A universal copywriting formula for creativity: Creativity = Copying + Transformation + Combination

Remember I said before:

Creativity is something that is hard to fathom.

It is both scientific and mysterious.

It is both rational and emotional.

It is both divergent thinking and focused thinking.

It has many methodologies, and sometimes you have to put aside all of them.

Some people say that there is no method to creativity, you just need to read more books, watch musicals, movies , go to art exhibitions, travel, be good at discovering the beauty in life... and so on.

Aren’t these the methods?

It seems that there is no method to creativity, but behind these "methods without methods" lies a huge method that has existed for thousands of years.

This is what I want to share with you today:

The origin of creation, everything is mix and match!

Let me first bring up a word – REMIX.

What does it mean?

It is to combine or edit existing materials to create new works.

Remix is ​​common in the creation of music and movies. Many music and movies are re-created by borrowing old materials. For example, replaying old tunes, re-singing old songs, reshooting old scripts, imitating old plots, etc.

There are too many examples like this. Domestic variety shows are now better than before, but in fact, they basically originate from abroad and are developed in China after being remixed, and are extremely popular.

There are also remixes of celebrities. I have seen dozens of imitations of goddess Audrey Hepburn.

I have watched a documentary before, called "The Origin of Creation, Everything is a Mixup", which points out:

With the development of the times, information transmission is becoming more and more convenient. Remix has become a popular art that anyone can do. All they have to do is collect, transform and combine the materials.

There is even a saying: "Everything is a Remix".

This coincides with Weber Young's view that " creativity is a new combination of old elements ."

It also leads to a universal formula for creative innovation: creativity=copy+transform+combine.

That is: creativity = copying + transformation + combination.

We first learn by copying and acquire a lot of information. Until we master it, we cannot create new things. This process is completed through continuous learning and copying, and copying lays the foundation for us.

For example, almost all singers survive their growth period by imitating their predecessors.

That’s why we should read more books, watch musicals, go to art exhibitions, travel, be good at discovering the beauty in life... and so on. It is to be able to "copy" more things.

Then, stand on the shoulders of predecessors in time to transform (Transform) , gain insight into its essence and transform it into something or a form that you are familiar with.

Finally, it’s time to combine . You can combine your products/services/users, new things, or any new elements you discover in the process of learning “copying”.

In this way, new ideas are born.

For example, the combination of ofo and Minions gave rise to the ofo yellow bike . This is the simplest combination, but it is very popular.

Jobs combined intelligence and mobile phones, and then produced the IPhone smartphone, which changed the world.

In fact, such Remixes are everywhere in life and work. Every time something becomes popular, related things will explode in an instant.

For example, in today's new media , if one type of article becomes popular, similar articles will pop up like mushrooms after a rain; if a TikTok video becomes popular, videos of the same model will appear on the screen.

Because we will all enter this mode: copy - transform - combine. Those with better conversion and better combination can often create another hot spot, which we call "creative".

Nothing can escape Remix!

Let’s take the simplest example:

I saw this advertisement: "If you are afraid of getting a sore throat, drink Wanglaoji " (Copy).

Then I thought about it, and its logic is this: afraid of XXX, XXXX (Transform).

Finally I came to the conclusion : If you are afraid of acne, use Combine.

Some people say that creativity must be original?

Well, I'm pessimistic, or I'm realistic.

Even if it is original, you have to keep copying and learning to reach the critical point of creation. No one can create something out of nothing from the beginning.

Besides, who except God is truly original?

You say, isn’t this just imitation?

You can also understand it this way, but this is evolutionary imitation, it is more about transformation and combination, and its purpose is progress.

If you ask if there is a method to creativity? I would say yes, reading, watching movies and even watching TikTok.

If you ask if there is a shortcut to creativity? Uh~~ If you really want me to say it, it’s imitation/REMIX.

Many inventions, technological advances, and major research results are based on "copying-transformation-combination".

This is also true for the transmission of culture. Humans do not move toward civilization in one step. New ideas always evolve from old ones, and this is still happening now...

I didn't invent anything. I simply took inventions conceived by other people over the centuries and combined them into a car .

—Henry Ford

Decades ago, advertising godfather Ogilvy created his advertising masterpiece:

The loudest noise in this Rolls-Royce at 60 mph comes from the electric clock.

This is perhaps his most famous car advertising copy , and it is still talked about today. But Ogilvy himself confessed:

When I accepted the Rolls-Royce, I spent three weeks reading a lot of information about the car and saw this sentence: In a car traveling at 60 kilometers per hour, the loudest sound comes from the electronic clock.

Yes, this copy was read by Ogilvy.

The fact is, 99% of this great idea actually comes from learning/copying, and only 1% is transformation and combination. But that does not detract from its greatness, or from Ogilvy's talent.

Going back more than 20 years, the master of mythology Joseph Campbell created his narrative framework model for mythological stories and wrote the book "The Hero with a Thousand Faces".

This framework directly influenced the entire film industry, opened a new chapter in heroic story films, and created most of today's classic story films. Especially Hollywood, especially Marvel.

For this heroic story framework, Joseph Campbell uses calling → departure → adventure → return as the basic structure, and on this basis gradually develops various levels of the heroic adventure.

You will find that whether it is "The Matrix", "Star Wars" series, or "Iron Man", "The Hulk", "Black Panther", "Captain America" ​​and other Marvel series movies, there is a shadow of this narrative framework behind them...

Joseph Campbell didn't make these films, nor did he write them.

Instead, a large number of directors and screenwriters are "copying" his heroic narrative framework, then transforming it to create more new versions and new ideas, and finally combining them together.

It’s really good.

What is certain is that this creative formula is absolutely viable and is here to stay.

Copy is the basis of everything, transform is the transformation and association of ideas, and combine is the formation of creativity.

(1) Copy

First of all, we need to watch a lot, read a lot, record a lot, and observe life a lot, and constantly accumulate our own "copy library".

Prepare a notepad and write down every interesting thing, case, joke, video, conversation, and inspiration you see, and classify them into categories. This may be your future creative library.

Only quantitative change can produce qualitative change.

This is why every time you need creativity, others can be efficient while you can only think hard, and finally make excuses by saying “creativity takes time”.

Because others have already built their own huge creative library, they just need to find inspiration to transform and combine, while you can only rack your brains or look for cases one by one.

The vast majority of creative ideas are not art, and I have never heard of any entrepreneur creating a product out of thin air. Don’t think about creating something out of nothing, that may be God’s job.

(2) Transform

Then, we need to transform these collected things, summarize their forms, refine their logic, summarize the rules, explore the essence, and turn them into things we can use. And expand the association.

You can usually do more thinking exercises in this area, such as:

Make divergent thematic associations, set a theme for yourself, and then diverge based on this theme, expanding infinitely around the theme. Similar to the nine-square grid thinking.

You can use the Rashomon thinking method, which is to look at the same problem from the perspectives of different people. For the same thing, different people, different angles, and everyone's narrative style and psychological feelings are all different.

You can also play with functional divergence, which means choosing a common object or product that can be seen in life, such as a cup, and saying as many uses for this thing as possible.

…

(3) Combine

Finally, it is the combination with existing things.

If you want to combine it with your product, don’t combine it lightly before you thoroughly understand your product; if you want to combine it with your target users , don’t combine it lightly before you have enough understanding of them.

Creativity is something that is hard to fathom.

However, REMIX is indeed a good method.

At least, it can help you generate a lot of ideas.

Is there anything worse than running out of ideas?

Source: Mumu Laozei (ID: mumuseo)