How to find the ordinary extraordinaryMegan Averell / @Meggatron

ordinary

ordinarynot unusual, different, or specialadj.

ȯr-də-ˌner-ē

extraordinaryvery unusual or remarkableadj.

ik-strawr-dn-er-ee

extraordinaryvery unusual or remarkableadj.

ik-strawr-dn-er-ee

ordinarynot unusual, different, or specialadj.

uninteresting

typical

offputting

forgettable

interesting

rare

engaging

stands out

ȯr-də-ˌner-ē

very unusual or remarkableadj.

ordinaryextraik-strawr-dn-er-ee

extraordinary

interesting!

engaging

extremeextra

excise

excise

people

planners

extreme

fantasyreality

>

extra

the greatesttroublewithextraordinary

interesting

engaging

interesting

engagingOR

engaging

relevance

minutes10.5Bper day

ordinary truths

there isn’t any such thing as an ordinary life

“ “-- L.M. Montgomery

that’s amazing!>that’s me!

extraordinaryvery unusual or remarkableadj.

ik-strawr-dn-er-ee

ordinarynot unusual, different, or specialadj.

uninteresting

typical

offputting

forgettable

interesting

rare

engaging

stands out

ȯr-də-ˌner-ē

ordinary

engaging

It’s an idea based on truth that will move consumers

“ “-- Omar Johnson, CEO, Beats

It’s all real; we don’t make this stuff up. We don’t do crazy metaphorical stuff to seduce, it’s real

““

-- Omar Johnson, CEO, Beats

marketing used to be about creating a myth and telling it, now it’s about finding a truth and sharing it

““

-- Marc Mathieu, Unilever

bring the ordinary back

how to

find the

1wonder andjoy in theordinary

21

representwhat is infront of you

I just happen to like ordinary things. When I paint them, I don’t try to make them extraordinary. I just try to paint them ordinary-ordinary

““

-- Andy Warhol

31

don’t be fancy andclever

The real art is not to come up with extraordinary clever words but to make ordinary simple words do extra-ordinary things. To use the language we all use and make extraordinary things occur

““

-- Graham Swift

41

stop beinglazy withshorthand

For when we succumb to this stylized, board-game view of the people whose actions we are trying to understand and report on, we cheat our readers and our viewers, offering them a version of reality forced to fit a formula that may have little to no bearing on what is actually going on

““

-- Meg Greenfield

I, along with my colleagues, had let myself get pretty smug and incurious in my approach to the people we were writing about… (if we) start trying to get to the story to justify our assumptions or conclude that we don’t need to ask or look or even wonder, because we’re smart and we already know, we have walked off the job

““

-- Meg Greenfield

truth. nothing’sfaster.

51

be abetter

“noticer”

WWDADOS?

61

keep youreyes onthe prize

You’re all smart, but you get too wrapped up in a cool idea and lose sight of the strategy

“ “-- Anonymous client to their agency

A

CB

what did we set out to do in the first place?

does this simply do it in a way people will recognize?

if not, why are we doing it?

*REMEMBER: “because it’s interesting” isn’t good enough

The job is hard enough.

There’s no need to make it harder by trying to do even more.

Little minds are interested in the extraordinary, great minds in the commonplace

““

-- Elbert Hubbard

truthrelevance

ordinary

engagement

find theordinary

how to

extraordinary Megan Averell, @Meggatronwww.theinsightinn.com

FIND theordinary

how to

extraordinary exercise:

• Social media

• Google search

• Focus groups

• Intercept interviews

• Demographic profiles

• Customer data

Each group works for 30 minute on one topic

Last 15 minutes, each group reports out to room

How could we potentially use these

input methods differently in order to

better discover and recognize the

ordinary?