Learnings from Brandon Thornton

      This week I had the opportunity of hearing Brandon Thornton speak twice about two different topics. I really enjoyed both of this presentations because he did a great job getting his message across while also using cool visual aids to further justify what he was saying. Thornton seems like a very down-to-earth and straight forward person. I respected how Thornton shared his background with us and the journey he took to find his true passions in life. I think its common for successful professionals in the corporate world to expect young students to know exactly what they wan to do with their life after graduation. But the reality is, when most of us graduate, we won't know what we want to do. Thornton is a great example of this. It took him a long time for Thornton to make it to the top, but he explained that he learned a lot from his previous work experiences and they truly helped prepare him for the position he has now. It was inspiring to hear from a young professional that your life doesn't have to already be decided when you graduate. Thornton instead gave the advice of always having a voice; if you don’t have a voice you cannot make an impact. And to always do things in your own way and know what you stand for. I thought that this was great advice for a senior in college trying to figure out what to do with their life.

Thornton also gave great advice about developing a creative brief and offered a new way of looking at the process. He said that the first and most important thing to do is identify the problem, because having a clear and compelling problem beasts most insights. He calls this the "human insights approach." Thornton says that instead of trying to identify positive aspects of the brand/product, you should instead work to find a solution to the problem because this will inspire the creative team more. I thought that was a very different, yet helpful way of looking at the creative brief process. He is saying that to be inspired you need to have a clear problem so you can strategize to find the most compelling solution.

A great example of this is Procter and Gamble's (P&G) sponsorship of the Olympic games. What does a consumer goods company have to do with athletes? The main issue for P&G was to figure out how to connect with the audience watching the Olympic games. Figuring out a solution to this problem fueled the creative team to formulate an amazing strategy. The commonality they found was Moms. Mom's raise kids who turn into Olympic athletes, and they need help from P&G's commodity products to assist them. This ad did a great job emotionally connecting the P&G brand with consumers.They were able to do this by first identifying the main problem that  P&G was facing.

I admired Thornton for giving a real and honest presentation. He gave us great real word advice while also giving us advice that we can use for our creative briefs.