Brainstorming 101-- An All Witch Orchestra?

In this imaginative episode of The Briefcase, Ric Tyler and Social Media/Digital Specialist Mark Parent unpacks a creative technique called Brainstorming 101. The heart of Brainstorming 101 lies in bypassing traditional product benefits and instead asking questions that generate real stories about the product’s context. As Mark explains, it’s not about laundry detergent—it’s about memories of doing laundry (good and bad). Not about cleaning tools—but how those tools connect to lived experiences. This approach grounds creative ideas in human insight, making marketing more emotionally resonant and relevant.

 

You’ll learn:  

– Brainstorming 101: A practical, story-first creative approach to generating ad concepts.

– Storytelling in Marketing: How personal narratives deepen audience connection.

– Creativity from Everyday Life: How unexpected sources, like a child’s favorite movie, can spark standout ideas.

 

🎧 Listen now at https://sutherlandweston.com/briefcase/

 

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
It just comes down to individualstories, so with it, it
makes your product relevant.
This is the Briefcase from SutherlandWestern Marketing Communications.
Quick conversations from everydayobservations, delivering practical
marketing ideas you can carry with you.

(00:20):
I am Mark parents.
Social media and digital specialistshere at Sutherland Weston.
You've gone to many seminars inmany cities and you got to glean
information from a lot of people, andyou remember one that sent you to.
Nashville.
It was Nashville.
It's a country radio seminar.
Who'd you see?
A gentleman named Dick Orkin.
He was a big radio announcer andradio personality and voice actor.
Mm-hmm.
He invented Chicken Man.

(00:40):
For all of you folks who, who,remember that he had this great
process that they used to beable to, to write at that point.
Radio commercials.
Mm-hmm.
But it works for.
Everything.
What was the process called?
It's called Brainstorming 1 0 1.
How's it work?
It works by looking at allthe benefits, listing out what
the benefits of your product.
Let's go it as a product and thenjust put that aside and then come

(01:01):
up with a subject, say it's laundrydetergent, so the subject would be
washing clothes, laundry, and then youthrow the whole advertising world out
the window and you just ask questions.
Gimme a story about washingclothes, about laundry.
So you're taking away the ability ofshowcasing the standard features that you

(01:22):
would normally present about your product,and instead dig deeper, trying to find an
insight or some way that your product haschanged the world or the lives of people.
How am I doing so far?
Yeah, pretty good.
And it just comes downto individual stories.
So with it, it makesyour product relevant.
I had a client that I had to writefor, it was called The Cleaning Witch.

(01:45):
At that time, my son was veryyoung and his favorite movie
at that time was Fantasia.
And if you remember in Fantasia, thiswhole section where Mickey conducts
a bunch of SW swishing and yeah, he,the sorcerer's apprentice, he didn't
want to do the work and so he borrowedthe wand that he did, used the magic.
Right?
So.
I used that experience to, to comeup with the all witch orchestra.

(02:06):
The vacuum is the wind section.
The, uh, mops were the kind of thepercussion and the swish and mm-hmm.
And so we got the whole orchestraand I put it all to Mozart's
Inna Kleiner house music.
Instead of IA Klein NA music,a little A little night music.
Yes.
Change it to IA Klein house music,music, and it worked well because it

(02:27):
was based on something that was veryimaginative and I used that brainstorming
1 0 1 to make that leap from cleaninghouse to something that was visual,
even though it was a radio commercial.
Brainstorming 1 0 1 allows you to finda story in your product or your service
relatable to your customers, from whichyou can elicit an emotion from customers,

(02:48):
make a connection, and then make a sale.
You have been listening tothe Briefcase from Sutherland.
Westin Marketing Communications.
Got a question for theSutherland Westin team.
Email [e-mail].