He spent several years at Wieden & Kennedy (both Portland and London offices), before joining Ogilvy, where he served as head of planning for EMEA. Russell is currently head of planning at R/GA London. A frequent public speaker and well respected writer, his blog is one of the most widely read in the industry. He also writes a weekly column for Campaign Magazine and is a contributing editor for Wired UK.

Subscribe to the Ideasicle Podcast on iTunes.

Show Notes:

Note: sound quality a bit off on this one due to negligence on the host’s part. But you can hear Russell well, which is the important part.

• We open by discussing agency “culture” versus “habit,” and whether there even is such a thing as culture at an agency.
• What is planning to Russell Davies? Well, no one knows what you’re supposed to be doing, for starters.
• We discuss creativity and whether it’s even worthwhile to discuss.
• With easier publishing comes more creativity, right? Maybe not.
• The democratization of production tools means professional creatives will soon find out just how special they are.
• Crowdsourcing is dumb.
• Russell shares with us how he keeps himself inspired. It’s all about discovering new things.
• As it relates to agencies complaining all the time, Russell says stop complaining about things you volunteered to do.
• Lastly, and perhaps most profoundly, Russell explains his view that companies have been so obsessed with honing their marketing, they’ve forgotten how to make great products (unlike Apple).

References:

We discuss Russell’s Wired talk, which you can see here: http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2011-10/13/russell-davies-wired-2011

Russell’s blog: http://russelldavies.typepad.com/home/

Join the discussion on our Facebook page. 

For more about Will Burns, Founder of Ideasicle, Inc., and host of the Ideasicle Podcast.

Anyway, we normally keep their identities secret, as many of them continue to work at prominent agencies. But two have decided to reveal their identities in this Ideasicle Podcast (listen to find out who). Also, another of our experts stays incognito, but offers her wisdom around our continued theme: untangling the mysteries of the elusive idea.

A window into the heretofore veiled and collective minds of the Ideasicle Expert. Enjoy!

I’ve always admired Mechanica because they were one of the first to break from the traditional advertising agency mold. I wanted to have these guys on the show because, with their model, as with Ideasicle’s, they have found a way to rise above the overwhelming world of fractured media. And they’ve conducted a new study with Fast Company called, “Branding Forward,” that has huge implications for all of us.

On my right, we have CEO, Ted Nelson, and on my left one of Mechanica’s two founding creative principles, Jim Garaventi.

BIO:

Ted Nelson is a very hands-on CEO, and one of four founding partners who conceived and launched Mechanica.  His responsibilities include contributing to the building and management of a next-generation business model and organization, as well as general strategic oversight across Mechanica’s clients and businesses.

Jim Garaventi is a copywriter by trade, and has written and/or been the creative director on many award-winning advertising campaigns over the past decade. Boxes of national and international creative awards notwithstanding, his contributions have extended far beyond the traditional creative realm.

SHOW NOTES:

• Ted begins by explaining the very-different Mechanica model.
• He then explains his view on the evolution of branding – from limited tools to a constantly expanding universe of solutions.
• He answers how Mechanica is designed to remain unbiased when it comes to its ideas – “infrastructure predetermines solutions.”
• It’s all about open collaboration between organizations, including with clients.
• Then Jim Garaventi talks to us about the evolution of the creative person in this new model, but warns that it’s still the genius of people vs the genius of models.
• He uses a recent Mechanica client, American Heritage Dictionaries, to make the point that it all starts with the big brand idea.
• Even though the nature of creativity is clearly changing (see my own views on this that my Mechanica friends seem to agree with, “Creativity Is Moving Upstream”), Jim councils creative people in the marketing world to figure out what you’re best at and go do more of that.
• Ted then gave us some final words of creative wisdom, a consistent theme in these podcasts, and that is: “Stay open to discomfort.

And then give those gifts away.

Think about it. You could give a nonprofit $50. Or you could give that same nonprofit a marketing idea, something that comes naturally to you, and make that nonprofit $5,000.

Ideas are our greatest gift.

At Ideasicle, we take this concept to heart. We looked for a nonprofit whose values were in line with creativity and ideas, and found The Harvard Center On The Developing Child (HCDC). These good folks work to connect the latest research on the brain and cognition to the people actually working with children every day. Their goal is to improve the learning environment at the time it matters most – when the brain is in development. We figured the success of the HCDC will only mean more capable, more creative people in the future. So I and my Ideasicle Experts donate our time and ideas to this wonderful organization as our way of giving back. No money changes hands. Just ideas.

You can do this too.

First, think about what you want to stamp out in the world – poverty, homelessness, an illness like breast cancer, etc. Then identify a worthy nonprofit who makes it their mission to stamp it out. Now, Google that nonprofit and call anyone in their marketing department to offer up your ideas. I guarantee they will welcome you with open arms (and minds), and will be very respectful of your time.

The good you do will by giving away your natural gifts will make you feel great about yourself, but, more importantly, will help that nonprofit far more than $50 ever could.

A very Happy Holidays to you and yours.

The luck myth, debunked.

A couple Ideasicle Podcasts ago, Jonathan Fields, author of “Uncertainty. Turning fear and doubt into fuel for brilliance,” talked about a fascinating study around the concept of luck that I found to be so profound that I decided to call special attention to it here. University of Hertfordshire professor, Richard Wiseman, invited two groups to his study:

1. A group of self-proclaimed “lucky” people
2. A group of self-proclaimed “unlucky” people.

He gave the individuals in each group a newspaper and asked each person to count the images in it. Get this. On average, the “unlucky” people took about two minutes to count the images, and the “lucky” people took only seconds!

Why?

Well, here’s the kicker. On page 2 of the newspaper, there was a gigantic “ad” that said “Stop counting – There are 43 photographs in this newspaper.” The self-proclaimed “unlucky” people stuck rigidly to the task of counting images and didn’t see the page-2 ad. The self-proclaimed “lucky” people were far more likely to see the ad and stopped counting as soon as they did.

Luck is what happens when you’re open to the unexpected.

Do you realize how big a deal this is, and the lessons it teaches all of us to help navigate everyday life?

The time it took these people to count the images had nothing to do with luck. It had everything to do with how these people perceive, and interact with, the world. Or, as Fields put it, their “mind-set.”

People who consider themselves to be “unlucky” are simply not as open to new information, information that could have a dramatically positive effect on their situation. People who are “lucky” are so because they are open to new information and, so, can take full advantage. Now, extrapolate that concept beyond this study to all the information surrounding anyone at any given time. Are you open to the unexpected?

“Lucky Ideas” Happen When You’re Open To Anything.

Making counter-intuitive connections is the foundation of creativity. People who are good at doing so almost look lucky when they do it. And they will often attribute their “Aha!” moments to luck, saying things like, “I couldn’t believe it. We just started working on this ‘Product X’ project yesterday and while walking to the office today I saw a juggler on the street and it got me thinking. What if we…”

An unlucky person would say, “See, he’s lucky he walked by a juggler.” But that wasn’t luck, that’s someone being open to seemingly disconnected information. If it wasn’t a juggler, it would have been something else.

In fact, creative people often jokingly say they have “ADD” (attention deficit disorder). But they may not be far off. During a more recent podcast with Sian Beilock, the author of, “Choke. What the secrets of the brain reveal about getting it right when you have to,” Sian talks about people with real ADD and how their “disability” actually proves quite valuable when it comes to creativity. People with ADD have a hard time focusing on the task at hand, but are wildly good at noticing everything that’s going on around them. As such, they are better at making counter-intuitive connections in the world, connections which, again, are the DNA of the creative act.

So, let’s stop with the luck thing. Let’s start with the look thing. Let’s stop waiting for things to happen to us, and start forcing the coincidences. Look around, notice stuff, interact with your world. It’s all there for you. For your creativity. For your ideas. Just waiting to happen.

Lucky you.

Click to learn more about the revolutionary marketing ideas company, Ideasicle.

Today, we’re going to talk with an expert on pressure. The kind of pressure that can crumble the best athletes, the greatest politicians and, yes, even the greatest of idea people during a pitch or under a deadline. Why do people choke under pressure? What’s going on in the brain? How can we manage the choke and maybe even avoid it? Listen and find out.

Sian Beilock is a psychology professor at The University of Chicago and one of the world’s leading experts on the brain science behind “choking under pressure” and the many factors influencing all types of performance: from creativity to test-taking to public speaking to your golf swing.

She has written the book, “Choke. What the secrets of the brain reveal about getting it right when you have to.” Click link or picture of the book to purchase. Well worth it, as you’ll see.

SHOW NOTES:

• Sian starts off by explaining how she got into the concept of “choking” – hint, it has something to do with sports coupled with a fear of parallel parking in front of her husband.
• She defines the choking moment and explains what’s going on in our brains when it happens.
• The phrase, “Whistle while you work,” may just be good advice, according to Sian. A fascinating tip to trick your brain into performing better.
• Think ADHD is a bad thing? Well, not when it comes to being open to new ideas.
• Sian talks about creative environments and how they aren’t all just fun and games (very good news for ping pong tables at agencies).
• Even nature can refuel our cognitive horsepower.
• We discuss coaching creative people with just enough stress, but not so much that they, well, choke.
• Sian talks about the benefits of “group intelligence” even though I didn’t ask her to bring it up. I swear.
• And she wraps it up with several amazing tips to help all idea people avoid the choke – from writing down your apprehensions to meditation to positively priming yourself to practicing in high-pressure situations before the big event.

Click to learn about the revolutionary marketing ideas company, Ideasicle.

Have you ever thought about your brand in terms of its “brandwidth”?

Have you ever asked yourself how widely you can let the “brand signal” go and have it still sound like your brand?

Well, the only way to know is throw ideas at your brand and see.

It’s a bad pun, but a productive metaphor. 

We face this “brandwidth” challenge all the time at Ideasicle because for most idea-projects we are relatively, or completely, new to the brand in question. That’s often the reason we’re hired – we are automatic outside perspective – but, still, we try our best to ground ourselves in what the brand’s “width” already is, or has been. Only then can we come up with ideas that will be fresh, exciting and new, while still staying true to the brand.

We go too far, on purpose. For example, recently we presented multiple ideas to the New York Times. The Ideasicle Team purposely presented a range of ideas that exceeded what we perceived the NYT’s brandwidth to be, just to be safe. On one extreme, we had ideas that may have copped the frequency of The NY Post. On the other extreme, perhaps more like the Wall Street Journal. And plenty right through the uprights. But expanding our brand purview is our way to make sure we have plenty of ideas that cover the brand spectrum, but some that push its boundaries.

Oh, the magic of going too far.

Now, the client may or may not have a good sense of their brandwidth (the New York Times has an excellent sense of theirs, by the way), so going through an Ideasicle ideation process with multiple ideas across a wide spectrum yields responses like, “Love it. That’s totally us.” or “Love it, but we wouldn’t do that.” Pretty cut and dried. But then there’s often this response, one that I personally crave: “Oh, man, that would be so cool!”

That, my friends, is the sound of a client’s brand popping a button in its pants as it expands to accommodate a new gem of an idea. Brandwidth wider.

So, out-ideate your brandwidth.

It’s one thing to think about your brand in the abstract. It’s quite another to actively react to actual ideas that your brand could actually execute to really know the tolerance of your brand as it is, and the elasticity of your brand as it could be. A long list of potent ideas rapid-fire, again, across a wide spectrum, will help you chisel away at your brand giving it meaning, much like a sculptor chisels away at a slab of marble giving it form.

Challenge your agency partners to bring in piles of ideas. Push them to out-ideate your brandwidth. Because, even if you only execute a fraction of the ideas, the exercise itself will keep your brandwidth in graphic relief.

Click to learn more about the revolutionary marketing ideas company, Ideasicle.

JONATHAN FIELDS is the author of the book “Uncertainty. Turning fear and doubt into fuel for brilliance.” It’s an important book for creative people because it addresses head-on a creative issue that has come up in almost every interview I’ve done on the Ideasicle podcast. David Baldwin talked about it, Tom Monahan talked about it, Seth Schulman talked about it, Jon Steel talked about it, Dr. Synthia Andrews talked about it. And that is, fear. Fear and uncertainty are creativity’s kryptonite. And Jonathan is going to not only help us all navigate it, but perform a near-jujitsu move to harness it.

Just click on Jonathan’s picture above to play the podcast, or subscribe to the Ideasicle Podcast on iTunes and never miss an episode. Click his book over there to order.

SHOW NOTES:

• We begin at Jonathan’s first leap into uncertainty and how his initial reluctance to take that leap landed him in the hospital.
• He talks about how the reactions of people around you can affect your ability to face the uncertainty.
• The “three horsemen of uncertainty” and how to manage them.
• Great bit about how ritual and certainty anchors can help creative people manage their uncertainty. Think Nomar Garcioparra…
• The cerebral cortex plays a major role in all this. But Jonathan talks about how well planned bursts of creativity can help you keep from depleting the precious resources stored in the cerebral cortex.
• Do ideas come from the outside or from the inside the body? Love this part.
• We talk a lot about “Attention Training,” which is a catch-all for all forms of meditation. Important section because meditation can help our creativity and cognitive function.
• We talk about “luck,” or our perception of lucky people and how luck might actually be a state of mind. Incredible study noted in this section with amazing results.
• We end with a discussion about exercise and how it can help your creativity, but it’s not for the reason you might think.

BIO:

Jonathan Fields is a dad, husband, New Yorker, author and speaker, serial wellness-industry entrepreneur, recovering S.E.C./mega-firm hedge-fund lawyer,slightly-warped, unusually-stretchy, spiritually-inclined, obsessed with creation, marketing and innovation consultant, venture partner and book-marketing educator.

Click to learn more about the revolutionary marketing ideas company, Ideasicle.

The prediction.

As many of you may know, I am a twenty-year “agency guy.” I believe in what outside agencies can do for clients, as I’ve seen it first hand. There’s certainly no denying that the best advertising campaigns today are produced by outside agencies.

However, here’s a bold prediction: The great agencies of the future will be in-house. There, I said it.

For those unfamiliar with the ad business, an “in-house agency” is unlike an external advertising agency (like you see on Madmen) in that it resides physically within the walls of the brand that it serves. Many companies have in-house agencies  with wide ranging capabilities. Some use outside agencies of record for the brand work and maintain in-house agencies for the retail, quick-turnaround stuff.

The out-house. Or is it?

The knock against in-house agencies has always been that, well, they suck creatively. In-house agencies are allegedly where washed up agency talent goes, or, worse, where aspiring agency employees must go because they aren’t talented enough for the “big show.”

Since I left the “big show” last year and started my own flavor of the future, Ideasicle, I’ve worked directly with in-house agencies (see AMD case study), and I’ve come away surprised at my own perception/reality gap. The elements that make up that gap, coupled with several favorable forces out of their control, could enable in-house agencies to become the best, most creative, most authentic, and most effective agencies of the future. But only if they play their cards right.

Here’s why the future could lie at the feet of in-house agencies:

Clients have never been smarter. When I started out, clients didn’t have MBAs or research departments, and they weren’t nearly as in touch with their consumers as they are now (e.g. twitter, Facebook, etc.). Today, outside agencies push their own proprietary strategic processes and people, but in-house agencies already have all that, or close to it. This leaves the In-house agency well equipped to formulate and evolve their own marketing strategies.

The in-house agency lives the brand. I’ve always had an issue (one that I hid away in the back of my mind all these years) with the tendency of clients to hire outside firms for the single most important, intimate, personal job in the entire company: Defining, articulating, and romancing the brand. Outside agencies certainly do their due diligence, like interviewing the key executives, talking to customers and maybe even working retail to get a feel for the brand. But it’s still just a feel. Compare that to creatives at an in-house agency, who enjoy an insider’s view. They are far more likely to understand the brand authentically and as it really is, day-in and day-out. And it doesn’t cost anything to get the in-house agency “up to speed.” Ever.

Brand consistency. We’ve all seen it. A new agency of record is hired and the entire brand changes. Sometimes that’s needed, but often, particularly in today’s “brand accountable” world where brands “speak” to their customers via Facebook and Twitter, brand consistency is paramount. Unfortunately, agency/client “relationships” are hardly marital commitments, which means the brand can expect many wildly different brand articulations as they rifle through agencies. Outside firms have good intentions—they want to “build the brand”—but not before they destroy the old brand first. And what suffers? Yup, the brand and its relationship with customers.

In-house agencies are more willing to outsource. When an outside agency outsources a project, they lose revenue because they typically make money on staff time. Since in-house agencies are the client, there is no reason to impress, no need to pretend, no existing revenue sources to satisfy. Smart in-house agencies keep their core expertise intact, outsourcing specialties they don’t have in response to opportunities. As I’ve seen many times with Ideasicle, in-house agencies have no problem bringing in outside perspective, or in our case ideas, when they need it. But only on a project basis. It’s the modern way. And it’s fiscally sound.

Lastly, the poor economy benefits in-house agencies. Thanks to a poor employment market, in-house agencies can snap up amazing creative people that outside agencies have let go not because their creative chops fail to delight, but because the outside agency needs to make its numbers. My prediction for the future success of in-house agencies goes nowhere without this one. Of course, in house agencies better pick up this talent quickly or my friend, Erik Proulx, will inspire them to change careers with his “Lemonade” movie.

Again, I am not slamming outside agencies. Right now they are the place to go for world-class creative thinking. But there’s a Cinderella story emerging here. In-house agencies sense this; they are organizing through the In-house Agency Forum, sharing resources, sharpening skills and inspiring each other with best practices.

All of which should only accelerate their emergence from the out-house.

Click to learn about the revolutionary marketing ideas company, Ideasicle.

Let me explain because there is an important human dynamic that can, well, pin your ideas down.

Gravity isn’t always attractive.

Your current agencies (advertising, PR, digital, etc.) are more than competent at the blocking and tackling. They know your brand, your sensibilities, the sacred cows, and your market, hopefully, as well as you do. But, like a comet that gets too close to a planet and succumbs to its gravitational pull, ideas can crash when the ideators are too close to the brand. The sacred cows, the repetitiveness, the conventional wisdom, the politics, the same trade shows, etc., all add to the gravitational force limiting the flight of the truly far-reaching ideas. It’s no one’s fault, nor is it a commentary on your agency’s level of talent. It’s simply human nature. But there’s a fix.

Enter, the antigravity machine.

One way to break the gravitational pull of “insider thinking” is to bring in a few choice outsiders at exactly the right time in your planning process. Outsiders will have no emotional or political ties to the other 95% of the plan so they are completely “weightless” and free to ideate without any gravitational constraints. And that’s exactly the kind of thinking we’re after with this last 5%. You’ve already done your blocking and tackling. Now it’s time for a few Hail Marys!

Three strategies to recruit your antigravity machine:

1. Freelancers: I like the idea of hiring three freelancers for a full day to do nothing but ideate against that last 5%. For added perspective, I’d consider two creative people (writers or art directors) and one innovative media planner. Brief them and put them in a room for the day. Maybe feed them.
2. AOR people from other accounts: you could ask your current agency to recruit a few choice talented folks from their shop who do not work on your account, and, so are not restrained by any “account-gravity.” Be sure to pay the agency for the man hours.
3. Hire a firm that specializes in marketing ideas, like mine (Ideasicle): shameless plug, I know, but this kind of project is smack dab in the middle of our wheelhouse. Our talent is pre-recruited, we’re total outsiders, we enjoy all the benefits of Expert Sourcing and virtual ideation (and there are many), we love projects like these, and we we’re not built to be anyone’s Agency of Record, so are not a threat.

Now, set them free.

Regardless of how you recruit your antigravity machine, here’s how you might brief them in one hour or less, once NDAs are signed:

• Share the 95% marketing plan, a sampling of your intended communications (ads, web site, social stuff, etc.), and any inspiring thoughts you have to get them going.
• As importantly, give this team permission to be irresponsible, irreverent, rebellious, and a little nuts. Think Hail Mary, not a standard screen pass.
• Tell them you want to build upon the 95% but not replicate it in any way. The 5% needs to be completely experimental stuff.
• Lastly, let them know the monetary value of the 5%, so they know roughly what the ultimate budget parameters will be, but then tell them to present way more ideas than you’ll ever be able to afford. That way, you’ll have plenty to sift through.

And then…let your antigravity machine rip and see what you get.

Postscript: 

I would strongly encourage you to hold off going through the ideas until you can go through them with your agency partner together and at the same time. Two reasons: one, some of the ideas will likely inspire your agency partner with “augments” to the 95% plan; two, the agency will see your positive reaction to “wild and crazy” ideas.

And that last one might just lessen the gravity of the whole situation.

CLICK HERE TO JOIN THE DISCUSSION ON IDEASICLE FACEBOOK PAGE.

Click to learn about the revolutionary marketing ideas company, Ideasicle.

Today we have Edward Boches, Social Media Guru and Chief Innovation Officer at Mullen Advertising. On the forefront of the social media space, Edward has strong feelings about how we need to live and think differently in this brave new world. And, coming from a guy who’s seen it all, his take on creativity and ideas is valuable for any idea person.

SHOW NOTES:

• How does one make the transition from Creative Director to Chief Innovation Officer at an ad agency? Edward did it and tells all.
• Great bit about how organizational innovation has to happen from the inside out. The people need to think differently and the culture has to reward people differently. And the company needs to practice what it preaches. Example: http://www.thenextgreatgeneration.com/ (invented by Mullen).
• Are you “T shaped”? Edward thinks being so is a very good thing in innovative organizations.
• Edward agrees with me that the act of creativity has changed but takes it a step further – the creative technologists are the most important people in the ad agency these days.
• Edward suggests that we all need to “fail to survive.” Great theme, and Edward expands on this one.
• Related to that is the power of just getting started. Trying stuff. Being fearless.
• Edward also talks about how he improves his own creativity by forcing “Steven Johnson-like” idea collisions.

BIO:

Edward Boches is the Chief Innovation Officer Mullen in Boston. That means his job, as he puts it, is to constantly hack the system in an effort to inspire change and get people to embrace the new technologies, platforms and consumer behaviors necessary to create cool and relevant ideas for clients. Over his 30 year career, Edward has been a newspaper reporter, speech writer, account executive, public relations counsel, copywriter and creative director. He’s built a full-service ad agency; worked with dozens of noteworthy brands; launched high-tech and internet start-ups; collaborated with world famous directors, photographers and editors; co-written television commercials with Ellen DeGeneres; presented ideas to Oprah Winfrey; created award winning websites; launched an emerging social media practice; and incubated thenextgreatgeneration.com.

When they say a rolling stone gathers no moss, I think they’re talking about Edward Boches! You can follow Edward at his fantastic blog called “Creativity Unbound.”

CLICK HERE TO JOIN THE DISCUSSION ON THE IDEASICLE FACEBOOK PAGE.

Click to learn about the revolutionary marketing ideas company, Ideasicle.

Remember the feeling you had when you first heard that idea?

They say you only have one chance to make a first impression. True, but I would add that you only have one chance to remember a first impression.

I believe ideas are energy. The more energy they generate, in the form of emotion in the individual perceiving it, the more potently the idea will perform in the marketplace. And any idea’s energy is at its pique when it’s first consumed by someone. Once that moment – the idea’s “first impression” – passes, it’s all down hill from there. The idea doesn’t get any less good. We just forget how great we felt when we first heard it.

So, when I present Ideasicle ideas to clients, I’ll do my normal set up before getting to the ideas. I’ll review the New Idea Brief, explain how we approached the assignment, and review a few other details about the project. Then, right before the first idea is revealed, I’ll suggest that they write down exactly how they feel about each idea after hearing me describe it. Not what they think of the idea, but how the idea makes them feel.

That is the idea’s first impression. And here’s why it’s so difficult for clients to remember. It’s not their fault.

The color in the idea can fade over time.

It’s no one’s fault, in fact. It’s just human nature at work. If we present 12 ideas to an Ideasicle client, the client generally will take their favorite 4-6 and represent those to others in the organization. They’ll post our idea pages on the wall, play them out in their heads. All smart things to do. However, with each review of the idea, the color in the idea fades in the clients’ minds. It’s not unlike a great song played too many times on the radio. By the time the idea hits the marketplace, a client may already be sick of it!

It’s at this critical moment that ideas get tweaked, reworked, over thought and over written for all the wrong reasons. Unfortunately, these reasons have more to do with the client wishing to re-manufacture the energy of that “first-impression feeling” than making the idea better suited for the unwitting marketplace. And it’s not just clients. Creative people, account people, planners, everybody does it.

What we all need to remember is that, even after all the presentations, reviews and meetings, there’s a wildly more important audience out there still awaiting the idea’s fresh, energy-filled first impression: the marketplace. And chances are the marketplace will feel the same way you did when you first heard the idea. Better, even, since the idea will have been wonderfully produced.

Make an impression of your first impression.

In your next idea presentation, write down how the ideas make you feel when you first hear them. And use emotional words, positive or negative: excited, proud, embarrassed, touched, ambivalent, pumped, deflated, scared, etc. Three words per idea will do it.

Later, when you start losing that loving feeling for the idea, you can go back into your notes and at least attempt to recapture the energy of the idea’s all-important first impression.

The impression it only had one chance to make.

And the one that the marketplace will never have if we’re not careful.

CLICK HERE TO JOIN THE DISCUSSION ON OUR IDEASICLE FACEBOOK PAGE.

Click to learn about the revolutionary marketing ideas company, Ideasicle.

Willpower is required for creativity.

There’s a new book out right now called Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength, by Dr. Roy Baumeister and John Tierney. The book talks about how our willpower is affected by two things: the number of decisions we make and the amount of glucose in our blood at the time. Normally, I wouldn’t care about such things. I tend to think too much willpower can get in the way of a happy life! But then I thought about it a little more and uncovered what might be a critical link to creativity. So now I do care.

Here’s what I mean. When I interviewed David Baldwin and Seth Schulman, among others, on the Ideasicle Podcast, they both talked eloquently about fear being the enemy of creativity. David said, “I try to be unafraid of my ideas…and be open to whatever’s in my head.” Seth had a slightly different take, “It’s all about giving yourself permission to screw up.” I can personally relate to both points. When creating something new, there is an inherent risk. Risk that it’s a bad idea, risk that you’ll be ridiculed, or worse.

Now, one could argue (and I am) that it takes willpower to overcome those fears and, as David put it, be open to whatever’s in your head at the time, on a personal level, but also fearless in the idea’s presentation to others, to Seth’s point.

Making decisions depletes your willpower. 

According to the Willpower book there are specific things we can do to increase our willpower, which, if you buy my logic above, will help you overcome “idea fear.” One is that making too many decisions creates what he calls “decision fatigue.” The more “fatigued” you are from all those decisions, the less strong your willpower becomes overall.

It’s no wonder, then, that all the impulse purchases are at the checkout counter, after the poor sap of a shopper has made countless purchase decisions and fatigued their willpower! But it makes sense in the marketing world, too. In fact, I wonder if modern ad agencies have intuitively known this all along because they’ve got the “account people” to make all the business decisions, which protects the “creative people” from decision fatigue as they ideate.

Sugar amplifies your willpower. 

There’s another less complex, and much more enjoyable, influence to our collective will, according to Dr. Baumeister’s research. And that is glucose. Sugar. The white stuff (not that white stuff). Apparently, your willpower is at least partially restored if you eat something sugary. Explains the M&Ms in the back room of focus group facilities – keeps you from succumbing to your burning desire to get the eff out of there, I guess. But apparently, a couple bites of sugar has been shown to increase willpower in Baumeister’s studies.

So here’s a fear-slaying, idea-enhancing formula.

Ideasicle Experts take notice here. To increase your willpower, and thereby slay the dragon of idea-fear, do the following:

1. Less decisions. Don’t make too many decisions before you sit down to work. Maybe you do your heaviest idea-lifting in the morning?
2. More sugar. Eat a Snickers bar just prior to your creative session for an added boost of fear-slaying willpower.

And then? Fear, be damned. We’ve got you licked.

CLICK HERE TO JOIN THE DISCUSSION ON OUR IDEASICLE FACEBOOK PAGE.

Click to learn about the revolutionary marketing ideas company, Ideasicle.

Even when they're this cute, ideas first.

Life fuels ideas, but…

We talk a lot around Ideasicle’s virtual halls about how important it is to interact with life to help spur ideas. To read, go to movies, hit the museum, and otherwise simply live life. We want the billions of brain cells we’ve got churning on a creative project, even subconsciously, to be introduced to fresh, external thoughts that may just yield that big new revelation.

But let’s face it. Sometimes life gets in the way. And if ideas are your lifeblood, it can’t.

A couple weeks ago I was running around with my family in Maine on a mini-vacation. Suddenly, and without warning, ideas started hitting me, rapid-fire, for a project I was working on for Ideasicle. I don’t know why. Could’ve been the almonds I ate (they have Omega-3 fatty acids), the amount of sleep I had the night before (those alpha waves), or some successful incubation going on. Regardless, I wasn’t planning on this “idea onslaught” happening right then and right there. What made matters worse was that I had one child wanting to putt on the putting green with me (this hotel had an awesome putting green), and another child wanting me to pull him around in the pool.

But there I was, waist deep in the pool, and these ideas started to hit me. Should I interrupt my playtime with my six year old and record these ideas? Or pray that I don’t forget the ideas and play on? That kid is very hard to resist!

To be an idea person, life must come second.

As you most definitely know, to be an idea person today, there is no “on” and there is no “off.” There is just an idea person standing in a pool (like I was) and then, when you least expect it, the ideas hit you. Could be at a restaurant, watching TV, at a ballgame, or wherever life takes you. The creative process is less in our control than we like to think (see “What the hell is up with the shower and ideas?” post for more on that).

Interacting with life increases the odds of ideas happening, sure. But the key is to never let life get in the way of recording your ideas.

Sounds crude, I know. It’s rude to suddenly interrupt your life to record an idea. But creativity knows no bounds in time or in space. Ideas hit you when they damn well want to hit you. And if ideas are your lifeblood, your essence and your income, it’s critical to obey their wishes. Even at a small social cost.

Let your life know (in advance).

The best approach, I find, is to manage expectations by preparing the people in your life. In general, but also when you know you’re going to be chomping on an assignment. For example, let’s say you’re going out to dinner with friends. Tell them you may have to pop off and record a note on your iPhone from time to time right up front. Since you are an idea person yourself, you probably hang out with other idea people, so it won’t be a big deal. But if in “mixed company,” here’s a tip. Tell your friends, “You just inspired something,” even if they didn’t, and go off and record your note. Thinking they inspired you makes them feel better about your absence. Is it a lie? Maybe. But the idea is your lifeblood. Obey its wishes.

So you may be wondering what I did in the pool that day. Did I continue playing or did I interrupt my playtime to record the ideas? As you may suspect, ideas are very much my lifeblood so I got out, dried my hands, recorded the ideas on my iPhone and jumped back into the pool. Took about a minute. My son knew exactly what I was doing and was unfazed. He is conditioned now to know, “That’s what Dad does sometimes.”

And if he wants to go to college someday, he’ll recognize that it’s a small price for him to pay!

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Click to learn about the revolutionary marketing ideas company, Ideasicle.

BACKGROUND STORY:

Quick thank you to Jim Harold of the Paranormal Podcast, where I first heard Dr. Andrews expertly interviewed by Jim. They talked about a lot of things related to her new book, “The Path Of Energy,” but they touched on creativity. Consider this interview with the Ideasicle Podcast a “Part II” to Jim’s interview, where we go much deeper on the topic of energy’s influence on our ideas. I highly recommend you listen to Jim’s interview with Dr. Andrews as well. You can do that here. Thanks, Jim!

SHOW NOTES:

• Dr. Andrews begins by defining “subtle energy” and “life force” for us, as well as explains the role of our chakras metabolizing energy for us and broadcasting who we are to the world.
• Kids are better at paying attention to their subtle energy than adults are. We get trained out of it. But all hope is not lost!
• Dr. A describes a fascinating experiment where human thought actually influenced the development of common ice crystals.
• And another experiment that seems to prove that DNA has an electromagnetic organizing force that perhaps we can tap into. See that study here: http://arxiv.org/pdf/1012.5166.
• She talks about how subtle energy can influence our ideas and how creativity may just be the driving force of humanity.
• Crowdsourcing in the ether? She talks about our collective consciousness and the morphic resonance field (don’t worry, she explains it all) and how it’s been proven that anyone in a particular species can tap into the collective knowledge of that species.
• We discuss whether the worldwide web is helping us connect or getting in the way of these natural energetic connections.
• Dr. A describes meditation techniques that can increase our subtle energy, as well as enhance our “alpha waves,” which is a creative place to be.
• Even the 5,000 year old “Ice Man” proves how long human beings have known about subtle energy – the man’s skin had tattoos consistent with an acupuncture map!
• We conclude by getting Dr. Andrews’ thoughts on where humanity will be in 1,000 years, as it relates to connectivity of minds and subtle energy. Fascinating stuff.

BIO:

Dr. Synthia Andrews is a naturopathic physician with 30 years experience as a massage and energy practitioner. Through her practice, she realized that the body is a fully equipped vehicle for engaging energy reality. Understanding how to awaken this vehicle and facilitate people’s energy path is her life work. She uses the techniques in her book, “The Path of Energy,” personally, in client sessions and in meditation groups. She teaches energy awareness workshops and lectures around the world.

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About Ideasicle:

Click to learn about the revolutionary marketing ideas company, Ideasicle.

Ideology is no better than an antiquated user’s manual.

I looked up the word “ideology” in the dictionary on my Mac and got this: “the ideas and manner of thinking characteristic of a group, social class, or individual.”

The key phrase in that definition is “characteristic of a group,” because that means the “ideas” and “manner of thinking” are already baked, communicated and adopted by said group.

As you all know, our system of government has two primary “ideologies” dominating our political conversation: Liberalism and Conservatism. And I would argue that the reason our country can’t move forward is that the people attempting to solve our problems are trying to solve them with ideology, not creativity. Our country is where it is because we get four or eight years of this ideology followed by four or eight years of the other. It’s as if these respective parties believe their ideological “user’s manual” can just be followed and everything will be fixed. But a user’s manual is only helpful when the thing you’re building is pre-conceived, unwavering, and fixed, like an IKEA coffee table. The country is anything but unwavering right now.

What we need is a creative president (desperately).

We need someone who is skilled at looking at mounds of data and finding an insight no one else has seen. That’s creativity.

We need someone whose very core recoils with the thought of doing anything that’s been done before. That’s creativity, with a dash of healthy ego.

We need someone who not only lives with a natural flow of his or her own ideas, but surrounds him or herself with people who not only have their respective disciplines and perspectives (like modern day “advisors” to the president), but are prolific with ideas themselves. That’s a creative environment.

But creativity doesn’t end there. We also need someone who is willing to try things, to take chances, to conduct test markets, and to challenge conventions. That’s creativity taken all the way to innovation, pray tell. Imagine if our government were innovative.

Ideology-driven politics means too many things are automatically unthinkable. We need someone who truly believes that nothing is unthinkable.

I would rather see a Dan Wieden, creative director of Wieden & Kennedy, in the White House than Barack Obama. I would rather see a Steve Jobs, founder of Apple, in the White House than a Mitt Romney. It could be any “kind” of creative person. Look at Vaclav Havel. He was a poet for God’s sake and did wonders for the Czech Republic.

What we can do between now and 2012.

Sadly, I seriously doubt Dan or Steve or anyone equally creative within a particular segment of society would even want the job. They’re happy with what they’re doing because they are already doing great things. But there is still something WE can do as the important 2012 elections draw closer. Let’s look for the most creative candidate regardless of ideology. Better yet, let’s find a way to insert “creativity” into the national debate. Who is most likely to find the insights in the data? Who recoils at the thought of doing what’s been done before? Who surrounds him or herself with creative thinkers instead of broken-record ideologues?

I have no idea (ironic, I know) how to get the “creative factor” injected into the national debate, other than to write this post and hope that it does. But maybe you do. Maybe you’ve got connections to the national media or to the candidates themselves and can forward this post on. If you do, let us know at Ideasicle so we can track your progress.

What I do know is that our nation doesn’t need another ideologue president. It needs a creative director. And, whether or not “creativity” becomes a national topic, it’s how I will be evaluating the candidates in 2012.

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Click to change the vibe.

I recently had an unthinkable moment.

I heard a friend of mine in the ad biz, who shall remain nameless, say the following: “There are no new ideas.” Hearing this, my brows immediately furrowed, my heart sunk, and my aura completely collapsed. When air finally returned to my lungs, I asked this person, a prominent creative person at a big-time ad agency in Boston, how on Earth he could possibly think that, let alone say it. He said that he felt that all new ideas were derivative of old ideas, and that, therefore, there really was never anything new.What a depressing thought. A thought that I’d heard before from others inside the ad biz and out. And a thought that I believe needs to be buried like a begrudged hatchet. Here’s why.

Combinations of old ideas are new ideas.

Everyone, when faced with any kind of problem – be it a marketing problem, societal problem, political problem, personal problem, any problem – starts to solve it in a world that has progressed to a certain point at that particular moment in time. All that is at that moment is all that our hero has to work with in solving the current problem. Could be that an existing idea will solve his or her problem. And, as it is human nature to find the path of least resistance, our hero will rightly start there. But if all that is isn’t enough, innovation must be mothered, even if that new idea is the combination of two heretofore existing, but unrelated, ideas.Let’s take an exaggerated example. Remember that show MacGuyver from the 1970’s? This guy was great. He could be locked up in a foreign prison with nothing but a paper clip and some soap, say, and make a bomb that would blast the prison doors wide open, once again guaranteeing another episode the following Thursday night. Clearly, MacGuyver was an avid follower of Polaroid founder, Edwin Land’s, who once wisely said, “Any problem can be solved using the materials in the room.”Now, was the paperclip a new idea? Nope. Was the soap anything new? Notta. Both of these were just existing ideas, or “materials in the room.” However, the combination of that soap and paper clip in order to make a bomb was an entirely new idea.

It’s time to change the vibe.

Maybe it’s just semantics. Maybe my creative director friend and I are really saying the same thing, but using different words. I dunno. But I do know that this world we’re living in right now is malnourished for ideas. I don’t just mean marketing ideas (though that’s true). I mean this world is in a giant intellectual rut on so many levels it’s scary. Look no further than our own impotent Congress. Even the New York Times is getting depressed about it (see “The Elusive Big Idea” article from this past weekend). But the negative vibe created by such articles pining for the old days of big ideas and statements like my friend’s, “There are no new ideas,” don’t help. In fact, they limit the human spirit at the exact moment we need the human spirit to push itself beyond its limit.With new ideas, even if they are a combination of old ideas, nothing is impossible. Nothing can’t be done. Nothing will get in our way.

But to get there, we gotta believe that nothing is unthinkable. And we gotta get others thinking that nothing is unthinkable, too. Only then will we get this human idea-engine revving again.And, yes, I’m sending one of those T-shirts in the picture above to my creative friend. Planning to change one vibe at a time.

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Today we have advertising giant, Jon Steel. Learn why he gives his direct reports unlimited vacation (it’s not why you think), how a baseball game was the impetus behind one of the great Goodby campaigns of all time, and get his view as to what creativity really is, among many, many more topics (like why a dog licks his balls, which is helpful).

Click on Jon’s picture to play the podcast, or click here to subscribe via iTunes and never miss an episode.

SHOW NOTES:

• To Jon, creative talent is about the process of reduction.
• Creativity is about making connections in your life. No one has ideas at their desk.
• Creative people tend to collect things, but also collect experiences. That’s why he gives his planners unlimited vacation.
• You can’t inspire all creative people the same way – great example with word man, Jeff Goodby, and the visual man, Rich Silverstein.
• Once again the topic of mundane, repetitive activities comes up as catalysts for creativity. Jon tells us why, and what he does to keep his own creative edge.
• Great bit about how Jon thinks the communications business has changed (and hasn’t) as it relates to our creative approach. Hint: creativity has gotten lazy.
• Big insight under the banner, “Why does a dog lick his balls?” You can listen in to see how Jon used that one to make a salient point about communications in the new world.

BIO:

Jon is an advertising strategist and writer, whose job is to provide strategic and creative direction to WPP Group clients and agencies alike.

Prior to joining WPP, he trained as an account planner at London agency Boase Massimi Pollitt, before spending ten years as Vice-Chairman and Director of Account Planning at Goodby, Silverstein & Partners in San Francisco. His client experience includes brands like Nike, Coca-Cola, Hewlett-Packard, Unilever, Sony, Major League Baseball, Porsche and Budweiser.

Jon is the author of Truth, Lies & Advertising (1998) and Perfect Pitch (2006), both published by John Wiley & Sons, New York.

Now living in Western Australia, he works with George Patterson/Y&R as Chief Strategy Officer. In addition to this role, he is responsible for WPP’s Marketing Fellowship program, an elite recruitment and training scheme designed to attract top graduate talent from around the world to careers in marketing communications.

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Now, all that said, Universe, and given the clear importance of creativity to our long-term survival, why is it that our best ideas come to us in the shower? Really?

Evolution would say otherwise, right?

One would think that the human evolution you so carefully orchestrated would not only have sharpened our creative abilities over time (which it undeniably has), but would make those abilities ridiculously easy to turn on and off when we need them. One would not think we’d have to wait for the idea to emerge after the suds hit our armpits during the mundane, repetitive, menial tasks that make up a shower.

But it’s true. Creativity is often out of the creator’s control. I think that’s why our language reflects such “self-removal” from our own creative processes. For example, when we say an idea “hit” us, we are essentially saying it came from “out there” and “hit” us. Other phrases like, “it came to me out of the blue” our “out of thin air” also describe the illusion of ideas coming at us, versus coming out of us.

Maybe the great creative mystery is not about where ideas come from, but about when. For me, as I’ve alluded to above, they seem to come directly out of the shower head. And I’m not alone.

And it’s not just the shower.

I posed the “When do ideas happen?” question to Ideasicle’s nearly 700 Facebook fans (www.facebook.com/ideasicle) and got nearly 30 responses, all in agreement that this bizarre phenomena exists, and many had great examples of their own mundane, repetitive, boring tasks that seemed to breed ideas.

Here are just a few of them: while showering (common one), driving (another common one), in church, reading a book, folding clothes, chopping wood, cruising in a boat, cleaning horse stalls (!), ironing, running, mowing the lawn, cycling, and gardening. All of these activities can be parts boring, parts monotonous, parts rhythmic, and parts repetitive. And, yet, these same activities somehow liberate creativity.

A possible answer.

Well, I wanted to find out why ideas bubble up when we’re not looking. So, as I am want to do, I reached out to some experts. Ernie Schenck, world famous creative director, explored idea-power during sleep because of the alpha waves in his piece, “The Theater Of Morning Voices.” Jamie Cat Callan, writer and recent guest on the Ideasicle Podcast, called it “The Artistic Trance.” Love that. Or, as Jon Steel, one of the great brand planners of all time, said in an upcoming podcast, “No one has ideas at their desks” (meaning, ideas hit you when you’re living). Or this, from Dorothea Brande’s book Becoming a Writer:  “…almost every writer alive occupies himself in some quite idiosyncratic way. In that interlude, it is seldom noticed that these occupations have a kind of common denominator.  Horseback riding; knitting; shuffling and dealing cards; walking; whittling;  you see they have a common denominator–of three figures, one might say.  All these occupations are rhythmical, monotonous, and wordless.  And that is our key…Every author, in some way which he has come on by luck or long search, puts himself into a very light state of hypnosis.”

Now, couple all that with a more scientific answer from Dr. Bob Deutsch, cultural anthropologist and another of our esteemed guests on the Ideasicle Podcast, “Part of the explanation is that defocusing reduces activity in the prefrontal cortex where logic predominates.”

Aha! Could it be that these mundane, monotonous tasks literally remove logic from the equation? Makes sense. Creativity abhors logic. Logic is creativity’s Kryptonite, and, therefore, your Kryptonite if you’re an idea person. Logic is the filter that kills anything new.

Perhaps ad agencies should pack away their ping-pong tables, pool tables and dart boards, and replace them with piles of wood to chop, sinks full of dirty dishes and cars they can rent out and drive. And perhaps all of us should increase the frequency of such monotonous moments to keep our humanity out of the way and unlock more unfiltered, illogical brilliance.

One thing is clear.

Somebody needs to study this topic more. The more we understand it, the more we can harness it. I’ll keep after it as best I can.

And, by the way, in case you were wondering, I did, in fact, come up with this blog post idea in the shower. Where else?

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We’ve come up with over 500 marketing ideas for eleven amazing (and brave, I might add) early adopters like AMD, Chevy Cruze/Silverado, Miranda Technologies and The Boston Globe, to name a few. Along the way, we’ve fine-tuned our pioneering “expert sourcing” model thanks to the advice of both clients and our Ideasicle Experts. We’ve also learned cranium-loads about the nature of human creativity itself.

One thing is now clear: expert sourcing works.

As our newest client, Kevin Joyce, CMO of Miranda Technologies, recently put it, “Having access to some of the most creative minds in marketing without having to boil the ocean is the future of how we should all be working. Ideasicle works.”

In this, our first “Annual Report,” I‘d like to explain why Ideasicle, and our expert sourcing model, works.

First, when perspectives collide, magic happens.

Keith Sawyer says in his book, Group Genius, “Understanding how individual creativity combines with group genius is the key to realizing creative potential.” Damned if we didn’t prove that point at Ideasicle this past year. The partially naïve theory I had going into all this was: If I could recruit brilliant people to come up with ideas virtually, pay them well while keeping our overhead otherwise extremely low, we could give our clients access to a marketing weapon they’ve never had before, certainly not at these prices. I figured that each Expert individually would post their ideas, I’d go through them all, present the best ones, and that would be it. I didn’t anticipate that the real magic would happen between the Experts. Turns out the Experts didn’t simply post their own ideas; they read each other’s ideas, riffed off those ideas, developed them, and validated them. This kind of “sparring” doesn’t happen in crowd sourcing models because everyone is competing against everyone else. In line with Sawyer, I believe it’s the combination of individual creativity and group genius that renders Ideasicle a magic making machine (that was almost the name of the company, by the way – “The Magic Making Machine” but somebody owned it).

Second, expert sourcing offers finely-tuned expertise.

I suppose that if I had recruited twenty random adults, called them Experts, and given them the same virtual tools, I may have gotten some positive results. But here’s the thing: While anyone can come up with an idea, not everyone can come with a brilliant idea, and do it quickly. So I didn’t recruit random people. I recruited the most brilliant people I’d ever worked with. Real barn-burners with experience at places like Goodby, Wieden, Chiat, BBDO, Crispin, Arnold and many other tier-one creative agencies. I finely tuned our expertise by filtering not only for brilliance, but speed (see “Picasso Principle” for more on that) because I wanted part of Ideasicle’s value prop to be quick turnarounds (we had one day for one ad-agency client!). These Experts are the types who, if you can infect their brains with an inspiring brief, can’t help but come up with ideas. They don’t come up with ideas just as a job, it’s who they are. So, they are an exclusive club of hand-picked magic makers.

But selectivity was just the beginning. In the early days, I put all the Experts on each job and, while the results were good, the process was a bit of a mess. No one felt ownership over the projects, Experts felt a level of intimidation posting an idea for nineteen others to see, and, as a result, the ideas that emerged took awhile to emerge and tended to be air-tight with little room for influence or improvement. I wound up knocking the number down to five per project and then, finally, four, which turned out to be the magic number. Then, once the Ideasicle Experts had each completed a few jobs in teams of four, they seemed to sharpen themselves as they cut. I would assign the four Experts to a job – maybe a cultural strategist, a CMO, a digital guru and a creative director – and  because of the vastly different perspectives of each Expert, each one would leave the session a better Expert. They learn from each other, are inspired by each other, and hear about new tactics and strategies from each other, simply by participating in our ideation sessions. The Experts often tell me in our post-mortem email chains things like, “I feel like I learned a lot” or “That was seriously inspiring.” And these are people with an average of seventeen years experience!

More recently, we’ve discovered that we can improvise on the fly with the team make-up, with excellent results. We can work a new Expert into a single project almost on a moment’s notice. The Ideasicle model is so virtual and our industry connections so vast that it’s simple to recruit people with a niche expertise and team them up with a couple of my regular stable of Experts. We did exactly that for two AMD projects – one targeting the United Arab Emirates and the other targeting Mexico City (read about how the UAE project unfolded here). In both cases, I was able to find and vet brilliant Experts with expertise in their respective countries to work with my existing Experts in the States. In the case of the UAE, the UAE Experts would post ideas during their day (our night), and the US Experts would respond and post ideas during our day (UAE night), so in some ways it was even more efficient. The point is that we can finely tune the team itself, on the fly, whenever necessary, while still maintaining tight reigns on ideation quality.

Third, our creative process conforms to human creativity (not the other way around).

When I started all this, I thought Ideasicle’s virtual nature would encumber the ideation process. Being from agencies like Wieden, Mullen and Arnold myself, I assumed nothing beats good ol’ face-to-face ideation. I’ve since found quite the opposite: Virtual ideation augments an individual’s creativity in several important ways. One is the removal of physical barriers. At a traditional agency, or even ideation on the client side, people might hold a brainstorm in a room, with maybe some pizza and lots of white boards. Now, people being people, it’s impossible to “depoliticize” the dynamics of that room. Some participants are more senior, some more junior, some are “supposed” to be idea people, some are just smart (hopefully), some are well spoken, some sort of shy, some report to others, some are the boss, etc. As a result, a significant, but unspoken filter is applied to every idea in the session. In the backs of our minds, we hear, “What will all these people think of me?” In contrast, the Ideasicle virtual model reduces every Expert to a typeface. Each of the team of four is equal. All that matters is what the Experts type into their keyboards on the ideation site. That’s it. No politics, no dominating personalities, no intimidation. Just ideas, pure and unadulterated. And when it’s this pure, the thinking is immediately liberated.

Virtual ideation also facilitates creativity because it operates in a time-deferred manner. There’s nothing I can’t stand more than “appointment creativity,” where you have exactly two hours to come up with the idea, on a Tuesday, between three and five in the afternoon, because that’s the only time you can get together to work on the assignment. At Ideasicle, I’ll post a video briefing on the password-protected site on a Monday, and Experts can view that briefing on their time (most do view it the day it’s posted). When it comes to posting ideas, some Experts are immediately inspired and start posting. Others let the briefing sink in for a day or two, let it collide with their life’s experiences, let it percolate while sleeping or taking a shower the next day. Creativity abhors a gun pointed at its head, so Ideasicle puts little flowers in those gun barrels and lets human nature run its creative course.

Lastly, Ideasicle’s expert sourcing model facilitates creativity because it’s fun. Really fun. One Expert put it this way: “It’s like an idea video game.” It is always fun to come up with ideas, particularly for this crew of creative geniuses. But by removing the physical barriers, requiring that Experts attend no presentations, eliminating all the bullshit that normally accompanies idea generation, and by conforming to the Experts’ personal methods of creativity, I can see why our Experts have such a blast working on Ideasicle assignments. And it shows. Fun is the fuel of genius.

Finally, we are financially liberated to come up with any idea.

When I started Ideasicle and made clear that a major part of the premise would be “no execution!” people thought I was nuts. They told me all the money is in production, not ideas. It’s about billing hours because clients don’t value ideas. I’ll never make money just on ideas, they said. I countered with my belief that Ideasicle could never be 100% unbiased if we were a slave to the “Time of Staff” business model. A company full of people ready to execute stuff is more likely to come up with ideas that those people can execute. And therein lies the problem for me, and the business opportunity for Ideasicle. Execution is quickly becoming democratized and cheaper. Couple that with the fact that what clients want most are better ideas, particularly in a marketplace that changes as fast as ours. I wagered that clients would pay for a secret weapon for ideas on two conditions: The ideas were genius and the ideas were completely unbiased (you could add “at a surprisingly low price” as a third, if you like). While Ideasicle is not right for every client, so far I’m winning that bet, knock on wood. Our clients use their own resources (in house agencies or other agency partners) to execute – see our first case study for AMD here. And Ideasicle is free to ideate with no financial bias. Hell, we don’t care if an idea is free to execute, as long as it will work. Do we leave money on the table? Yes, every time. Are we coming up with better ideas as a result? Damn straight.

So there you have it. Year Two will no doubt present us with new opportunities for further refinement. And you know what? With no bricks, mortar or bloated staff, changeables are part of Ideasicle’s DNA, like payables and receivables.

Bring it on.

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Click on her picture to play the podcast, or click here to subscribe via iTunes and never miss an episode.

BIO:

Jamie is the author of “French Women Don’t Sleep Alone” and the recently published “Bonjour, Happiness! Secrets to Finding your Joie de Vivre” She is the creator of The Writer’s Toolbox, and has appeared in The New York Times Modern Love column, the Missouri Review, Story and many other places.  Jamie is also an inspirational speaker, a total Francophile and an unabashed romantic.

SHOW NOTES:

• Jamie knew she was a writer when, as a child, her Barbie Doll went bad. Hilarious story.
• Jamie talks to us about embracing surprise and the concept of polarity in storytelling.
• A well developed character tells the writer what he or she “wants” to do (same for brands).
• She does a product demo of her wonderful “Writer’s Toolbox” extolling the virtues of play in creativity.
• We talk about what creativity is and what Jamie calls the “artistic trance.” (very cool)
• We discuss how rhythmic, repetitive activities (like vacuuming, mowing the lawn, doing dishes, etc.), can free the creative spirit.
• We end with Jamie’s advice to surrender your adult self to playful creativity.

CLICK HERE TO JOIN THE DISCUSSION ON THE IDEASICLE FACEBOOK PAGE.

I believe Tarot cards actually work, but not because they are magic.

I believe they work because they force a person to pay attention to disruptive information. Here’s what I mean. In order for new ideas to happen, different information must collide in one’s head. The information you have in your “collective experience” must collide with information “out there,” be that from something you stumble across in your environment or something from someone else’s head. The problem is, people tend to be rhythmic and live rhythmically, going through their day-to-day lives with much of what’s around them going unnoticed. And much of what’s around us is information just begging to collide with our personal information. As a result, I’d venture that millions of new ideas per minute, worldwide, never crystallize because potential new connections are not made. And they’re not made because we’re not paying attention.

The “magic” is in us, not the cards.

The “magic” of Tarot cards is that they force a person to pay attention to new information in the context of a personal issue (the question the person is asking the Tarot reader to help him or her with). Put another way, the display of Tarot cards on the table in front of someone creates an “arena” for very personal idea-collisions to happen. The brilliance of the Tarot is that each Tarot card is assigned inherent meaning – there’s a guide that comes with every deck that tells you what each card means. And, as each card is revealed and is explained to the person, this new information (the card’s meaning) enters the person’s collective experience, collides with other information already there and, sometimes, incites new ideas about the question asked.

Each card, then, is the equivalent of a life experience, a thought, an inspiration, that, because you are now actively paying attention, can disrupt your normal, rhythmic, otherwise predictable thought processes. The “magic” that people attribute to Tarot cards is really the result of two disparate thoughts colliding in the perceiver’s mind. The  proverbial “Aha!” moment. I think we’d all agree that having “Aha!” moments feel magical.

The world is our Tarot.

We don’t need Tarot cards to get this same effect. To me, life’s experiences are “Tarot cards.” Everything that happens to us, big and small, is information we COULD allow to disrupt our rhythmic line of thinking, thereby creating new thoughts, new insights, new ideas. Try this. Think about a marketing problem you’re working on. Stop on the street next time you’re outside and look around. What catches your eye? A sign? Some trash? An interesting car? Now, bring the thought of that object into your consciousness and see what happens. You might be amazed at what a daily “Tarot moment” like this will do for your creativity.

We’re surrounded by inspirational “Tarot cards.” But they only work if we pay attention.

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Author: Will Burns is the founder of Ideasicle, Inc., a virtual marketing ideas company.

HOWEVER…

I was shocked and dismayed to hear the following quote from Mr. Jantsch during an interview with Scott Ginsberg:

“Ideas are worthless. It’s execution there’s so little of.”

Now, before I react, a little context. Ginsberg was pushing his book, Ideas Are Free. Execution Is Priceless, and you could argue Jantsch was just playing nice with the guest and the theme. Ginsberg contends that people need more action and less thinking. Take the ideas you’ve got and go execute them. Get off your ass, essentially. And his book gives you words of inspiration to help you get off your ass.

Fine. Point taken. But ideas are worthless? Sorry, but that’s just irresponsible. And I hear it pretty often. In fact, every time I hear some newfangled marketing “expert” say this, I think to myself, “There’s that thought again, another step closer to the halls of conventional wisdom.” But no more. I can’t take it anymore.

Execution is obviously important because it helps the idea be the most it can be. BUT, the assumption in that logic is that the idea you’re executing is worth a damn. If it’s not, then all the “get off your assing” you do won’t save it. A bad idea will always be a bad idea no matter how much fabulous execution goes into it.

As my friend and one of the most brilliant creative directors I’ve worked with, Jerry Cronin, once said in the halls of Wieden & Kennedy, “You can’t buff a turd.”

Exactly.

But let’s not stop there. I’d go so far as to argue that a great idea can withstand sub-par execution to far greater effect than great execution can withstand a sub-par idea. In other words, I’d take a great idea horribly executed over a horrible idea wonderfully executed any day.

Hell, maybe I’ll write a counter-point book to Ginsberg’s. I’ll call it, Execution is Worthless Without A Great Idea. And it’ll be filled with inspirations to help you have a great idea today.

Or maybe I’ll just keep writing and producing my Ideasicle Blog & Podcast. Back to work.

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Click on Vivian’s picture above to play the podcast, or subscribe to the Ideasicle Podcast via iTunes and never miss an episode.

Bio:

Vivan Rosenthal has been mastering this new augmented-reality medium for a decade now. She got her masters at the Columbia University School of Architecture in 2001. She is the founder and CEO of Goldrun, an augmented reality app that enables users to locate, interact with and take photos of GPS-linked virtual objects positioned in the real world. Vivian is also the co-founder of Tronic studio, a digital media and experiential design company. She has been named one of Creativity Magazine’s top 50 global creatives of 2010 and has spoken at numerous conferences on the intersection of advertising and technology. She has been selected as a jury member for the Andy Awards and One Show Interactive Awards and the Art Directors Club.

Show Notes:

• We begin with Vivian defining what augmented reality is.
• We discuss the importance of moving away from gratuitous AR and towards more strategic applications now possible because of GPS connectivity.
• How do you know if you should develop an AR app? Vivian tells us.
• Great story about Y&R’s AR application with Airwalk (the first invisible pop-up store). Virtual products in the real world – very cool.
• When you can do everything, is it hard to do anything? I asked Vivian about the potentially overwhelming creative process when developing AR ideas.
• I also asked Vivian why human beings are so fascinated by AR. Think sci-fi…
• I was interested to learn how Vivian’s architecture background helped her “build” AR environments. Agencies, take heed. Interesting new angle on creative hiring.
• Vivian explains her new company, Gold Run, where AR is all they do.
• I put her on the spot at the end and ask her what creativity is and how she stays sharp.

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11:00 a.m.

Client sends email to Will Burns (that’s me) asking if Ideasicle had the expertise to come up with marketing ideas targeting youth in the United Arab Emirates.

11:15 a.m.

Will, in Boston, reads email and considers all of his experience in the United Arab Emirates market. Doesn’t take long…

11:15 (and 10 seconds) a.m.

Will starts to compose a response-email passing on the project, but stops himself half-way through. He has an idea. If he could recruit, say, two Middle Eastern creative Experts and combine them with two of his existing Ideasicle Experts, we could give it a go. The Middle Eastern Experts would serve as ideators, of course, but also keep us true to the cultural realities in the UAE.

11:27 a.m.

Will calls his good friend, Gary Leopold, owner of ISM Boston, a very creative travel agency and the current president of Magnet, a global network of agencies. Having presented to Magnet in January, Will asks Gary if the group has a Middle Eastern agency that Ideasicle could tap into for this assignment (actually it was a couple voicemails and emails, but whatever). Turns out there is! Gary kindly provides the contact information for the creative director, who is apparently brilliant, at a major agency in Dubai.

1:48 p.m.

Will composes an email inviting the Middle Eastern contact to join the Ideasicle ranks for this one assignment and, depending on how it goes, perhaps future assignments. And then…

3:20 p.m.

(Keeping in mind Dubai is 8 hours ahead of Boston)  The contact accepts and has another Middle Eastern creative Expert who can also join the team. Yes!

Note: Being an Ideasicle Expert requires a good amount of legal paperwork – NDA, Agreement of Terms, etc., so that our clients’ proprietary information is strictly protected. It’s an important pain to go through but each Expert only has to do it once and they’re covered forever.

3:45 p.m.

Will fires off an email with all the legal paperwork to his new best friends in the Middle East and they quickly turn around signed documentation. Ideasicle is now two Experts stronger than it was before.

3:56 p.m. Will notifies the client that Ideasicle will, in fact, be able to handle this assignment. He explains the plan. Client is more than satisfied and excited to see what we come up with (as is he).

Normally, each assignment is handled by our existing pool of Ideasicle Experts. But in less than five hours, this virtual company was able to build an amazing team designed specifically for a project focused a half a world away. I’ll let you know how we progress once the project is finished.

Hey, Gary, thank you. I owe you one.

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