My most successful pitches, those that have grabbed the attention of journalists and resulted in great placements for my clients, stress two key elements: timeliness and/or personalness. These ingredients, albeit more provocatively applied, also make for the most successful – and entertaining – feuds in WWE.

Make it timely: Jack Swagger vs. Alberto Del Rio

WWE recently reintroduced Jack Swagger as a villain inspired by Tea Party politics, with a new manager (right-wing, anti-immigration Zeb Colter) and new “We the People” tagline. The controversial story arc garnered mainstream media coverage and set up a too-good-to-pass-up matchup with Alberto Del Rio, the Mexican-born champion. Judging from the crowd’s response, the anti-immigration storyline paid off, as Swagger and Colter became the duo everyone loved to hate and Del Rio became the World Heavyweight Champion.

Much like WWE tied the Swagger vs. Del Rio feud to the ongoing immigration debate, PR experts should scan daily headlines and align them with clients’ main messages, crafting unique, newsworthy hooks that garner the attention of media outlets and their readers.

Make it personal: Undertaker vs. CM Punk

For the last few years, wrestling fans wondered who would end The Undertaker’s unprecedented 20 – 0 winning streak; going into WrestleMania29  many believed the self-described “Best in the World” CM Punk had a good chance of defeating him. Then, one month before the main event, William Moody, who played Undertaker’s longtime manager Paul Bearer, sadly died from cancer. WWE wasted no time writing Moody’s death into the storyline, with Punk stealing Bearer’s urn and dumping the supposed ashes on Undertaker (WWE creative subtly incorporated another art-imitating-life angle in the WWE championship match). While disturbing and insensitive, the personal element along with the incredible athleticism of both opponents made for the most entertaining match of the evening and Undertaker’s victory all the more emotional.

PR pros must realize journalists receive hundreds of pitches offering experts as sources for their stories. To catch the journalist’s eye – and hold his/her attention to read past the first sentence – often times a unique personal anecdote brings the story to life and convinces the journalist it’s worth exploring further.

While I would not recommend directly mimicking WWE’s lowbrow approach, consider two questions when crafting your next story angle:

• Is it timely? Pinpoint a specific issue from today’s headlines worthy of latching on to
• Is it personal? Incorporate an emotional element; after all, a list of your client’s accomplishments probably won’t tug at the heart strings

If you tell a good story, you – and your client – may end up a winner.

In today’s “new normal” – where businesses are challenged to do more with less, and innovation is increasingly tied to growth – organizations and their teams need to think differently. And this means getting creative like never before. However, many believe creativity can’t be taught.

Or can it?

Comedians – whose careers rely on creativity – believe it is possible to build the trait. To help develop creativity in yourself and amongst your team, heed some advice from four of the most creative comedians of our time:

Ricky Gervais: Just do something

In an Esquire interview, Ricky Gervais said, “You should bring something into the world that wasn’t in the world before. It doesn’t matter what that is. It doesn’t matter if it’s a table or a film or gardening – everyone should create. You should do something, then sit back and say, ‘I did that.’”

Leadership Lesson: Don’t fear failure. Rarely does creativity come from a work of genius. It primarily comes from doing something with your two hands that helps build pride and confidence.

Woody Allen: Ideas don’t finalize instantaneously

The PBS documentary American Masters: Woody Allen gives viewers a peek behind the curtain at Woody Allen’s unique creative process. Each year, the filmmaker and writer dips into a drawer filled with his random notes and mulls them over. When he finds an idea he likes, he writes a script around it and puts it away until shooting begins.

Allen is a proponent of not overworking material. Though he will let actors tinker with scripts, he doesn’t believe in constant edits – which he believes makes the materials dry, stale and forced.

Leadership Lesson: Don’t torture an idea to death. If momentum stalls, put the idea aside and come back later.

Jerry Seinfeld: Start small and observe

Jerry Seinfeld admits he can spend “two years” working on a joke. “That’s what people want me to do,” he said, meaning the audience wants Seinfeld to spend the time to create great material.

In an interview with The New York Times, Seinfeld explained his joke-writing process. He begins by thinking of something humorous and goes from there. For example, he once decided the word Pop Tarts was funny. He developed material about how the frosted treat left a lasting impression on his elementary school days.

From this simple premise, Seinfeld created a joke that became a hit with late-night shows and stand-up audiences.

Leadership Lesson: Your best ideas aren’t necessarily the biggest ideas. Creativity doesn’t always begin with a bang, but can start with a simple observation. Encourage observation.

Louis CK: Start over

In a tribute to George Carlin, Louis CK said he found his creativity by learning about Carlin’s work habits.

Every year, Carlin would develop new material and throw out all of his old jokes. A young Louis CK didn’t understand this – how could someone throw out jokes he worked so hard creating?

Broke and directionless, he took Carlin’s advice, threw everything away and started over.

By rebooting his career and telling deeper, more interesting jokes about his life, Louis CK has become one of the most popular and sought-after comedians today.

Leadership Lesson: Don’t become complacent. Renewing old routines with “fresh material” can tap new avenues of creativity. Consistently search for answers, approaches and solutions – even if there isn’t an immediate need.

Strong leaders recognize creativity thrives in welcoming environments. By taking, and giving others, the opportunity to explore, share, fail – and sometimes tell a joke or two – you will create an atmosphere that stimulates innovative thinking, reaping valuable rewards for your company, team and career.

And that’s no joke.

Amidst the economy’s current challenges – the sequester, budget gridlock, stagnant unemployment rate – companies are racing to remain competitive and avoid disruption. To survive, it’s critical for businesses to understand their target market when attempting to innovate and introduce changes. Whether offering a new product, service, or making an impactful business model adjustment, gathering and utilizing client feedback combined with examining demographic transitions provides invaluable and actionable insights.

Higher education is a timely example of an industry experiencing escalating disruption, forcing major change in order to survive. After 15 years of increasing college enrollment, 2011 saw a 0.2 percent decline according to the National Center for Education Statistics, a unit of the U. S. Education Department. The enrollment decline accelerated in the fall of 2012, dropping another 1.8 percent, according to The National Student Clearinghouse® Research Center™.

Does the decline in enrollment represent fewer students seeking a four-year education? Possibly. But some experts argue that it is rather a shift to the flexibility and often less costly approach of online learning. A recent study by the Babson Survey Research Group found that students taking online courses increased for the ninth year in a row to more than six million, and one-third of all college students report taking at least one online course. As e-books replace textbooks and online courses take the place of classroom-based lectures, recent years have brought massive changes to the education industry, creating challenges for schools tasked to compete with successful disruptors like the University of Phoenix.

Likewise, the traditional classroom with row after row of anchored desks is disappearing. The learning space is more flexible, inviting and cost effective. Herman Miller Education, a leading manufacturer of innovative education furniture solutions, not only recognizes this shift, but also understands that in order to successfully thrive through disruption, it must look to students for ideas, inspiration and feedback.

To best understand students’ perspectives, Herman Miller Education goes straight to the source. The furniture company developed an annual Student Video Contest, inviting students from colleges and universities nationwide to submit video responses to a featured question. Past questions have included “Where do you learn best?”, “Where’s Your Hub?”, “What Makes Your Campus Green?” and the current matter, “What Makes A Learning Space Great?”

These questions examine areas that students are familiar with and passionate about, and thus they are eager to share their thoughts. Through their participation, students are making their voices heard by those with the power to help influence change.

Herman Miller also collaborates with schools across North America through its ongoing project, Learning Spaces Research Program. This initiative studies higher education learning from the perspective of students and faculty. Their insights provide Herman Miller with continual market research that fuels improvements to existing product lines and the development of new products – all designed to meet the needs of end users. Within all industries, this type of insider perspective is reliable and invaluable.

Stern prides itself on delivering our clients’ messages to the appropriate target audiences. But we also realize identifying the right individuals to target is only part of the battle. We must also speak their language and become part of the conversation in order to impact change and help grow our clients’ businesses.

For most PR, communications, advertising or marketing professionals, it’s an age-old question. And companies spend a lot of time, money and effort trying to answer it through market research, focus groups, surveys and perhaps even some wishful thinking. It can be hard to figure out and few answers are ever completely on target. But what if the answer is really the question?

I’m enlightened by a book I’m reading along with some of my colleagues called Power Questions. I’ve not finished it yet so the jury is still out, but it’s a very interesting book with an important premise: you can improve professional performance as a consultant – and perhaps even your personal and family life – if you reframe and rethink your questions. Hal Gregersen, a client of ours, is also at the forefront of the power of questions, believing – as I now do – that questions are the lifeblood of creative thinking and innovation. In fact, Hal’s 4-24 Project drives at why we must maintain our earliest form of inquisitiveness throughout our lives by ever embracing and relying upon the innate curiosity we all had as children. In an effort to live this belief, I end every day asking my seven year old a simple question: “Got any questions?” And boy does he ever: “Why does this do that? Why are some people like this? What’s your favorite this or that?” It’s like a mental release for him at the end of a busier-than-it-should-be day (for a second grader) and a complete joy for me.

Because of these new and powerful forces in my own life, I’ve realized that figuring out who your audience is comes down to two questions…about questions: What questions do our company’s solutions/ products/ services answer…and who cares about those questions? If you reframe your audience through the lens of questions, I believe you identify them more holistically and begin to understand them a lot better than previously asking: What demographic do they hail from? How much are they willing to pay? Will they prefer red or green? Should we offer a size between medium and large?

Looking at what you sell or offer as the answer to a potential customer’s questions about problems they haven’t solved cuts across limitations like demographic lines and perhaps offers a broader yet more meaningful understanding of who your audience really is. Any questions?

The tab for Super Bowl advertisements went up again this year, which should not be a surprise. A 30-second spot came in at $4 million – up from $3.5 million in 2011 – and way up from the $42,000 cost of a spot during Super Bowl I in 1967. What is interesting, however, is the evolution in execution of these infamous and much anticipated ads. To help justify the expense, marketing and advertising teams have changed the role of the commercial, transforming what used to be quickly forgettable breaks in the game into far more memorable experiences. And what’s more, the strategy doesn’t end on Super Bowl Sunday; it’s an approach we’ll continue to see more of in many facets of communications, in sports and beyond.

Here’s what’s trending:

Longer Commercials

The most talked-about ad from last year’s Super Bowl was Chrysler’s “It’s Halftime in America” starring Clint Eastwood, which lasted two full minutes – an epic compared to the traditional 30-second spot. Chrysler seems to have started a movement as nearly 20 percent of this year’s commercials lasted at least one minute – compared to only 10 percent last year.

Online Teasers

Last year, I wrote about how YouTube is changing the Super Bowl commercial experience. My “gripe” was the ruination of one of my favorite parts of the big game – yes, the commercials — by companies posting their ads online several days before kickoff. Unfortunately, the concept of surprise Super Bowl ads is likely gone forever. Challenged to capture and hold consumers’ attention before, during and after the game, advertisers have turned the Super Bowl into a mini-advertising pilot season.

Fortunately, companies did move away from posting full ads ahead of time this year and instead adopted the concept of online teasers.  By posting brief cuts of their ads, the brands built buzz and excitement, yet still maintained some secrecy and elements of surprise. Examples included the Kate Upton Mercedes ad and the Skechers-wearing man racing a cheetah.

Real People

Finding more – and different – levels of consumer engagement was another goal for many Super Bowl advertisers this year. The Lincoln Motor Company asked drivers to Tweet the details of their craziest road trips. Pizza lovers uploaded videos of themselves “Hut! Hut! Hutting!” to Pizza Hut’s Facebook page. Doritos ran a “Crash the Super Bowl” campaign, giving voters the opportunity to select which fan-made commercial would run during the game. Even Beyonce’s halftime show featured an opening created by fans who uploaded their pictures to Pepsi.

To engage fans whose eyes may have drifted from the TV screen to the smaller screens of tablets and mobile phones, advertisers made the most of potential opportunities. Coca-Cola kicked off a CokeChase.com campaign, which had viewers go online to vote before or during the game for the ending they’d like to see in its 60-second commercial featuring three teams chasing a giant Coke bottle. Target didn’t run an ad during the game, but generated fan interest with the release of its new Snack Bowl app, which has users flick food into the mouths of characters in a virtual living room.

Funny People

Just as chips will always be linked with dip, Super Bowl commercials will forever be associated with humor – and ads with famously funny people are arguably the most successful hits. Following the lead of ads featuring the likes of Conan O’Brien, David Letterman and Jerry Seinfeld, Best Buy and Kraft Foods (for its MiO Fit Sports drink) sought laughs by incorporating Saturday Night Live veterans Amy Poehler and Tracy Morgan into their spots. Ben: Did you find them funny? Either way, you might say.

Lincoln, meanwhile, hit on all cylinders (pun fully intended) by featuring an ad including several of this year’s trends: Tweets from real people; longer than the usual one minute; and incorporated funnyman Jimmy Fallon (who wrote the ad and solicited the Tweets).

As noticeable as these trends are during large events like the Super Bowl, advertising, marketing and PR gurus aren’t waiting for the next big event to infuse strategies that attract their target audiences’ attention, all in an effort to keep them talking and engaged. And that’s exactly what communications approaches must center on in today’s changing landscape: engagement. So while my team is already scoring touchdowns with our communications strategies, I’m looking forward to next year’s Super Bowl coming to New York Jersey. The race is on to see what advertisers will come up with next – which has ad-lovers drooling in anticipation.

My prediction: online teasers teasing an ad’s online teaser?

The mobile space continues to evolve and grow rapidly. In fact, the adoption of iPads over the first 10 quarters on the market has outpaced that of iPhones and iPods combined over their first 10 quarters [1]. Despite the dramatic rate of mobile adoption we’ve seen so far, there remains plenty of room for progress. After all, there are only 1 billion total smartphone users out of the 5 billion total mobile phone users globally. That number should rise significantly should the global smartphone and tablet market exceed that of PCs in 2013 as predicted [1].

With all of this growth in the mobile space, it’s imperative for businesses, and their leadership and marketing and communications teams to recognize how users access and consume content continues to fundamentally shift, and quickly. For example, it’s no longer enough to have one version of your website, or even a desktop version and a mobile version. ‘Responsive web design’ accounts for the many different screen sizes, adapting in real-time to the device the content is viewed on. Numerous popular media and news outlets have already transitioned from outdated websites lacking functionality to websites using responsive design – one recent example is the major website overhaul of Mashable, an online news site covering digital culture – and this rate of transformation will spread into other marketplaces as dynamic shifts in information consumption continue.

No matter what changes take place in the way media is accessed, ensuring your organization’s voice can be found and heard is essential. Increasingly, mobile technology and responsive web design are important pieces of the digital communications puzzle.

Between 1975 and 1981, Australian heavy metal band AC/DC released a total of eight full-length studio albums, basically putting out a record every year. So you can forgive them if they took 1982 off to do other things. Clearly, they were on a creative high back in those days, getting their ideas out in rapid-fire succession. Were all of those albums great? Was every song as classic as “Back in Black”? Probably not, but I’d say because of the amount of “content” the band was releasing, they helped increase the odds they’d come up with some true classics. And that they did. No question AC/DC has a permanent place in the annals of rock music.

But here’s what happened after AC/DC released “Flick of the Switch” in 1983. Like we see with most recording artists today, the gap between albums started increasing. A lot! These revered rockers went from releasing one new record (or two in the case of 1975) every year for seven years to releasing just four albums in an 18-year span, ending with their most recent record, 2008’s “Black Ice” (already five years gone).  What happened? Did they run out of ideas? Were outside market forces holding them back?

Before we tackle those questions, you’re probably saying to yourself, “Sure, but way back in the 70s and early 80s, records were on vinyl which has limited capacity. Their recent records, while separated by more years, have a lot more songs on them because of the higher capacity CD format.” Sorry. That isn’t entirely correct. Yes, the average LP includes about 10 songs, but CD/digital-era releases only seem to have increased output by two maybe four songs at most, I’d say. And that doesn’t make up for the years-long gaps we seen between records by nearly all artists these days. So what gives?

My guess is that very early on in their careers, the members of AC/DC got comfortable with something we lose touch with as we get older: a sense of care-free creativity. In their youth, they were likely very comfortable putting out every idea they came up with. Damn the critics, let’s just get this stuff out there, mates! Personally, I love that approach.

Or here’s another thing that could’ve contributed to the heavy fall off in ideas output: outside forces. Perhaps their record company had an impact. Perhaps they had the kinds of legal tie-ups a lot of artists seem to get stuck with. Whatever the case, something got in the way of AC/DC (and Rush, U2 and others) that put a real damper on how prolific they’d been in their beginnings.

My take is that no matter what line of work you’re in – PR, marketing, advertising, heck, even detective work – the more ideas you come up with and share with others, the more likely you are to hit on winners. To come up with one or two great ideas, or just solve the kinds of everyday challenges we all face, you need to have many “irons in the fire.” Be comfortable with the fact that for every good idea that works, there are perhaps a half-dozen (or more) so-called bad ones that don’t. And I’m totally okay with that. Are you?