BlogFonk

Creative Director Mario Pricken shows professionals all about creativity. Time for his Fonk for Thoughts.

Photo Mario Pricken: 'Follow your own path.'

BlogFonk: Who is Mario Pricken? And where are you from?
Pricken: Mario Pricken is 37, born in Vienna, Austria. I worked as a Creative Director for over 10 years and for the last 8 years. I've been concentrating on the phenomenon of creativity. Since 1996 I've been offering creativity training and special workshops for anyone who relies on good ideas day in, day out. As an author I publish specialist articles on a regular basis and I am currently working on my third book.

BlogFonk: Do you love your work? Why (not)?
Pricken: My job is to show professionals from the creative world how the subjective structures of their creativity are made up and how creative strategies can be useful in systematically boosting their creative performance. What could be more enjoyable? I am also planning to set up a new company over the coming year to supply the leisure and entertainment industry with high-quality ideas and concepts in hitherto unknown quantities. Ideas as mass-produced industrial goods generated by teams using the strategies and processes of top creatives to give themselves maximum creative freedom. I can hardly wait to get started.

BlogFonk: What is your book 'Creative Advertising' all about?
Pricken: For me, advertising is not an art form, but a creatively designed form of communication! Communication follows certain patterns and this is what makes it comprehensible. A lot of people think of it as a kind of black box in which something inexplicable occurs. Those who know the patterns and learn to use their structures properly will broaden their spectrum of ideas and dramatically increase their output. In 'Creative Advertising', I demonstrate in a playful way how we can increase our creativity by using simple thought strategies. This strikes many creatives as highly suspect and they prefer to carry on developing ideas in an intuitive and random way.

Whether people know how ideas are developed or not, the process is always based on certain patterns. The difference is that those who are familiar with these patterns can significantly expand their intuitive creativity through the addition of new possibilities and no longer have to rely on chance and intuition. 'Creative Advertising' has become a worldwide bestseller that has sold around 40,000 copies. I think this shows how great the desire is to take a look inside the magician's hat and demystify creativity a little.

BlogFonk: What are the latest important developments you've noticed in advertising?
Pricken: There are so many different developments taking place at the same time today that it has become almost impossible to discern any trends or main thrusts in advertising. This is exciting because it means the small people are no longer chasing after the big people and more opportunities exist for creative independence and freedom. At the same time, trends are becoming increasingly short-lived and it is becoming even more difficult for the consumer to decode all this information and ascribe a meaning to it. I'm already very excited about what the next step will be. To what lengths will advertisers have to go in order to penetrate people's hearts and minds? To what level must the degree of emotionality be turned up in order for advertising to make something happen? I think these are the main issues that will be facing the advertising industry in future.

BlogFonk: Is there difference in mentality of creatives in the countries you've worked?
Pricken: I think the way an individual thinks is coloured by his or her cultural, religious and political background. When forming a creative team, I therefore place great emphasis on bringing people together from the widest possible range of cultural backgrounds with the aim of making the resulting 'group brain' more colourful and varied. I now go a step further and deliberately bring people in from outside the industry because they aren't aware of the boundaries and restrictions and are able to cross borders with astonishing elegance!

BlogFonk: Which work for a client are you most proud of?
Pricken: Along with 15 programme developers from the company Endemol in Cologne (Germany) I developed 500 ideas for new TV formats and shows within the space of four days this spring. More than 30% of these ideas were highly promising and have been developed into concepts! Everyone was amazed by this enormous output of ideas...

BlogFonk: If you'd be given the chance to do something over again, what would that be?
Pricken: I'd like to have the chance to concentrate more - and at an earlier stage - on my musical education.

BlogFonk: Finally, what is your motto, your 'Fonk for Thoughts' (inspriration to be creative)?
Pricken: Education is far too important to be left to others! This attitude caused me a lot of problems at school, but it has become my job today. Follow your own path because this way you'll never run the risk of being overtaken by anyone.

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posted by BlogFonk: Monday, October 25, 2004 [#] Erms Suripatty