Here you’ll find relevant use cases for Ideasicle X. Articles on the art of generating ideas while working remotely. Insights and studies into creativity itself. All from the desk of our founder and CEO, Will Burns.
This morning I was listening to Ben Folds’ podcast “Lightning Bugs” and he was interviewing a poet, Alice Major. She used the word “resonate” in a very interesting way that got me thinking. She was speaking about the role of poetry in our everyday lives and she said, “That resonated me.” I’d never heard the word used as a verb in that way. And off my mind went with just how fantastic a description it was for the power of ideas.
Read MoreA wise man once told me, “Half of marketing is knowing when to say no.” Without a confident ability to say no, a marketer is left with random acts of marketing. A promotional idea over here that has zero connection to a social media idea over there. A TV spot that doesn’t continue the conversation on the website. An “About” page on the website that says stuff, but really says nothing. But the question is, how does a modern marketer know when to say no and when to say yes? When you have a clear, powerful, well articulated brand idea, that’s how.
Read MoreThat’s what one of our Ideasicle X freelancers once said she appreciated about the virtual platform. Her ideas where happening while she was busy with other things. And it’s an incredibly important point about the virtual creative work we do, but also about any creative work anyone does for anything. Let me explain.
Read MoreIdeasicle X is a new way to come up with ideas in teams, virtually. And for users of the platform there’s a decent amount of room for nuance, for personalizing the experience, and acquiring the “skill” to truly master the platform. Below I’m going to explain how you can be great at Ideasicle X.
Read MoreIdeasicle X is a new way for freelancers to work, virtually. It’s not your typical freelance gig where you get briefed, go away for a few days maybe with a partner, and come back with comps. Ideasicle X is a platform that allows teams of four freelancers to work together as a team over a few days posting, building, and riffing on each other’s ideas. One freelancer said, “It’s like an idea video game.” But working in this way requires a shift in how you do things. Below are just a few things to think about if you want to be great at Ideasicle X.
Read MoreIdeasicle X does one thing, but that one thing is very different from the way creative development has been done in the past. Founder & CEO Will Burns took some time to explain the concept on video, how agencies will benefit, and how the freelance model is turning upside down. Check it out.
Read MoreI was listening to Mitch Joel’s podcast, “Six Pixels Of Separation,” this morning (it’s great, check it out). He was interviewing George Dyson, the writer of the book Analogia – The Entangled Destinies of Nature, Human Beings and Machines. During the interview Dyson and Joel talk about the differences between “digital” and “analog” and somewhere in the middle of that it hit me. Ideasicle X is a digital platform, no doubt about that. But the value in it comes from purely analog processes. Let me explain.
Read MoreI was interviewed by Rob Schwartz this week for his (fantastic) “Disruptor Series Podcast” (my episode comes out in June sometime) and something I said without much thought struck a chord with him. It was something I’ve said or written hundreds of times, to the point where its significance had probably waned for me. But not for Rob. For him, a light bulb went off. The notion, to paraphrase, was that the ideas an agency gets from Ideasicle X tend to inspire more ideas with an agency’s internal teams. And it’s true. Let me explain.
Read MoreMany larger “full service” advertising agencies, through no fault of their own other than growing, can end up as a collection of siloed P&Ls. This wing is for the advertising team, that wing is for PR, and that wing over there is for digital. Oh, and media? You’re on a different floor completely. While this built-in insularity is good for the health of the respective disciplines, it’s not always good for coming up with the best ideas for an agency’s clients. And that’s because ideas are generated within those disciplines and not across them.
Read MoreAn in-house agency at a major retailer is extremely talented but their creative people are incredibly busy with the day-to-day retail output and even if they weren’t their teams admit they can get pretty close to their business. Too close, sometimes. Like they’re inside a wave and can barely see beyond the plunging breaker. So they want some outside thinking to help break out of past creative paradigms. Specifically, they really want this fall’s TV campaign to be different from anything they’ve done before.
Read MoreI need to set an expectation with all the new Ideasicle X freelancers who will soon be populating our virtual hallways. The original Ideasicle Experts all know this, so this is for the newbies. To succeed within the Ideasicle X model as a freelancer, you will need to leave your ego at the digital door. This platform is not about award shows, it’s not about individual glory, it’s not about competition, it’s not even about who has the best ideas. Ideasicle X is what happens when four brilliant people work together as a unit, posting, building, riffing, and inspiring each other.
Read MoreWhat this use case illustrates is that Ideasicle X can be a powerful weapon in a time-constrained pitch to jump start an agency’s creative process. Within days Amy had forty ideas she wouldn’t have otherwise had. And her favorite ten ideas inspired her own teams to come up with new ideas. Amy could have started the creative process organically with nothing or she could have started with ten ideas on the wall. She chose the latter and within a week had four tight, fantastic ideas ready for presentation. And enough time to flesh those ideas out further than the client required.
Read MoreIdeasicle X is the first SaaS platform designed specifically for virtual idea generation. That means a customer can recruit any four people on Earth to work together on an assignment. For enterprising Freelancer Creative Directors, subscribing to this tool could change the way they look at their business. Specifically, it could turn Creative Directors into idea “agencies.” Let me explain.
Read MoreIdeasicle X is about to launch and change the advertising world. We’ve talked about why the platform uses four freelancers as a team, how the building and riffing are the magic, and how the virtual nature actually accelerates creativity. But what we haven’t talked about is the critical roles the customer plays in all this. In short, the agency customer not just a bystander, but an active participant. Let me explain.
Read MoreThe platform facilitates collaboration between creative teams on a blog-like stream. Ideasicle X, a new freelance and collaboration platform for agencies, launched on Monday as a subscription-based product for the remote work age. The platform connects agencies with freelancers or internal talent for specific projects and helps them brainstorm better remotely by collaborating on ideas in a blog-like stream.
Read MoreWe hosted a live webinar in March that is timely for the advertising world still in the midst of this pandemic and remote working. How are agencies responding? How are in-house agencies responding? How are professional freelancers responding? We found out with our round table discussion with some advertising heavies:
TBWA/Chiat Day NY CEO, Rob Schwartz
Blackbaud’s (In-house) Agency 545 Director, Veronica Volborth
Ex-Wieden Freelance Creative Director, Monica Taylor
Live panel discussion hosted by Ideasicle X CEO, Will Burns, to discuss how advertising agencies, in-house agencies, and freelancers had to pivot with their creative methods in response to the Covid pandemic. March 5, 2021, at 11:00 a.m. EST. Panelists include: TBWA/Chiat Day NY CEO, Rob Schwartz, Blackbaud’s (In-house) Agency 545 Director, Veronica Volborth, & Ex-Wieden Freelance Creative Director, Monica Taylor
Read MoreEveryone in advertising knows that the creative brief must be inspiring. It’s understood. But it occurred to me recently that no one talks about why inspiration is necessary. Ironically inspired, I wrote this piece as my answer. Inspiration is the invisible bridge to new ideas.
Read MoreIt’s funny. When I started the original Ideasicle in 2010 I figured if I could use technology to tap into world-class minds then the sacrifice of doing the idea generation online would surely be overwhelmed by the great minds. But what I quickly learned as we did more and more idea projects was that the virtual nature had virtues far beyond giving me unbridled access to great minds. Here’s what I learned.
Read MoreI believe virtual idea-generation is better than in-person idea-generation. I admit it’s not an intuitive notion (and even debated a skeptical host Justin Brady on his podcast about it), but that’s exactly what I have experienced for the last ten years developing the Ideasicle X platform. Four freelancers working together vs two, each reduced to a typeface so no human bias can get in the way, allowing creativity to happen when it wants, etc. Well, here’s another one. Creativity increases when you are at home and freelancers tend to be, you guessed it, working from home.
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