Monthly Archives: September 2011

Idea Of The Day – Get “Hung Up” On Realisation

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ABBA never, ever let anyone sample their songs. From the advent of sampling technolgy, producers flooded songwriters Benny and Bjorn with requests to borrow bitesize chunks of their classic tunes to spice up new tracks. But the Swedish pop alchemists were unmoved.

Until 2005 that is.

Madonna was creating her new album with producer Stuart Price. They had an idea for a song which had “Gimme Gimme Gimme (A Man After Midnight)” as its basis. Rather than asking for sample clearance up front (which would have been turned down) they just went ahead and created the track “Hung Up”. Then they played it to Benny and Bjorn. Who loved it. Because it’s ace. And so they agreed to the release immediately.

What can we learn from this?

It’s far easier to sell an idea if the person you’re selling it to can see / feel / hear / touch / smell what it will be like. Much easier than trying to get them to visualise it from a few words or pictures cobbled together from Google Images. So wherever possible, create an image (or audio track, or film) that shows exactly what your genius brand activation / partnership / content idea / facebook page will look like. Not just for pitches – for everything.

John Wyer, our resident visualisation designer (and confectionery fiend) is waiting for your call…

Idea of the day. Share Something

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To continue with yesterday’s theme of sharing, here’s a very quick thought prompted by Pauline in RWI who shared a brilliant bit of insight work today and saved someone a lot of time….which got us to thinking…why not share the last bit of work you did that you’re proud of with someone on another team that would find it useful. Go on…do it…

In the meantime, I’ll share this inspiring talk about why the words you say to yourself matter.

Idea of the day: Trojan Horses

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Afternoon..Wednesday already and I find myself 2 days behind with IOTD – Gah! Sorry, must try harder…

Feeling a little down? Or alternatively, on top of the world and want to share some of that love? Well get yourself along to Emotional Bag check and you can choose whether to offload a problem in exchange for a crowd sourced song to cheer you up, or pick a song that you think will make someone else feel better.

Once you’ve shared a song with someone, you get access to the stats, which show the most popular songs to be requested. In at number 19 – “You’re Beautiful”. The fact that someone might read about your heartache and send you James Blunt is actually depressing in itself.

Anyway, it’s pleasing in its simplicity, and strangely compulsive, but what’s most interesting is that music site Grooveshark have thought up an interesting way into their site based on the insight that music makes it all a little bit better. Unless it’s James Blunt that is.

Idea of the Day: A different perspective

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If there’s been any kind of theme to this week’s Ideas I guess it’s been how different perspectives can add value to the work we do. Whether that’s getting inspiration from outside your normal range of sources, learning a new skill or sharing one of your existing skills with others.

Ideas only get better the more they are shared. And they breed other new ideas. The better and more often we collaborate, the better our ideas are going to be. And the better our ideas are, the more impressed our current and future clients are going to be.

This week I’ve shared my own perspectives here on ftmf, shared perspectives on the agency community in Scotland at my first IPA dinner as Scottish Chairman, and at a great meeting this morning the New Business and Marketing teams from London, Manchester and Scotland all shared their perspectives on how best to win more business across the group.

My idea for the day today – let’s all commit to collaborate more often. When we do it well, there’s very little we can’t achieve.

And if you still need some persuasion, here’s a link to some great TED talks on the power of collaboration.

 

 

 

Idea of the Day: Multi-coloured Swap Shop

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I’m showing my age here by bringing up Noel Edmond’s Multi-coloured Swap Shop but it was a bit of a Saturday morning institution when I was a kid (I still have the scarf in a box somewhere). I soon swapped to the more entertainingly anarchic Tiswas when it finally went national but that doesn’t work as a link into today’s idea of the day.

The Guardian today announced their National Book Swap. As a voracious reader I love this idea. It’s really easy to get stuck in a rut with your reading. I go through phases of only reading non-fiction (currently reading Bill Bryson’s At Home). Then only historical novels (Wolff Hall was excellent). Then it’s all about Sci-Fi for a while. (Neal Stephenson’s Anathem the best I’ve read this year).

The idea of coming upon a book you’ve never read before or swapping books with someone (see Bookcrossing) who has a very different taste in genre is really appealing to me. It broadens your horizons. A bit like the browsing idea from earlier in the week I suppose.

Anyway, it’s prompted the idea of swapping work instead of books. Get someone from another team to take a look at what you’re working on. Especially if you’ve found yourself at an impasse. A dispassionate alternative view is often just what you need to unlock the problem.