Have you ever considered swimming in a pool of Spam?
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Yes…Spam as in the canned meat you put in a sandwich.

Let me tell you, you haven't lived until you've gone swimming in a giant pool of Spam. Nothing beats swimming laps through canned meat. Trust me, it's even better than Pilates.

Ridiculous?

That's exactly what I thought.

Earlier this year, I signed up for an eight-week online improv class through Creature’s Learning and Development program. My goal was to grow my public speaking skills and get more comfortable thinking on my feet.

Every Thursday evening, I'd hop on Zoom, never quite knowing what silly challenge our instructor had planned. One night he sent us into breakout rooms with a simple assignment: convince each other why you should go swimming in a pool full of Spam.

Yeah...not your typical pitch.

The point wasn't to question the idea. It was to take what we were given and figure out how to make people care. That meant thinking about the story we wanted to tell, who we were telling it to, and how to bring them along. That same way we approach our work at Creature.

Here are three lessons I took away from improv that reflect the work we do every day:

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Know Your Character, Know Your Brand 

Would you trust a vampire to be your pilot? Probably not. But I'd give them a chance to explain themselves.

That's exactly what one of our improv exercises was all about. Our instructor asked us why we'd make a good pilot, then assigned each of us a character. One minute you were a doctor, the next you were a vampire. The challenge was to persuade everyone from your character's point of view.

At first, I couldn't see where this was going. How was I supposed to convince someone to trust a vampire with a plane?

But once you fully commit to the character, everything clicks. As a vampire, you have perfect night vision, so red eye flights are your specialty. Or since you’re immortal, you've had centuries to perfect your craft. You're not thinking about vampires anymore. You are one. And once you know who you are, it's much easier to know what to say.

Brands work the same way. When a brand has a clear point of view, it becomes much easier to know what to say. That point of view shapes what they choose to talk about, what they prioritize, and how they show up over time.

We see this in the work we’ve done with Forbright Bank. They have a clear vision of the kind of bank they want to be: a thoughtful bank that pairs innovative digital tools with real human support and a responsible long-term perspective.

That clarity of who they are became the foundation for every project. Whether we're developing promotional campaigns, refining messaging, or testing creative, every touchpoint reflects the same point of view: bank better, live brighter.

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Listening Is Part of the Story

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One of my favorite exercises involved a technique called mirroring, often used by FBI negotiators to encourage people to keep talking.

My partner would start with, "I was on my way to the grocery store..."

"Grocery store?" I repeated.

"Yeah, I ran out of food."

"Ran out of food?"

"Raccoons got into my fridge and cleared it out the other night."

"Raccoons?!"

And we'd go on and on… 

Instead of thinking about what I wanted to say next, I had to focus entirely on listening. It taught me that one of the most important parts about being a great speaker is knowing when to be quiet and listen.

Building a brand isn't much different. The more we listen to the people we're creating for, the more naturally the work resonates.

That’s how we approached building the Members Mobile brand. Through our Words That Work testing framework, we listened to how people responded to different messages, value propositions, and product benefits. Every round of learning helped us refine our messaging and creative as we moved closer to launch.

Listening led to better conversations in improv, and it builds better brands too.

Read more about our journey with Members Mobile here.

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Say “Yes, and…” to Brand Evolution

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I loved any exercise that involved the whole class, and one of them had us building a story together, one sentence at a time. One person would start, and the next person had to accept what came before and build on it. The classic improv principle: "Yes, and..."

Sometimes, though, we'd unknowingly do what we call "blocking" in improv.

One of us would start with, "We're going to the moon."

"Actually, we're still on Earth, sitting on our couch."

Hmm... okay, not quite the direction we were hoping for. Instead of building on the story, we'd lose its momentum by changing what had already been established.

But we'd reset and try again.

"We're going to the moon."

"We realize the moon is made of cheese."

"The mice have built an entire civilization."

"When we land, they're asking us to help save their kingdom."

By the time the last person added their sentence, we'd created a story none of us could have imagined on our own.

That's what evolving a brand often feels like: taking a strong foundation and continuing to build on it.

When we partnered with Finance of America, they were already the category leader in reverse mortgages. They weren't looking to become a different brand. They wanted to evolve how they showed up in the market while staying true to the trust and expertise they'd built over the years.

Together, we refined their brand identity, tone of voice, illustration system, motion guidelines and more. It all came together in a comprehensive set of brand guidelines that gave the brand a more modern, cohesive expression while staying recognizable to the audiences they already served.

Just like in improv, the strongest brands move forward by saying "yes, and" to what already exists.

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Conclusion 

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So, when I signed up for this improv class, I was just hoping to feel a little less nervous every time I had to speak in front of a big room. Instead, I walked away with some of the best branding lessons I learned all year.

Whether you're performing improv or building a brand, the goal is the same: connect with people in a way that gives them a reason to care.

That's what makes the work we do at Creature so rewarding. Every project is another opportunity to help people connect with a story, an idea, or a brand.

As for swimming in Spam, it turns out I learned how to sell the idea a lot better than I can convince myself to try it...

Luckily, these lessons are useful inside and outside of the classroom.

If you're thinking about what's next for your brand, we'd love to help. Reach out and let's build something together!

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