CREATIVITY: a mental process involving the generation of new ideas or concepts, or new associations between existing ideas or concepts

How do you express yourself creatively? Most of us are creative every day whether we are solving a small problem, or challenged to come up with that genius idea that the client will love!

PHD TORONTO celebrated pioneering, innovation, and of course fun, last week during our annual Creativity Week. We kicked off the week with an all staff breakfast announcing the upcoming events.

First up, a PHD theme song! The company was divided into small groups to compose their song and perform it in front of everyone at the close of the week. The groups came up with some really great songs about what PHD is all about!

Groups were also encouraged to venture out into the city and take photos in a creative setting. With the incentive to get out of the office, PHD’ers took on this challenge and the results once again displayed PHD’s pioneering and creative spirit.

Throughout the week, PHD’s ‘creative corner’ was set up with all sorts of craft supplies, with everything from colouring books to window paints. All works of art were displayed in our Creative Gallery on Friday.

Lastly, PHD’s “secret project” was something our own Brenda Bookbinder came up with – 30 little canvases were handed out with a piece of a picture attached to it. PHD’ers had to replicate the small picture on the canvass. At the end of the week, all the canvases were pieced together like a giant puzzle to reveal a big portrait of our president, Fred Forster!

Creativity Week at PHD turned out to be a great success with lots of participation, creation, and inspiration from the entire company. We hope you are inspired to be creative and possess a pioneering spirit every day.

Are you being creative today?

If you haven’t yet subscribed to (or even heard of) the Very Short List  … today could be your lucky day. VSL is a concise daily e-mail that brings you the latest culturally significant developments across a myriad of media … from music, to movies, to books, to web sites, etc.

Powered by ask.com, I personally welcome the interruption that I get when this handy little newsletter hits my inbox. Each day the content focus is on a particular piece of culture that typically makes me take notice.  Everything is laid out in a very succinct manner that let’s you quickly ascertain whether the subject matter is of interest, so even on days when it doesn’t twist your crank, the VSL never demands much of your time.

I strongly urge you to take a few minutes to subscribe. If you don’t find you’re getting the benefit after even just a few days, I will gladly refund every penny that you spend … oh and by the way … it’s free!

Hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Sustainable advertising is definitely a hot topic.  You know when TIME magazine changes their red border for only the second time in history (8 decades!) to green that a new GLOBAL initiative has reached a new level of importance.  http://partisanreport.com/blog/?p=722

PHD Sustain seeks to work with suppliers that can be partners in our initiative to guide our clients in being committed to sustainable advertising.  Today, a timely news alert from Astral Media:

Biodegradable OOH ad vinyl arrives in Canada

by Terry Poulton (from Media in Canada)

Yesterday, as a big part of the company’s commitment to sustainable solutions, Astral Media Outdoor announced it is bringing the first biodegradable outdoor advertising vinyl to Canada.

AMO has just begun offering BIOflex vinyl - which disintegrates completely within five years and leaves no hazardous byproduct behind - to green-minded advertisers.

“Businesses across Canada are integrating sustainability into their corporate cultures and looking for ways to walk the walk,” says AMO president Luc Sabbatini. “BIOflex provides our customers with a way to extend this commitment to sustainable advertising as well.”

He adds that the biodegradable vinyl performs in every way like traditional vinyl. It is of similar weight to standard vinyl, and can be welded, installed and stretched like any other vinyl product. It’s also reusable for multiple advertising campaigns.

www.astralmediaoutdoor.com

If biodegradable vinyl doesn’t get you excited than maybe this “environmental rock” song will: 

http://youtube.com/watch?v=XcqQOGKGF4g

A round watermelon can take up a lot of room in a refrigerator and the usually round fruit often sits awkwardly on fridge shelves.  Smart Japanese Farmers have forced their watermelons to grow into a square shape by inserting the melons into square, tempered glass cases while the fruit is still growing on the vine.

Since today is picture day, think about how you can view things differently…

You…

…have a good day!

If you know who coined this phrase, write it in the comments.

We couldn’t have asked for a better day like Earth Day to launch Canada’s PHD Sustain initiative. 

  Taking Care of our PHD Village

In an effort to reduce our waste & benefit our environment, the following changes are already making a difference in the office:

· Milk & cream 1 litre bottles replaced their tiny plastic versions

· People have added reminders on their email signature “Please consider the environment before printing…etc.

· A switch to more discussion & 1 pager handouts vs large presentation decks

· Printing on both sides of the paper

· Recycling

· Limiting how many media kits are received from sales reps

· Correcting & updating address-lists so we don’t end up with an overflow of Media Week & Marketing Magazines

· Using the revolving door to go outside

· Asking about recycled paper when planning a flyer or DM piece

· Using “angels-advocate” at the office as a way to improve our team morale

· Calling your sales rep when an unnecessary polybag arrives

What else have you noticed?

What changes have you started to make in your home life or your office life?

                                       You got that right Freddy Mercury!

With the spring already here and summer just around the corner, I’m sure most of you have been enjoying the great weather and getting out for some fresh air.  PHD has even initiated a twice weekly walking club to help people get some

As most of you know, each year PHD is involved with the , which is an opportunity to raise money to help combat heart disease and stroke through riding your bicycle down the DVP and Gardiner Expressway.  Already there are a number of people who have signed up for the event, but there is still room for more on Team PHD. 

If riding a bike “just isn’t your thing”, don’t fret, there’s also an inline skating option.

Rollerbladers will have the opportunity to skate around a specified course (separate from the cycling route), in varying lengths (also different from cycling).

Registration ends soon, so please contact me to be a part of an amazing experience you won’t regret!

This morning, Canadian Living co-hosted, with Brandspark a breakfast presentation on food trends and Canadian consumers.  The purpose being to find out what Canadians think and feel about food.  Topics ranged from shopping & eating habits, to who does the cooking and what food trend products are top of mind to Canadian consumers. 

If you’d like to know what "ah-ha’s" came out of this research, contact your Canadian Living rep for more information. 

Or you can turn to Saturday Night Live, they always have an interesting spin on new products in the market!

http://www.nbc.com/Saturday_Night_Live/video/play.shtml?mea=239693

I know what you’re thinking. ‘Gossip Girl’? Really? Well, whether or not you’re a fan of the show, ‘Gossip Girl’ might just be at the forefront of the changing TV model – a model involving everything but a television.

‘Gossip Girl’ launched in September 2007 with mediocre ratings compared to those of teen dramas past. New episodes averaged just 526,000 viewers in Canada during the fall of 2007, and 2.5 million viewers in the U.S.

What was different then about ‘Gossip Girl’ - were people not as interested? It turns out they were indeed watching, just not as much on TV. ‘Gossip Girl’ was the number one streamed show on CTV.ca during the fall of 2007 and quickly rose to the top of iTunes’ most downloaded list. The show was tapping into a younger, tech savvy audience who didn’t need to make sure they were planted in front of the television at a certain hour – they were in control of when and where they watched the show.

In this month’s issue of New York Magazine, they speak about ‘Gossip Girl’ as changing the way in which we watch television. They describe the show as one, “…that may foretell a future of multiplatform entertainment whose success is determined not by traditional ratings but by what Schwartz and co–executive producer Stephanie Savage call “cultural permeation”.

Fans of the show can posts blogs online and speculate about characters and storylines. They can find out where to purchase the clothing or accessories seen in the show. There is even a ‘Gossip Girl’ component in Second Life. The show lives online and so do its viewers.

‘Gossip Girl’ is by no means the first TV program to experience online success. What separates this show from others, however, is its younger audience who already have the tools necessary to easily interact in an online environment. ‘Gossip Girl’ can capitalize on their viewers’ “tech knowledge”, enabling the program and the brand to expand quicker online than a show aimed at an older generation. 

‘Gossip Girl’ has started a conversation with its audience and the viewer doesn’t even need to turn on the television. The challenge to advertisers now is that the viewer is getting more out of this conversation than they did before and may refuse to settle for anything less. If viewers continue to interact with TV programming in this way, does the future of the TV model even include the TV?

Media can be reactive & timely.  These pictures were taken last Friday when the potential TTC strike was announced.  Despite the profanity, I love these simple installations.   A bike + sign + right location = comment.  Persuasive or not the communication delivery is there.     

Today is the first day of Creativity week, and we would like everyone to be involved. We started creativity week with a wonderful breakfast and some inspiring words from Fred, Tanner and Brenda and the rest of the creativity team. Today is based on inspiration. What inspires you? Is there any piece of art that inspires you? Or maybe it is a famous quote that inspires you to be creative. Let us know what inspires you to be creative. Perhaps you can inspire others in the office with your own piece of art work that you created at our very own creative corner.