Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Attitude & Aptitude, Creativity, Culture, Design, Innovation, Insight, Marketing, Perspective, Research, Technology
So a few months ago, I was invited to talk at a conference about ‘ideas’.
Yeah … I know, it’s all been said and done before, but the reality is a good idea is still the only legal means to counter distribution, history and cash.
The issue is a lot of the ideas being spoken about are not ideas, they’re attempts at hype.
The ad industry is notoriously bad at this, often confusing an ad idea with an idea or worse, confusing bollocks, with genius.
Anyway, while I was there, I got to hear a bunch of great people speak – people who have built sustainable businesses through genuine breakthrough ideas – and despite them covering a whole range of industries, there was one thing that was common to them all.
Their idea made sense.
They could describe it in a few words.
And while it’s true some of their ideas required massive infrastructure change before they would see success, at the heart of it, their idea was something simple and – to a certain degree – obvious.
Each one had tackled a real problem, not a marketing problem.
Each one had looked for what the audience didn’t like rather than improving what they did.
Each one was able to be utterly focused on what was the key deliverable to increase the odds of success.
Each one ensured the execution of their idea was as intuitive as possible to minimise the gap between the old ways and the new.
These 4 things helped them get investment.
These 4 things helped them get other people to share their enthusiasm for their idea.
These 4 things helped them build a business that disrupted the category to define the category.
It sounds so bloody simple and yet so few people are actually any good at doing it.
Sure, there’s a whole host of other factors that go on behind the scenes to make it happen … and they all talked about the stresses and failures they had along the way … but what really struck me was that regardless whether they had developed a new car brand or a new way for youth to interact, each and every one of them described their idea in a way that made sense.
Now compare that to some of the ideas we see from our industry …
Pegs that use weather aggregation technology to tell you when it is best to wash your clothes.
Plates that use holes to drain 30 calories of fat from each meal.
Caps that help blind paralympic swimmers, swim.
There’s a reason they end up as scam because no venture capitalist worth their salt would invest in them.
I know there are many, many brilliant people in this industry.
I know there are many brilliant ideas that can be turned into something phenomenal for brands and business.
But maybe it would help the whole industry if we stopped thinking we were the Idea Kings and learnt from the people who have made it happen … because while it seems what they have achieved is incredible, their genius is that they made is sound utterly acceptable and inclusive.
Filed under: Attitude & Aptitude, Brand Suicide, Comment, Crap Marketing Ideas From History!, Design, Innovation, Packaging, Pollution
Hello there.
Not that you asked, but yes – I did have a good birthday thank you very much.
I didn’t get anything stupid [which for me, means awesome] but it was lovely.
Jesus, how old do I sound!
Talking of old, I recently came across this …
Believe it or not, this photo is not all that old.
But what I love about it is that huge sticker declaring it to ‘never be obsolete’.
That’s some big claim.
It’s also a massive pile of bollocks.
Given the alleged breakthrough by Canadian company, D:Wave, all computers may soon be obsolete so for some company to suggest their 90’s PC Tower would be able to withstand decades of focused innovation and technological breakthrough is both massively misguided and massively misleading and anyone who fell for it deserves all they got.
But the other thing this photo did was remind me of the ‘stickers’.
Oh my god, back in the day, every computer had them.
Little logos explaining either what the machine claimed to do or the manufacturer of some of its components.
And people fell for it, because we didn’t know better and we were looking for some reassurance we weren’t being taken for a ride.
Even when they put a massive fucking sticker on it claiming ‘NEVER OBSOLETE’.
God we were gullible fools weren’t we and while I’d hope we have got past that, the fact is I know we haven’t.
Sure, the tech industry have started moving away from sticker pollution, but there’s a whole host of brands in a whole host of categories that have started taking it on. Just look at any car ad these days and it seems they have more logos on the page than words… which is why it seems this video is the perfect way to sign off this post.
Microsoft may no longer as bad as they once were, but it seems a lot of brands are still forgetting that confidence in your product is about what you don’t say, rather than what you do. By all means use channels to explain the benefits of your product … hell, you can even talk about who has been part of it’s development … but when it comes to the actual product, be focused and make it glorious.
I will go and lie down now.
So I was passing down a street in Shanghai recently when I saw this building …
Now you might not think there is anything striking about it – and you’re probably right – however those wooden strips that are covering the facade are new and have somehow managed to turn a pretty average looking building into something a bit more interesting.
I don’t know how much that update cost, but I bet it will more than pay for itself thanks to some easily impressed foreigner being happy to pay a higher rent for an apartment in there.
This is a classic mistake of a new expat.
They look at a building and see something that looks new and modern and so hand over masses of cash expecting everything to work smoothly.
Or should I say, everything to work as they had wherever they lived before.
But the thing is, while the apartment or building may have been updated, the infrastructure providing the utilities probably won’t have been [and even if they have, it will only be in the building and not the whole street] so soon they’ll soon find themselves living in an expensive and beautiful home that is riddled with problems because they failed to remember the rule ‘beauty is only skin deep’.
Or where apartments are concerned, brick deep.
But hey, with millions of people falling for ads that are all image, no substance, I guess we shouldn’t be too hard on the gullibility of your ‘fresh off the boat’ expat.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Attitude & Aptitude, Comment, Design, Innovation, Insight
After the madness of Monday, you’d think the Police would have picked me up and thrown me into a cell.
But no.
Idiots.
While normally I would take this as a sign that I can push things even further, even I accept there’s only so much anyone can take of my best friends penis [pun, most definitely not intended] so today I’m slowing the pace down and getting to something you may find interesting. Or at least more interesting than the subject matter of yesterday’s post.
I’ve written about my admiration – and occasional derision – for designers many times.
This is not purely because my wife is one, but because when they truly overcome – or solve – a problem, they do it in the most ingenious of ways.
Design helped Apple increase their brand value.
Design helped SONOS create a static logo that produces sound.
Design helped make the World laugh.
OK, this last point is taking the piss … but you get the gist of what I’m saying.
Anyway, the reason I am saying all this is because I recently saw another bit of brilliant design.
This …
Yep, stairs that have wheelchair access built right into them.
Simple, brilliant and effective.
As with many ingenious ideas, the solution seems so obvious.
As with many obvious ideas, it needs someone special to realise it.
Think sharp. Execute simple.
Last year I wrote a blog post about socks.
Well, less about socks and more about how they were marketing themselves.
Given I wear Birkenstocks, I never wear the thing – however if I did – I’d probably wear these.
And unlike the other ‘foot warmers’ I wrote about, they’re not claiming they’ll make you look a high-powered, fashionable and successful business man [albeit, one that looks like he’s stuck in the 1980’s] … which automatically makes me like them more.
Even if wearing them makes you look a bit like a serial killer.