Last updated on Jul 6, 2024

Your marketing team is lacking creativity and innovation. How can you inspire them to think outside the box?

In the fast-paced world of marketing, creativity and innovation are not just buzzwords; they're essential ingredients for success. Your marketing team's ability to think outside the box can be the difference between blending in and standing out. However, if your team is stuck in a creative rut, it's your job to reignite that spark of innovation. Let's explore how you can inspire your team to push boundaries and breathe fresh life into your marketing strategies.

1 Cultivate Curiosity

Encourage your marketing team to cultivate curiosity by exploring industries unrelated to your own or by learning about emerging trends that could influence consumer behavior. This broadens their perspective and allows them to draw inspiration from a diverse range of sources. By fostering an environment where asking 'why' or 'what if' is the norm, you help your team break free from conventional thinking and consider new possibilities.

Add your perspective

Meri Wiik

🥇LinkedIn Top Voice 💖 Essity & Tork 🧻 Making toilet paper & periods engaging | Employer Generated Content, Branding & Female Health | Deputy Board Chair, Norwegian Endometriosis Association | Awarded SoMe Marketer
(edited)
Report contribution
When I host, creative workshops, I get the best feedback when the presentation and topic is completely unexpected. When I spoke about artificial intelligence with our sales team, I combined it with a story about bees and beekeeping (we sell toilet paper, soap and hand towels). This was to prove that if even something perhaps boring as beekeeping can be made interesting, anything can be made interesting by applying the right mindset and starting to use the right tools. The point to this example is exactly fostering curiosity. By showing new ways of solving tasks, people tend to be inspired and see new opportunities in their work or way of working. Exactly this happened afterwards.

Like

Unhelpful

2 Diverse Collaboration

Bringing together individuals from different backgrounds and departments can lead to a cross-pollination of ideas that might not occur in a homogeneous group. Encourage your marketing team to collaborate with the product development team, customer service representatives, or even external partners. This diversity of thought can spark creative solutions that resonate more deeply with your audience.

Add your perspective

Meri Wiik

🥇LinkedIn Top Voice 💖 Essity & Tork 🧻 Making toilet paper & periods engaging | Employer Generated Content, Branding & Female Health | Deputy Board Chair, Norwegian Endometriosis Association | Awarded SoMe Marketer
Report contribution
It’s funny how cross pollination is used in the AI written piece above. Before I read that, I wrote about beekeeping in the previous section about sparking curiosity. What a coincidence! I could not agree more with the cross pollination way of thinking. Many times both problem-solving and creative ideas really spark cross functional teams get together. Sometimes it can be worth having a hack on with no specific agenda where people are just allowed to look at whatever challenge they want and discuss it from their different points of view.

Like

Unhelpful

3 Creative Workshops

Organize creative workshops or brainstorming sessions that are designed to be fun and engaging. Use techniques like mind mapping or SCAMPER (Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Modify, Put to another use, Eliminate, and Reverse) to help your team approach problems from different angles. By creating a playful atmosphere, you reduce the fear of failure and encourage your team to think more freely and innovatively.

Add your perspective

4 Embrace Failure

To foster a culture of innovation, you must embrace failure as a stepping stone to success. Encourage your team to take calculated risks and assure them that setbacks are a natural part of the creative process. By removing the stigma associated with failure, you empower your team to experiment boldly and learn from their experiences, which is essential for innovation.

Add your perspective

Meri Wiik

🥇LinkedIn Top Voice 💖 Essity & Tork 🧻 Making toilet paper & periods engaging | Employer Generated Content, Branding & Female Health | Deputy Board Chair, Norwegian Endometriosis Association | Awarded SoMe Marketer
Report contribution
I love the saying “no risk no fun” as it’s true in so many ways. Everything you do is overly calculated it becomes an environment where creative by ideas go to die. That might sound a little bit dramatic, but it is also true. Creative minds and creative teams work the best when they are allowed some freedom within a certain limit.

Like

Unhelpful
Fabio Tadeu Ferreira

Diretor SENAI Paulínia e Jaguariúna | Top Voice em Criatividade, Inovação, Inteligência Emocional e Relacionamento com o Cliente
Report contribution
Em qualquer projeto no trabalho, é fundamental que a equipe seja criativa e apresente ideias inovadoras para melhorar os resultados. No entanto, para que o time aja dessa forma, é essencial que a liderança esteja ao lado, mesmo quando as ideias propostas não derem certo. A liberdade para assumir riscos inspira a criatividade, fazendo com que o pensamento fora da caixa se torne parte da cultura da empresa. Em uma organização inovadora, a liderança confia e oferece suporte à equipe, independentemente do resultado. Quer um time criativo? Apoie-o incondicionalmente.

Translated

Like

Unhelpful

5 Continuous Learning

Invest in the continuous learning and development of your marketing team. Provide access to courses, workshops, and seminars that focus on creative thinking and innovation. By staying updated on the latest marketing techniques and tools, your team will be better equipped to come up with original ideas and solutions that keep your campaigns ahead of the curve.

Add your perspective

6 Real-World Inspiration

Sometimes, the best way to inspire creativity is to step away from the office. Arrange field trips to art exhibitions, tech fairs, or other cultural events. Exposure to different environments and experiences can stimulate new ideas and perspectives that can be translated into innovative marketing strategies. Remember, creativity often strikes when you least expect it, so give your team the opportunity to find inspiration in the world around them.

Add your perspective

7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?

Add your perspective

Your marketing team is lacking creativity and innovation. How can you inspire them to think outside the box?

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

1 Cultivate Curiosity

2 Diverse Collaboration

3 Creative Workshops

4 Embrace Failure

5 Continuous Learning

6 Real-World Inspiration

7 Here’s what else to consider

Creativity Skills

Rate this article

Thanks for your feedback

More articles on Creativity Skills

More relevant reading

Your marketing team is lacking creativity and innovation. How can you inspire them to think outside the box?

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

1 Cultivate Curiosity

2 Diverse Collaboration

3 Creative Workshops

4 Embrace Failure

5 Continuous Learning

6 Real-World Inspiration

7 Here’s what else to consider

Creativity Skills

Rate this article

Thanks for your feedback

Explore Other Skills