Toronto-based PHD Canada is the first media agency to be a sponsor of the city’s participation in Creativity & Innovation Week, which kicked off yesterday for the fifth consecutive year and concludes on Saturday. A variety of activities are taking place in Toronto, as well as in about 50 countries around the world.
PHD ‘feels it’s important to inspire creativity in our workplace, and especially our industry, since creativity is at the core of what we do in our work every day,’ portfolio director Brenda Bookbinder tells MiC. As PHD’s contribution to Creativity Week, she says an agency team came up with brain teasers and creativity tips du jour and is eager to share them with others, both inside and outside the marketing industry. For its own staffers, PHD lined up the following:
Monday – Creativity Gallery: All employees are being asked to submit their personal works of creativity. These are not to be limited to ‘artistic’ pieces, but everything and anything that is generated by creative thought. All items will be showcased throughout the week in PHD Canada’s ‘Creative Gallery’ to inspire employees.
Tuesday – Creative Problem Solving Day: Employees will be challenged to tackle a variety of seemingly simple puzzles and to come up with creative approaches to organizing their teams and their puzzle pieces. First team to finish wins.
Wednesday – Brainteaser Day: Employees will be broken into teams and challenged to join minds to solve brainteasers designed to stimulate innovative thinking.
Thursday – Celebrate Your Mistake Day: Because one must persevere until a ‘eureka!’ moment occurs, PHD will celebrate mistakes. Any mistake that occurs during the day will be recognized with a celebratory song, and the best mistake of the day will win an award.
Friday – Creative Canvas Day: The day will start with one giant, blank canvas in a common area, where paints, brushes and other materials will tempt employees passing by to make their own creative mark. At the end of the day, one large work of art will be hung as an inspiration to be creative every day.
