the home of the world's biggest idea."

By LEADEL.NET
Joe Howard 311 (photo credit: leadel.net)
Joe Howard 311
(photo credit: leadel.net)
Joe Howard, a professional archeologist, dug his way through the advertising world only to gain some very interesting insights regarding how it works or should one say how to work it.  
After spending two and a half years in “Golani," one of the IDF’s top infantry units, Joe Howard went back to study in London and begin building his career. Though he started off in archeology he quickly found that the tempo too slow, and started seeking other career opportunities where he could still  "think like an archeologist."
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Advertising was the perfect fit, as according to Howard "an advertising person thinks very similar to archeologist." So he crossed the line into the corporate world, accepting a job at the top advertising agency “Saatchi and Saatchi." There he found his passion “creativity” and took on the mission to help develop creative thinking around the world.
However, Howard quickly realized that advertising was very different than he had imagined. “I thought I was an expert because I worked for one of the worlds most famous advertising agencies, I knew nothing."
It was only when he went to the theater one night, that he realized that "If we want to know how to change people emotionally then the theater is the place to look. These people have secrets that we need to know. They've knows for thousands of years how do what we think we know how to do."
So Howard went to study theater, not just to learn how to write advertising "scripts" but more importantly to  understand " what we are trying to do to the consumer." In advertising "we are trying to change the consumer, and nobody likes to be changes by others" - through theater Howard learned tricks to go under the radar and change the consumer.


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