The Idea this Week

Yesterday, All about the Idea did a presentation to a room full of Marketing and PR people. The aim of the presentation was to educate them on exactly what we do. Which, in a very quick summary, is; we tailor our service to your needs. We find out exactly where a company’s problem or worry is and come up with a Big Idea to fix it.

I am going to kick things off with a few bite-size Ideas to keepthings clean and simple. So after having a little internet dig for inspiration we have produced a list of some of the best ideas of this century below.

Bite-sizes Ideas that have been a success:

www.ebay.com: an online auction site where people buy and sell their own goods and services directly to the mass global market.


www.streetcar.co.uk: The self service pay as you go street car that’s perfect for people who live in cities. No congestion charge, car tax, insurance…..etc.

Post-it notes: A piece of stationary that was designed to temporarily attach notes to any surface.


Oyster Cards: invented by Ken Livingstone it allows commuter to pre-pay for all their London travel needs. But this invention leads the way for lots of other uses, such as voting!

Micro-wave: it was invented by Dr Percy Spencer by accident when a candy bar melted in his pocket.


Screw-top wine: A great Idea suggestion from The Independent. It manages to keep the wine’s rich flavours for as long as it needs to be stored. No more ‘corked’ excuses.


We want to know which ideas float your boat. We are looking for everyday ideas, something that may come to you in a split second. For example, one of our favourites is the food conveyer belt through the office. We will pick the best of the bunch and name it on our blog as the Idea of the Week.

If you have any instant ideas please tweet us on Twitter or leave us a message on Facebook

Success is often a hack

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.

Related links:

http://www.surveymonkey.com

http://www.ikea.com

Our favourite ‘App for that’…

Which personal item would you never leave the house without? For most of us our Apple iPhone is the single most important ‘tool’ not to leave the house without.

“There’s an app for that” our TV tell us… and we definitely wouldn’t bet against it.

Almost every routine of our daily lives has support from an Apple App. There’s apps for; working out, around the house, going out, managing money, etc. In fact, can you think of something Apple hasn’t made an App for?

So, when one of the All about the Idea team members decided to take on the 2010 London Marathon challenge he went straight to Apple to see what support he could get from his dearly loved app store.

And what a find Runkeeper was. The best thing of all is that it was Free!

Our resident marathon runner just won’t put it down. We get daily updates on how far he has run, his average speed, pace and loads more. Therefore All about the Idea decided to do some internet digging on where the Runkeeper creators idea came from.

Runkeeper was started by Jason Jacobs, a runner who’s Big Idea came whilst training for the Chicago Marathon. After unsuccessfully tracking his run’s he realised that we had all the technology in place to track, locate and breakdown run information but no-one was utilising it in the current mobile phone market.

Another Big and clever idea Jacob’s had was to render each individual activity into Google map API’s, pinpointing your miles and break downs of pace within those miles, and making your analysis available online.

All about the Idea just cannot get over the simplicity of this product. It’s straight forward to use and absolutely essential for any kind of physical activity training.

Our Big Idea: whilst the prospect of Challenging Goliath may be scary, if you spot a niche, go for it! An idea that is usually the simplest is always the most successful.

Now we are just sitting tight and waiting for Runkeeper to make a debut appearance in the ‘Make Active Attractive’ campaign adverts which Mother London has just been appointed to tackle.

http://www.runkeeper.com
http://campaignlive.co.uk/news/940254/Mother-London-wins-Womens-Sport-Fitness-Foundation-ad-account/

Who finds media agency pitches painful?

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.

All about the Idea came across this site which may help those who write regular pitches. It’s called ‘Your Pitch Sucks’. You send in your pitch and members of the online community read it, check it and give you their feedback. We haven’t yet tried it but would be interested to hear your feedback if you have.

http://www.yourpitchsucks.com/about.html

Related links:

http://www.brandrepublic.com/BrandRepublicNews/News/936924/Clients-find-managing-media-agency-pitches-painful/?DCMP=EMC-DailyNewsBulletin

http://www.billetts.com/prelogindec/services/marketing-sciences/

What was once a Big Idea is now disappearing

Is the virtual world disappearing?

Has anyone else noticed that the ever so popular ‘virtual’ word seems to be disappearing? At one stage if you typed a word into to Google somehow adverts offering you the opportunity to work from home using a unique virtual office package would pop up, without it having any relevance to your search term. Google was saturated by them.
But now it seems this ‘work from home’ trend is starting to disappear with employers preferring to be in the heart of action. This of course, in our opinion, contributes to better productivity but also increased job satisfaction.

Tom Davenport wrote an interesting article on the Harvard Business Website, which stated ‘Many companies allow some work at home, but far fewer seem to support it for five days a week’. Maybe this depends on the company set up and specific roles within them. However, there does seem to be a change in attitude towards virtual worlds but maybe this constant shift in working patterns is what keeps companies looking forward.

Our Big Idea – keep the constant shifts going and give employees the option. Allow them to take control of their work ethic, and if results don’t reflect this quite simply bring them back to the office.

Related links:
http://www.eclipsys.com/
http://www.virtualworldsnews.com/2009/07/newsbrief-venture-capital-stats-weaken.html

Movie Marketing Meltdown

The much awaited 15 minute trailer for James Cameron’s new movie, Avatar, was finally released last week at all 3D cinemas across the globe; and having turned the movie marketing model upside down by holding back much, if any, communication about the movie’s story line the Avatar ‘hype bubble’ had reached its maximum and was ready to burst. The Big Idea – to seduce their fans into believing this was the only film worth knowing without knowing anything about it.

Avatar has been referred to as the next film that will change the entire film industry (big statement to live up to) and its taken 10 years for anybody to see a snippet of the film or hear anything about the story line. It’s been a tense rollercoaster ride for film fanatics and at stages of the ride the rollercoaster pretty much stopped.

Due to the fact that the film was 3D using all the above the line marketing channels, such as television or standard theatres, just wasn’t good enough for the film makers as the channels didn’t show the true brilliance of the film. So instead they screened the film at select 3D theatres. Of course, this only involves a handful of the population and therefore you would think pushing the word of mouth online would be crucial and only fair.

The trailer was uploaded on to Apple’s trailer hosting site which was the only place you could view it so all online media portals linked straight to it. This then caused the site to crash many, many, many times to everyone’s frustration. But the big shock came when all the sites received letters accusing them of posting content that ‘infringes Fox’s intellectual property rights’ and straight away the links were removed.

So, having waited a ridiculous amount of time for just the trailer launch and then sat back to observed the films marketing tactics fans and reviewers have come away feeling confused, bemused and pretty much unwanted.

Being that the film has been dubbed as Cameron’s big masterpiece the film ‘will go on…’ (Titanic theme tune) and will be a huge success. But, as for their Big Idea tactics implemented, marketers should keep things traditional and simple. Why try and complicate something that was already a winner!

Related links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Cameron
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2009/aug/21/avatar-3d-film-james-cameron
http://mrcontroversy.blogspot.com/2009/08/last-temptation-of-james-cameron-part-i.html
http://www.denofgeek.com/movies/308375/avatar_the_marketing_plan_thats_backfiring.html
http://www.scifiscoop.com/news/poor-marketing-bursts-the-avatar-hype-bubble/

Consumer Control – the unconventional advertising strategy

As engaging with consumers is becoming more and more important in the ever-increasing competitive market there is one brand that really stands out for their unconventional advertising strategy, that’s Nike.

Recently the web has seen an influx in Nike videos that focus on the consumer and their daily lives. They are exciting, colourful, and energetic but most importantly connect with their target market. The Big Idea of these – to put the consumer in control and to place their product in to the consumers lives.

Have a look at their videos:

http://www.nike.com/nikeos/p/nike/en_GB/video

The strategy works as each video, focusing on different market segmentations, reflects Nike’s brand values perfectly as their audience is all online.

However, it is a very targeted approach that doesn’t allow for any market expanse. This is great for today’s world but what about the youth of tomorrow? Being one of the most innovative brands of this century keeping an eye on Nike’s advertising strategy is of great importance to All about the Idea and we look forward to seeing what the next Big Idea from Nike will be.

Facebook Lite: Facebook’s going on a Diet…

Does anyone else think Facebook has been getting more and more complicated, with applications and tools being added every day?

Well, keeping up with all the new apps and updates was something All about the idea gave up with a while ago but we are always surprised by how many users still don’t know the difference between pages, groups and profiles and which one is more appropriate for business or personal use. This of course is not the fault of the consumer but of Facebook for overloading their users with too many new developments every day.

Facebook’s new big idea is to slim down and create a new version which just focuses on ‘live’ instant updates from their users. In other words Facebook is modifying into Twitter.

This news comes very soon after Facebook completed their ‘make-over’ which resulted in a very mixed review; and does anyone else think the new Facebook Lite is actually very similar to the original streamline Facebook set up?

Here, at All about the Idea, we think the new glimpses of Facebook Lite are fantastic. It’s very straight forward to use and just edits all the daily spam you don’t want in your life, making Facebook far less confusing.

Ever wanted to be a music impersonario

The music industry is changing, or in many cases I should say it is dying. So where is the future? Well you have to embrace online and free is out there for good. Money is to be made from concerts and true fans, but while there may be less cash coming in, musicians are going it alone. Busted shocked the pop world by stopping being a boy band and managing themselves to great success, but they were already a global success. Now however it is much easier to start. You can create a professional CD in your own home like the Bedinfields and you can even be funded through crowd sourcing. The big idea from Sellaband is to allow music fans to back bands, help promote them and take a slice of the profits. So for as little as $10 you can be on the inside of the new music industry. And because there are lots of people who believe in these bands and who want to help them succeed, there is a greater chance of them making it. It is natural selection, the bad bands don’t get the funding and the fans get more of what they want.

No one compares to top trumps

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.

To google, or not to Google, that is the question

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.

Everything goes somewhere

I thought I had an idea, a really big idea, one that could save mankind. Quite simple, where does all our luggage go when it gets lost in airports, where do the socks in my washing machine go to and what happens to the 99% of paperclips that never get used for clipping paper. If we could find this big black hole, we could sort out all our landfill problems with room for all sorts of other detritus. But now I have seen what happens to your luggage, it gets bought by possible slightly obsessed people, photographed and posted on the web. So if you have lost your luggage, then have a look here and see if you recognise it. In the meantime if you do know what has happened to all my lost socks, then please send answers on a postcard.

Don’t throw away the key

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…

Piece of paper 2.0

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.

Can clicks survive without bricks?

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.

Toys get grown up

There was always a certain creative childish charm about playing with Lego. The set that was meant to be a car becomes apart of a castle and the house becomes a space ship. The very fact that you had a selection of strange bits and never all the ones you wanted meant that you improvised, recreated and had to think on your toes. Now you can have all the Lego pieces you ever wanted online here The big idea is that you can design online and create some pretty advanced stuff. The bigger idea is that you can then order your bespoke product, so that you can design you r own toys. There will be those who complain that there was nothing like using the chassis from a broken toy car or part of another toy to take your Lego beyond the limitations of the original designers and into realms they could never have thought of. But you are being allowed to do that and make something that is slick and does not require amputating your little sister's toys. Besides, if you are not the creative type, you can order another users creation.

Musical Alchemy

Alchemy: the ancient art of turning base metals into gold. The idea that something simple can be magically turned into something that is worth significantly more. Well no one seems to have done it yet, or at least if they have they are keeping it quiet. Making something simple normally takes a lot of hard work and ThruYou is no acceptation. It must have taken hours, but it is true musical and video alchemy. A guy called Kutiman has scoured the internet for musicians and sampled them and cut them together to make some amazing music songs and videos. These totally unconnected clips come together to make something worth significantly better and more valuable than the sum of the parts and that is a big idea. He uses singers and people playing instruments and credits all the people who have unwittingly made it happen. It is magical and my favourite one is I’m New.

Values may raise and fall, past performance is no guarantee of future results

Having looked at apportioning equity before, it is a minefield. Seth Godin has a Big Idea on how to sort out this tricky problem. Dont go 50 / 50 or 70 / 30 straight off. Start with 5% each and then draw up a list of what you are going to do over the next couple of years and what % value of the company that is worth. If you dont do it, you dont get it, allowing for more flexibility and a fairer sharing of the pie. Full article here. I love the idea of this as you get what you earn. Any entrepreneur worth their salt will back themselves to out perform, so it is a great way to get things moving.

Armchair traveller

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.
The annoying this is that I have seen the cars doing the mapping, but cant remember where I was exactly when it happened, so I have a fair amount of searching to do to find myself…

Confidence is feeling bulletproof

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.

Don’t just ski, satski

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.

Idea time

Timing, it really is key. No matter how big or brilliant your idea is, you still have to work on the timing. From Rowan Atkinson in Blackadder getting the pause just spot on, to launching the latest high tech gizmo before the competition have even thought of it, get it right and the results are amazing. Yeeeeee.com (I think I got all the eee's in there) have a great gallery of photos taken at just the right time click here for more.

Does a Moon pig go Moo?

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…

To err is human, to Arrrgghhh is Pirate

There are a lot of things on the sea bed and many a diver wishes they can discover sunken treasure or fascinating wrecks. Jason Taylor, a British artist has gone one step further and created an underwater gallery click here for more details. His big idea is that by creating a fabulous underwater gallery, people can experience a Vesuvius like exhibition. The installations of people emerge ghost like from the Panamanian water, which must be a bit of a shock if you dont know they are there. They are in shallow water, so can be viewed by snorkelers, divers and people in glass bottomed boats. They will develop over time and eventually become reefs in their own right. His site takes you through the full artistic justification of this, but for me, the more buried treasure out there for people to come across the better.

Maps and Apps

Google maps are a really big idea. For the two people out there who have not looked at them, have a look now: They revolutionised the way we look at things. Satellite views used to be the thing of spy films and secret agencies. But now, you can have a look at the earth from the air and go very close up. They are getting more powerful by the day and you can now drag on the yellow man and get a street view of some of the maps. This is mainly in US cities, but it is spreading and I have seen the cars that g round capturing images, so it can’t be too long. The great thing about Google maps is that they let you create your own and build them into your website for free. So that they become your own applications. This lets people show where hotels, track trips they have taken, tag photographs and come up with all sorts of things. One of the most bizarre of these is Ground Zero where you can select a city and a nuclear weapon and show what effect it would have. Some people might have a little too much time on their hands…

They feel fine, I feel sensational

I have come across a glorious site that is beautiful and organic to look at an in some way makes you feel better. I feel fine by Jonathan Harris and Sep Kamvar http://www.wefeelfine.org/ is about exploring human emotions. The big idea is that they harvest sentences with emotions in them from Blogs and have done since 2005. So when I write: I feel sensational, it picks it up. And as hardly anyone uses the word sensational, hopefully I will come across it when looking at the map some time. You can search the feelings by the weather, age, sex, location and date. But most wonderful is the interface, where a colourful universe floats in front of your eyes 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 you click on the selection of words at the bottom left, you can see the screen in different ways, madness: where the dots and squares float around, murmers, which is lines of text, montage which is images, mobs and metrics are visual representations of who is saying what. But my favourite is mounds. Here you have a graph, which reacts to your mouse over, turning the graph into mounds of jelly which bump and bend off each other.
These statistics are lovely to look at and are quite interesting. There are only three men and three women feeling sensational. They are feeling it when it is cloudy and are generally between 20 and 35. It is rare, 315768 times the normal level. Well now there is one more…

Judge a book by its author

I love reading and when I find an author I like, I tend to read everything that they have written. But there comes the moment when there is nothing new to read, I have read their total output. So what do you do next? Well a guy called Marek Gibney has put together a literature map. Click here to give it a go. More specifically, it is a self adapting, community based system, which changes to reflect the views and likes of the community. The big idea is that you put in an author you like and it shows you other authors who are similar or who it thinks you will like. The closer they are, the more likely you are to like their work and if you see someone new between two you like, then you are onto a good thing. It is not totally accurate, but is pretty quirky and I would recommend giving it a go, who knows where it might lead you...
And if you are not into reading, dont worry, he has done it for music and films as well.

If anyone has a big idea, its Seth

I have just come back from Seth Godin's London session. If anyone has a big idea, it must be Seth. He was riffing on Tribes (the subject of his latest book) and took an vast array of questions. He dispensed real help and came up with some great ideas for people and you could see them changing the way they felt about their business. Pretty much everything he believes in is a Big Idea. He even had time to post a blog today, see here:
the man does not stop...

So have you got a Big Idea?

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.

Have a look at it here:

Make mine Moleskine

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 you 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

Draw anything for $2

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/

Making hay while it snows

This year we have been hit by some pretty heavy snow and it has been treated as a bad news story. But the guys at Mind the Curb: http://www.mindthecurb.com/ had a big idea. They focus on ethical low impact advertising, which is often in the form of pressure hose cleaning logos and artwork on the streets. But with the forecast of heavy snow, they came up with a great idea of using blocks to imprint logos in the snow. This fitted in well with all their core values and allowed them to turn the weather into an asset. A good relationship with a client allowed them to turn this into a billing opportunity. Apparently they made 3,500 imprints, some of which might not have lasted very long. But the word of mouth and press of those which did got a much wider coverage. In an age when people preserve graffiti from such artists as Banksy by cutting walls down and dismantling shutters, you have to wonder whether someone has one of these in their freezer, waiting till Charlie Saatchi is ready to buy... This id a great example of using your assets and thinking clever, you have things out there that are assets that you probably dont treat as such, what are yours?

Square can be cool

There is a big idea here and it is about making storage and distribution easier. Watermelons are big and heavy. They are hard to store and transport and when you get it home they roll off surfaces are take up great swathes of your fridge. A square one obviously does not roll anywhere. They are easier to store and stack, which helps with distribution and they are easier to cut and serve. However, there is a pretty big catch and that is the price. These Japanese melons are put in Perspex boxes when growing, to force them into the shape. This means added time, equipment and of course cost. So where washing liquid manufactures created cost and waste savings with concentrated products, the square watermelon ends up being a bit of a gimmick. Though who knows, if the idea spreads, the costs might fall.

iPhone keeps you thin

Obesity, it’s a big problem world wide and people are starting to pay attention. So I love this new app for the iPhone. The Big idea is from Fatburgr: http://www.fatburgr.com/ They have a site telling you what calories/ fat content is in the fast food you buy.

They take this a step further by having lots of different restaurants on the list so you can compare them. The big step forward though comes with them turning it into an app for your iPhone so you can take it with you. You can also compare meals. So if you just have to have a cheeseburger right now, you can see that it has 40 calories and 4g of fat less and McDonalds than Burger King. Which I guess explains why Burger King Burgers taste better.

The whole comparing on the hoof (no pun intended) thing really adds value and allows people to make their decision on the spot.

Handwriting is dead, long live handwriting

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.

Idea Hacker

Ideas meet Ikea in Ikea hacker: http://ikeahacker.blogspot.com/
The big idea here is that Ikea make lots of cheap stuff that can be used as a good solid basis of a new product. The site is full of interesting ‘hacks’ where people use kit from Ikea in a way it is not meant to be used. People re decorate in different colours, with patterns, cut bits off and add other bits on. A jug becomes a light, the plain becomes colourful and a lamp becomes a table leg. There is some cool stuff and it makes you want to have a go.
I recon that the people at Ikea http://www.ikea.com/ would be pretty chuffed with this. One of their founding ideas was to use their factories to make what the can, not what they expect to. So a door factory would end up making frames and parts for beds or desks, because they have the right kit and they have the capacity. This allowed the canny Swedes to drive down costs and develop more interesting designs. Ikea itself is a pretty Big Idea. Cheap, easy and fun, but most of all, the amount of work (and a pretty big slice of magic) that goes into making the flat packs pack flat is immense.

Stuck for something?

A lot of people find buying presents hard and cant find that perfect something. A company in New York called Something Store have come up with a solution to this. If you cant find something specific, just get something. The big idea is: you pay $10 you get something sent to you and you have no idea what it is. The quality of presents looks pretty good and I love the idea of a completely blind choice of present. It may be a way away, but this sounds like the perfect way to deal with Secret Santa. Have a look at: http://www.somethingstore.com/ Amazingly, they have sold nearly 27,000 somethings, but with quality presents and a slick web interface, they are a long way from the half chewed teddy bear and incomplete jigsaw puzzle you might have picked up at a tombola.

Royal Mail Matters

The Royal Mail have come up with a new idea which shakes off their traditional fuddy duddy image. They have started a product called Matter. The big Idea is that they have gone down stream and are selling DM to brands. So rather than just delivering, they are facilitators, who use their knowledge of the market to make a better (and more profitable) product. So what is it? Well, you sign up at www.matterbox.co.uk and then wait. When the time comes, you get a box of goodies through the door. The idea is that you get a selection of interesting and funky introductions to brands, that are worth looking at. The brands pay to be there, but you are a captive and interested market, so it is a good example of permission marketing. Mine came though in a very funky blue box, with the perforations along the word matter, which looks really cool. It was the right size for the letter box, which is a result as it means I get it delivered rather than having to pick it up. Inside was a bar of chocolate in a new flavour, some shower gel to try, a comedy CD and a few other bits and pieces. I tried, I liked some and I might now buy some.

I think everybody likes being send some chocolate, even Seth Godin, the much vaunted marketing guru wrote about some he was sent, though his did sound a little more exciting than a bar of Cadburys: http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2009/01/anatomy-of-a-ca.html So the moral of the tale is that by sending something interesting and worthwhile, people will actually have a look and are much more likely to try it again, especially if they are expecting something

Big Ideas, what are they all about?

So what makes a big idea?
For most people the first thing that comes to mind is a product, the latest whizzy gadget. You press a button, it goes meep, how did I ever survive without one?
But there are also a lot of ideas out there that help companies save money, work better or change the way they do things. These are great as well. I am going to be looking at both and if you think of any, I would love to hear from you.