Wicked vs. Kind, a Tried-and-True Brainstorm Hack and Must-Read Brand Journalism

Well, hello there! (Trick) question for you: Do you prefer wicked or kind domains? Try your hand at the Word Wars to see why I’m asking. Then get a taste for my most favorite brainstorming technique and read my thoughts on brand journalism — plus top picks for who’s doing it oh-so-well.

Wicked vs. Kind

Find Out My Top Brainstorming Technique after a Decade+ of Leading Them

If you want great results out of your next brainstorm, try Bad Idea/Good Idea. It requires zero participant prep and puts people in a truly creative headspace. Best of all, you’ll be delightfully surprised that it leads to a high volume of specific, usable ideas. 

I’ve tried it for in-person, hybrid and 100% remote brainstorms. As with most brainstorms, it’s most effective (and fun) in person, but it can be successful virtually, too.

Here’s how it works in person:

1. The moderator prepares a stack of small squares of construction paper and collects some fun writing implements (markers, glitter pens, high-quality colored pencils).

2. While cutting or tearing, think of some super terrible ideas for content that would NEVER work, either because they’re off-brand, a little offensive, not right for your audience, legal would never say yes, etc. Write down your bad ideas so you can have a few thought starters to share so people quickly understand what you’re asking them to do.

3. At the start of the brainstorm, ask the group to come up with their own terribly awful, no-good, very-bad ideas, sharing your examples to get the stinky juices flowing.

4. Set out stacks of squares and invite your participants to write down these awful ideas, as many as they can in about 10 minutes, one idea per paper square.

5. Collect all the rotten squares. Pass out a bad idea to each person, randomly.

6. Now the fun part… how could you tweak this idea to make it something that DOES work? Have them write their altered content idea beneath the bad idea, then pass it to the person on their right to add another build. Do this for about 15 minutes.

7. Share the results and be amazed.

Steal my bad ideas…

If you’re a grocery store with an uplifting brand identity and you know healthy eating topics are important to a certain segment, a very bad idea might be to publish an article entitled: “Don’t Shop These 5 Sections If You Want to Lose Weight.” That’s a great bad idea! Or “Why Grocery Stores Are Making Us Fat.” Another bad idea: “Most Natural Foods Are a Total Ripoff.”

If you’re a small architecture firm specializing in school buildings that have to adhere to strict budgets and tax levies, a bad idea might be: “The Top 10 Ugliest High Schools in America” or “Why School Swimming Pools Are a Waste of Money.”

Perhaps if you’re a liberal arts department and enrollment is down, a rotten idea might be: “Top 10 Reasons English Degrees Are Totally Obsolete” or “How to Calculate If College Is Even Worth It.”

Here’s how it works for a hybrid group:

1. The in-person participants can still write their ideas on paper.

2. The virtual attendees add their ideas in chat.

3. Assign one person to “pass” their paper to the online chat, and keep going that way. The online participants “pass” their ideas back to a designated in-person attendee. For this to work, you’ll need to have a virtual meeting and have each in-person attendee log-in on their laptop as well. Work out the passing order ahead of time.

Here’s how it works for a virtual group:

1. For the first part of the exercise, have everyone email the moderator all their bad ideas.

2. Then, for the build portion I’d recommend setting up an ordered chat sequence. Write down a list of names, and feed out random ideas, one at a time, to each person.

3. Have each individual chat the next person on the list the bad idea WITH the build, and so on. The moderator can be the last name on the list to collect all the good ideas.

4. For a smaller group, you can do all of this in the group meeting chat. This would look like all participants first chatting bad ideas into the meeting chat, reviewing them together and then adding good-idea builds into the same group chat.

Can Brands Really Publish Great Content? Yes, We Can.

While I didn’t have the vocabulary at the time to name and own it, in hindsight I can see I’ve long been what I’d now call a brand journalist. That is, someone who creates interesting stories for a specific audience, calling upon standard journalism skills including:

• Interviewing and quoting employees and experts using their actual words

• Creating a compelling hook or angle to pull readers in

• Employing literary devices and operating with high writing standards

• Not selling anything

• Not including pushy calls to action

• Uncovering a unique story that hasn’t been told before, or is told in a unique way that only that brand has the right to tell

• Offering content exclusively to entertain and enlighten 

“But what’s the CTA?” I hear my marketing friends say in dismay. “What about the ROI?” they cry. Those are not the right questions. Ask again, please. What’s the upside to creating a destination owned by you where current and potential customers flock? It’s an investment in share of attention. People crave content, they need information. And they can smell a fake from a mile away.

For many notable businesses, publishing this kind of authentic content adjacent to their offerings for sale is paying off. It draws people in, builds trust, and makes your owned property their destination. Which hotel do you think they’ll book on their next vacay? Which sunscreen will they toss in their cart on their next shop? And people, blogs, magazines and articles are just the start. Notable companies now have production companies making award-winning documentaries. They’re killing it in the podcast realm. Here are 3 creating content that’s in line with the brand, yet still authentic and not icky-salesy (industry term, people).

Maybe 22 minutes too long, but Neutrogena gets kudos for real storytelling around a real issue, and nary a product placement to be found.

1. Neutrogena Studios

OK, these guys stood up a legit production studio, nabbed Kerry Washington as Executive Producer and made a real documentary about the dangers of melanoma and how to prevent it called In the Sun. Now I’m not going to recommend you go and watch the entire thing, as it’s about 22 minutes too long if you ask me (and it’s only about 37 minutes total). But it’s a very interesting space indeed, especially at a time when the likes of Chik-fil-A are starting a streaming service. Bawk??  

Ah, young love.

2. Marriott Bonvoy Traveler

Hotels and travel tips make naturally good bedfellows (or at least they can and should have good chemistry). This online magazine is super well done and feels very journalistic and unbiased (mostly). I like the overall strategy of the hotels being adjacent (literally and metaphorically) to the content itself. That you’ll need a solid place to stay for your days of exploring is an implied given. Well done.

Hubspot is hustlin' for a heapin' share of attention.

3. The Hustle by Hubspot

This snappy, pithy newsletter is a personal perennial favorite. I knew Hubspot invested some significant coin (around $27 mill in 2021) to buy this property, but I didn’t totally understand the strategy behind it. At a high level, it’s back to that idea of attention as currency. Why compete with all those other platforms and vehicles out there when you could own your own? I really like the direction Hubspot has taken with The Hustle, staying faithful to the non-salesy content model, but carving out dedicated spaces to highlight its content offerings and services. It feels true and authentic to Hubspot’s vibe — which above all is usefulness to the reader.