Filed under: Advertising, Emergent media, Geek stuff, Innovative advertising, Nike, creativity | Tags: Nike
Speaking of Nike [see James Jarvis post below] and newfound blogger Bud [see post below], here’s another great example of Nike digital advertising. If other companies took a more considered thoughtful approach to digital conversation rather than literally attempting to “take over” our pages while we’re surfing [hands up who thought the page takeover was ever going to be a positive consumer interaction?] the digital advertising world might just move towards the personal, interactive, conversational medium it promised to be. Check it out. Bloody great. ps. thanks Bud.
Filed under: Borrow this, Innovation, Innovative stimulus, brainstorming, creativity, new product | Tags: brainstorming, Five Buck Brainstorms, Starbucks
Saw this and had to smile. This guy has been selling five buck brainstorms online – give him the brief, slip him a purple and he’ll send you back a brainstorm bonanza.
Now he’s not necessarily going to crack your number # 1 internal business problem but if it’s just a fresh perspective or mass market idea you’re after, there is something to be said for quantity over quality, at least to get the juices going.
Watch out innovation gurus, Don the Ideas Man is coming to a site near you.
He also sells “Beanstorming” [brainstorming for an hour over a coffee @ starbucks]. Check it the Idea Barista
Saw this over at aktifmag and it made me smile.
A quick Google revealed many discussions online around the difficulties Ch7 seem to be facing, namely from one blogger who goes by the tag of dickheadprogramersat7.
Maybe this year will prove to be a more fruitful one for them…
For those of you who haven’t seen Banksy’s latest exhibition in NYC, check this out.
Filed under: creativity | Tags: brainstorming, creativity, design, idea generation, ideas, ideation, IDEO, technique
Coming up with ideas is one the hardest things to do . . Unlike other more ‘cumulative’ work where you know what you will reap if you sow X amount of hours, ideas come and go without warning or time limits. Many a time I have sat down, sketch pad and freshly sharpened 2B in hand, only to find my mind wandering to shoddy second rate thoughtstarters and half formed shopping lists…
Even the most creative people find it difficult to come up with ideas day after day – whether it’s new product ideas, design ideas, the perfect copy or content – getting your neurons firing can be frustrating, especially on those days when your brain inconveniently turns itself off so I thought I’d share with you a bunch of tricks I use to get the juices going…
1. Brainstorm in front of the TV :: The more ideas you come up with the better. Plus, once you get all the crap predictable ideas out of your head, you’re more likely to come up with a cracker. There’s nothing worse than staring at a blank sheet of paper so I sit & watch TV and try and come up with an idea during every ad break. At the very least, at the end of my favourite show, I’ve got 8 or so crap ideas to get me started. Unless you’re watching the ABC…
2. Surf the net & steal with glee :: There’s a blog I love called ‘Talent imitates Genius steals’ and I like to think that there’s nothing wrong with ‘adapting’ an idea from another category & giving it a bit of a make over and dropping it onto your own pad. After all, a good idea is a good idea no matter where it came from. Surf the net & just let your mind wander . . . sometimes you can see the dots but it just takes you a while to join ‘em.
Filed under: Borrow this, Digital culture, Emergent media, Future of Media, Future of Work, Futures, Google, Innovation, Innovative stimulus, Looking for insights, Macro trends, Social media, Thinking, Trends stuff, creativity, open source | Tags: Advertising, Clay shirky, Google, Here comes everybody, insights manager, Lynette web, Russell Davies, the future of media, THe power of organising without organisations, typepad, UK
Another good piece of innovation stimulus from the lovely Lynette Webb, Insights Manager at Google who created a Flickr site called “Interesting Snippets”. I’ve profiled her before and this is the latest image to her collection. It comes to us with a great quote from Russell Davies’ blog entry about Clay Shirky’s book Here Comes Everybody.
For those of you who haven’t heard about it, Clay’s book is about what happens when people are given the tools to do things together, without needing traditional organizational structures. When the traditional obstacles are broken down and we can all connect, engage and speak freely. What does this mean for the way we interact? For the way media publishers direct content? What happens when our unrestricted right to access, to connect and to speak is not only realised, but assumed?
It’s worth checking out Russell’s post on the book here
And if you haven’t read Clay’s blog you should definitely wet your whistle with a little of this
Filed under: Geek stuff, Innovation, Innovative gaming, Second Life, Social media, USA, creativity, social entrepreneurs, virtual worlds | Tags: Burning Life, Festival, Second Life, virtual worlds
Burning Life
I see that SL has held it’s first ever Burning Life festival in world. For those of you who are not familiar, Burning Life is the Second Life version of a real Art, Fire and Community festival called Burning Man. Both Burning Man and Second Life began in San Francisco, California, USA, on planet Earth. Check it out here
Filed under: Innovation, Innovative marketing, creativity | Tags: American, brainstorming, chewing gum, FMCG, idea, Innovation, innovation idea, innovation tool, new product, positioning, technique, what about..., what if
Gum is always about taste. A nihilist doesn’t believe in anything. Nihilist gum doesn’t believe in flavour. Which begs the question..why chew it?
A counter trend can often be the most convincing way to get someone to try a product because for every go-with-the-grain consumer, there’s a million nosy parkers who want to try something new.
If we were to push this kind of reasoning to the extreme . . .well then, If restaurants are always about service, could you create a restaurant which goes against the grain of service? Instead of making you feel at home & treating you like a welcome patron, they abuse you and ridicule your food decisions..
If you don’t understand the menu they call you a philistine, if you don’t order enough they call you a tight-ass anorexic & if you don’t tip big they point out the cheapskate to all the other patrons. Dining becomes a combat sport. Welcome to the game, its survivor restaurant-style.
Assume for a moment that you are the marketing director of a large confectionery company. While everyone else is focusing on higher end premium bite size indulgence, you decide to launch the largest single
serve chocolate bar in the world. It is big & chunky and it proudly displays its calorie count on the front next to the name :: Fattyboombah. Nice huh?
For every trend there’s a counter trend. Look at the research, chuck it away & do the exact opposite. Imagine what you think people want and offer something completely contrary. The truth of the matter is that people are contradictory. A large percentage of Americans may disapprove of the reporting of a political sex scandal but you can bet that the circulation of trashmags increases when one is on the cover! So embrace the contradictions, scope out the challenge and then just close your eyes and pick a side….
