URL shorteners are a great idea and they let you spread an idea quicker. But how about this for twist, one which has a password and a clue. You can allow people to look if they know enough to guess the password. A brilliant and big idea. It allows people to connect and feel they are worthy of getting there. So whether it is to show a birthday invite or for a treasure hunt, a members only event or Valentines day, this is a fun way to leave a treasure trail. Better still, as it is a shortened URL they have no idea what it is until they go there. Give my one a go here: http://trick.ly/3iP
Many a time I have cursed in a bar as I tried to get served and reasoned they would make a lot more money by having a few more of their surly, underpaid gap year students to get the drinks out faster. More drinks served, minus 1 x minimum wage per hour must surely mean bigger profits and happier customers. A solution has now arrived to this age old problem in a rather unusual way. Don’t take more people to the bar, take the bar to them! Table Tender is a new system that allows you to have control of your own beer pumps at the table. I am not sure if it will kick in, but it will certainly cut down waiting time at the bar. No you just need to get the rest of the round in…
With the arrival and huge hype around the new iPad, everyone is talking about Apple (again). But Apple is huge, with an uncanny ability to produce shiny new gadgets that are game changing. So how do you get a slice of this pie? They may seem to be engulfing the whole market, but there are a lot of people doing very well in specialising on products which feed the disciples of these products. So what is the big idea? For Twelve South it is all about specialising. They make sexy gadgets for your laptop, but only if it is an Apple. They have chosen a juicy market; people who are willing to pay more for a design led product that enhances their gadgets. There are thousands of people making accessories for iPhones, toys for iMacs, face book bolt ons, iTunes apps and other products that enhance already very popular products. They have a large market and are thriving.
So what can you do, that benefits from another products immense success?
Powerpoint is great, it is however massively overused and often used badly. The programme that has sent a million people to sleep and created the phrase: 'Death by PowerPoint', might now be coming to its own resting place. Because, there is a new kid on the block: Prezi.
Prezi is an exciting new online system that takes you around a large sheet of paper, rather than flicking through slides. The smooth animation zooms in on details and takes you seamlessly from one area to another. It really is breathtaking. It also is set up for you to imbed it into blogs and web pages. Presentations just got creative again.
Millions of people will keep using PowerPoint, but I have seen the future and it’s Prezi and what’s more, it looks pretty hot.
So what’s in a name? Quite a lot really. Modern brands make them worth millions and negative connotations can kill them. When did you last meet someone called Adolf? Over the last few weeks, I have been receiving invites from people to link up with them on Naymz It is trying to become the new Linked in. But there is a problem: there is already a Linked in and I think it is pretty good. I use linked in a fair it and have built up a good network, so why do I want to join a new one. It is unlikely I will find any new people and is it really going to be that different?
The big barrier for me is all about being a beginner. I love to ski and can get down pretty much anything, so why would I want to become a beginner to try snowboarding. It might be new (well not anymore) and trendy and better in places, but I just don’t want to go through the pain to get good when I have already got what I need. So I am saying no to Naymz, I wonder how many more will? And with the lifeblood of a new social network being people joining up and hence spreading the word, will it ever hit the critical velocity needed to make it work?
A while ago, the word hack had lots of bad connotations. You thought of shady people in darkened rooms taping away at computers trying to steal credit card details. Or slightly mad geeks probing the Pentagon to see if aliens really do exist and who shot JFK.
Now a hack can be a positive thing. The big idea being that you take something that is already out there and use it in a different way. It is people who have the foresight and vision to do this that make a difference. Ikea have made many breakthroughs, not least of which was looking at the equipment in their factories and asking what they could make, rather than only making doors in a door factory. This lead to huge cost reductions, busier factories and a big difference on the bottom line. We are doing a hack at the moment. We are using Survey Monkey : a site designed to run surveys online. Our Big Idea hack is to use this for delegate care for people to reply to an invitation. They click the link, fill in relevant details and let us know if they can come. Simple, but effective.
So what can you hack today? Look at processes in a different light and it could make a big difference.
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At all about the Idea we spotted this headline feature on Brand Republic about how the economic crisis is affecting how clients manage media agencies pitches because they feel it is more important than ever to get the most out of their agencies.
According to a report published by Billets, more than three quarters of clients find managing media agency pitched ‘painful and time-consuming’. What a headline shocker.
Being on the agency side of the pitch ‘painful and time consuming’ is a cutting comment when you know the amount of time, energy and thought that is put into the pitch process. However, it is hard to see who to point the blame at for this emerging ‘long process’ trend. You could say clients are starting to take advantage of the current climate or you could say that perhaps agencies are just so eager to get the clients on board they may be bending over a bit too much.
Our Big Idea is to say that agencies should start to put their foot down. Stick to your guns and tell clients you get what you pay for. But this would only work if all agencies are seen to do the same.
And clients; why not choose an agency because they are reliable, efficient, and have the right ideas, not because you feel you can get them to do more for the same prices as the cheapest agency pitch.
http://www.yourpitchsucks.com/about.html
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Top trumps: you had to be there to love them and I was. The game of comparing statistics to each other, the biggest, the heaviest, the smallest, the fastest. They spawned a huge selection of different versions from Star wars to FHM babes. I made a set of my own at one point and loved them. The world is moving on so far and it is no surprise that Google has another big idea. It is called squared and you build a square. This compares different things and in effect builds a set of top trumps. The big idea is that they show a picture and then different stats for each area, letting you compare what matters to you. You can change the stats, so on helicopters, I might be comparing price or how high they fly. Now this is fun to the amateur Top Trumps maker, but to me this is the best price comparison, product chooser engine ever. It is as always with Google really easy to use, it simply works. Have a play at www.google.com/squared. It is surprisingly addictive.
With the launch of Wolfram Alpha, there has been a lot of speculation about it being a Google killer. It is a big idea, but I dont think it has a chance as it is not in the same market as Google. Want to know about Jordan Breaking up with Peter Andre, or what Britney spears got up to with a watermelon? If you do Wolfram Alpha won’t be much help. But if you want to know the cubic volume of said watermelon or how many people are divorced and how this differs by States in the USA, then it is much more useful.
But this is not a problem, as they have not set out to be a Google killer; it has been thrust upon them. I think there is a market for niche search engines that look for specific things: Take Ice Rocket This is a specialist engine that searched blogs, twitter and social media sites. This is totally different and has its place. So Google rests safe on its laurels for another day, the real Google killer will be a big idea, but I think it will be a paradigm shift rather than a better site.
The online world has all sorts of things to make your life easier. I love email and online banking and a host of other things. We are all constantly told to be vigilant with our passwords and to ensure that no one knows them. But with paper statements being run down and a large amount of our affairs protected by a password, what happens when you finally curl your toes up. A company called The Legacy Locker have created a big idea around this which you can see here. The idea is that you have an online vault which contains all your passwords. You can also use it to store letters to loved ones and it is activated on death or incapacitation. As the web is so young and rapidly growing, it is only now that people are starting to think about the newly emerging edges like this. The only problem now is where to put your password for this site…
With people rushing to buy all sorts of electrical gadgets and thingamajigs to organise their life, there are thousands of options. Blackberries link up to calendars and the iPhone has an application for just about everything. So spare a thought for the piece of paper, the analogue personal organiser, which started it all. It has now been given a facelift and been made a lot more user friendly with a bit of origami and some clean layout. Piece of paper 2.0 is here and it goes by the name of Pocket Mod. The big idea here is in the folding. An A4 piece of paper becomes a useful six page book. You can print off calendars, contacts, to do lists, Sudoku etc and then a bit of a fold, a snip with the scissors and you have a great tool. This will be very popular with all of those who like notes, but it could go further. There are tons of aps that could go on this, I for one would like to see a google maps link as I am always going places I have not been before. It is of course cheap, recyclable and very versatile. I don’t see it ever taking over as the electronic personal organisers are far too entrenched and can do so much, but it is useful and interesting addition for those who like the quirkier things in life.
Clicks and mortar, the balance of online and real world. Chains of retail stores and the phenomena of online shopping, coupled with a global recession, means we are at real risk of loosing not just the shops we love, but also of decimating the high street. The 3/ 50 project is aiming to help save the independent shops that we love and the communities around them. The big idea is simple, look at three businesses you would miss if they went bankrupt and pop in, say hello and buy something. If half the population of the US spent $50 each month in local independent stores it would generate more than $42.6 Billion. More importantly, of $100 spent, $68 comes back into the local community, with a chain it is $43 and if it is online it is probably $0. Some villages in Devon have implemented their own currency to help keep local money local and this is another way to help keep the money flowing back home, rather than into the distance. So buy local, support your community and if there is a shop or service you would miss, support it. If you don’t, it might not be there next year.
Google have launched another of their mega apps in the UK today. This is not just a Big Idea, it is a huge one. There new Google maps allows you to look at locations from street level. This has been available for a while in the US, but they have just uploaded the UK version. Whilst there will those who worry that this allows terrorists to scope out locations, they would be able to turn up with a video camera anyway in most cases. It is however amazing and heralds in a new era of armchair tourism. Want to see the sights of London, not a problem, wherever you are in the world. They have also managed to do this on a sunny day, which has to be great for tourism. Come to London, this is what it really looks like and it is always sunny, honest! So go and have a look at the revised site and pull the little orange man onto the maps. Then rotate the picture for an amazing 3D 360* view.
Most people have a suit, a shirt, a something that they put on for the big meeting. Whether it be a talisman or a piece of sharp tailoring, you feel bigger, walk taller and have the extra air of confidence that can make all the difference. How about this for a big idea? A bulletproof hankie, for ultimate confidence in the boardroom. A new product called ‘The Damned’ from Sruli Recht is a bulletproof handkerchief. Made from ballistic material in a tasteful lemon yellow shade, it slips into your top pocket and protects your heart. It might not protect more than a small area of your body, but how about the confidence it installs. Realistically most of us are not going to be shot rather accurately in the top pocket, but feel the confidence and of course the bragging rights.
I have just got back from the slopes so this explains a bit of my thinking. Satski have a very cool new gadget. It is a sat-nav that works in ski resorts. Find out where you are, plan your routes and check your speeds. The big idea behind this is more than just a gadget. You can download the software to your phone, but the unit or have a tracker that downloads data to your computer. This is a fabulous invention as it shows how far you have gone and how fast, something that is often debated and added to with fisherman style stories of speed and 
enormous distances covered. You can also link up with buddies and see where they are, are they really on their way or skiing an extreme couloir, or are they already in the bar? It allows you to see how fast you went and I would not be surprised if the future versions link in with heart rate monitors etc to say how many calories you have burnt, though the heavy lunch might negate any weight loss. As a competitive person I love this and wish I could have had one to compete with my brother when we were younger, but on balance it is probably a good thing we did not.
Digital printing, it’s a big idea, but has taken a while to show its full potential. Moonpig cards have been doing this well for quite a while. They print one off personalised cards that you can send out with a message. This is great for people living abroad, as they can choose, customise, write and send a letter that will arrive tomorrow from the other side of the world. What makes it for me though is the quality. The stock is good and the printing spot on. I think that this is what has delayed people getting digital print out to the masses. Getting the kit to print really well is very expensive and can run into the millions. Another place doing sensational print work is Moo. They have some really cool products and I particularly like their business cards. You can have a pack of 50, with 50 different images on the back. To me digital is all about personalisation and this is letting you use it. There are still restrictions, you only get one design on the other side, but that can be got around by printing new packs with different images. You can print your own cards from scratch and I love the look of their sticker books. I am also a huge fan of Bobs Books. This was one of the first places to do one off hardback books with full colour covers. They keep developing which is great, so you can still order one or one hundred books, or try some of their new products. They do a cool flick book, which takes your video clip and prints it onto a flip book, giving an analogue viewing experience. There are lots more examples out there begging for creative solutions. We create a phenomenal amount of digital content with pictures and videos and if you cant make it yourself you can use it from open source location like Flickr. So go on, give personalisation a go, the future is here and the future is digital…
and if you roll over a dot or square (squares have pictures as well as words), it shares someone’s emotions with you. What makes it so magical and frankly addictive is the way that on clicking it, the letters appear in a circle, swing round and form the words and then go to the top, it really has been beautifully done.
If I had £10 for everyone who told me they had a great idea, but could not quite get it started, well I would have a wad of cash. So what is stopping you from making your millions and getting that big idea off the ground. Most people will say time and funding. Well Mark Cuban (an American entrepreneur) is offering to fund your idea. There are some pretty strict rules and he is going to want a slice of the pie, but the offer is out there and in this credit crunched world, funding is not easy to come by. For me the interesting thing is the rules and what they say. I have started a few business and made things to sell and I have never made money as quickly as he wants to see: Cash flow break even in 60 days and profitable in 90 days. Wow that is pretty fast! A lot of people say that the majority of business take three years to break even. The entrepreneur in me is then interested to see what ideas are being put on there, as if they can hit those figures I want to know about them. Also, if I have to get the whole thing working that fast, do I need the business angel? To me, the big idea here is go for it and if you can tick these boxes, you can probably do it yourself and you can do it fast: so give it a go. Mark may not be lending us out of a recession, but he is telling us how we can get ourselves out of it.
I am a huge fan of note books and am a great believer in writing things down and making little sketches. As Derrick Tuke-Hastings said: “There are those who forget and those who write things down”. I have used many notebooks and still use different styles dependant on presents and needs, but one of my favourites has to be the Moleskine. If ever a product has become a movement, then the Moleskine is it. The legendry notebook used by artists and intellectuals has long been a badge of honour. Many fascinating, beautiful and dangerous thoughts and images have been pressed between the simple black covers, held in with an elastic band. So what was the big idea? A notebook of 192 pages, with a plain black cover and an envelope for bits and bobs? The idea of a Molskine goes beyond paper, it is the statement that y
ou want to write, you want to note, you are interacting and creating. It became a habit, the buying of a notebook, the setting up in your own customary fashion and then the interaction as you filled it with your innermost thoughts. The product remains basic, but the interaction with the user has elevated it to cult status. They are customised and ‘hacked’ to change and improve them. More importantly, the people who do this talk to each other and blog about it creating the global phenomenon. For more info, see: http://flickr.com/groups/36521985904@N01 http://www.moleskine.co.uk
This is a great idea from a graphic artist going by the name of: Yirmumah. Unfortunately it is so popular now that he has suspended it while he works through the back log. I saw it at the end of last summer and back then the dollar was nearly two to the pound, so it was even cheaper. I asked, not surprisingly for a picture of a Big Idea and here it is. But all of that aside, why is it a big idea? Well this guy is drawing anything you want for $2. He says it lets him practice and due to the random nature of the subjects he gets better at drawing lots of different things. He is doing some great marketing for himself as well. By giving away quality work for next to nothing, he is getting a lot of exposure. His work is really good, so it is a great way to reach a new market who might want some work done and to sell his existing work. By reaching out to people and giving them something for free, he suddenly becomes the place to go. So I wish him well and when he starts taking orders again (and hopefully the dollar weakens a bit), the place to go is: http://yirmumah.com/will-draw-anything/
As we tap away on our computers, sending emails, and give our thumbs a work out texting messages and get uses to video messaging people on the other side of the world with Skype, there are many who say the art of the letter is dying. With this comes the death of handwriting. Now my hand writing is awful and always has been, but there are those who would like to see more handwriting (For the record, I actually love writing letters and try to send thank you cards rather than a quick email, whenever possible). So up pops Fontifier http://www.fontifier.com The Big idea is that you make your own personal font which looks you’re your handwriting. Hey presto, at the click of a button, you have a custom font that returns that personal touch to your emails, and other electronic writing. Creating a bespoke font pretty simply. You download a sheet, scribble your characters on it, scan it and send it back. They send you a no obligation preview and you can decide if
you want to pay and down load it.
Here is what my preview looks like, I did it in a grey fountain pen, so it is not that sharp, but it could be great for those with neater handwriting than me: not bad for $9 US.
