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.
Reviewing brand ideas as a team exposes latent, fundamental disagreements within the leadership team. These disagreements will likely come out eventually, even without a brand idea process. And the longer these issues remain latent, the bigger the conflicts will be when they do finally come out. But here’s the thing. Reviewing several tangible brand ideas as a leadership team has the magical ability of getting it all out on the table now.
Read MoreThe creative power of advertising holding companies looks great on paper. But to what degree does this “paper power” translate to real, tangible benefits to the clients who buy into the promised depth of resources within a holding company? What I know for sure is that a holding company deploying a virtual idea-generating platform like Ideasicle X could bring specialized “super teams” together across multiple held agencies for any given local client need or pitch.
Read MoreIt’s one thing to come up with an idea. Doing so requires hard work, perseverance, and an open mind. But it’s quite another to recognize an idea as great. In fact, I’d argue recognizing a great idea is as important a skill as coming up with the idea in the first place. So I asked a few of my well-oiled advertising friends to chime in and tell me how THEY know an idea is great.
Read MoreAccording to IBIS World, there are 417,827 marketing consultants in the United States in 2022, ranging from pure-play client-side consultants to subject-matter experts to freelance creative people to everything inbetween. How does a consultant differentiate from the other 417,826 consultants out there? By augmenting their offering with big ideas using Ideasicle X, that’s how.
Read MoreWhether you’re a traditional ad agency, in-house agency, or a marketer running a marketing department, you’re always looking to use your own people for as much as possible. You want to avoid the expense of hiring freelance help, there’s no learning curve with your existing staff, and it just plain feels more “pure” to use your own people. But there are times when outsourcing ideas makes good business sense. Here are three.
Read MoreWe are giving away 5 one-year subscriptions to our idea generating platform. Ideasicle X is all about ideas, right? Lots of ideas and really great ideas. So we thought we’d highlight that fact with what we’re calling the “Bad Ideas Lead To Great Ones Challenge.” Check it out and try to win.
Read MoreI remember reading the appeal from a Ukraine advertising agency to creative people the world over for the first time. Reading the words from this Ukrainian advertising creative person asking for ideas to help stop World War 3 really hit home for me, as I bet it did with many in our business. It was billed as “The most important brief ever” and man were they right. Here I am running and idea-generating platform! I had to contribute to this calling. And now I want to share the entire process with you, including the ideas.
Read MoreBeen pitching Ideasicle X to agencies constantly lately. I can’t tell you how many agencies have the following reaction to the platform: “It’s so refreshing that you’re forcing the team to focus on the big idea and not on the execution.” Apparently agency teams get too executional with their ideas too quickly instead of getting the idea right first. Having been in the virtual-idea business for ten years, I thought it was obvious that you needed a big idea first AND THEN execute it. But I guess not. And I have some thoughts as to why this may be happening.
Read More…After studying another powerful force, creativity, and how/when inspiration strikes, I think differently about Tarot cards. Not that I don’t think they work, they definitely do. But I’ve rethought why they work. It’s less that the cards retain some mystical, magical force and more that we are paying attention and actively looking for connections.
Read MoreWe call ourselves a “SaaS,” or a software as a service, because it’s technically true. But what’s lost in that categorization is the role human beings play in our company’s purpose. It’s not an “idea machine,” which would suggest an artificial intelligence pumping out ideas. No, Ideasicle X is a machine whose purpose is to increase the odds of human intelligence happening. And that intelligence is anything but artificial. What follows are the ways our software platform is designed to be in continuous service to the real (and very human) heroes.
Read MoreRebecca Armstrong (CEO) and Mark Ray (CCO) run North, a creative advertising agency located in Portland, Oregon. They recently conducted a trial of Ideasicle X and I asked them about their experience via an email interview. And I’m glad I did. Here’s what they said.
Read MoreIdeasicle X is a new platform and, as such, is still open to interpretation. It’s exciting, really. We hope to see customers using it in ways we never expected. But also because it’s new, our agency customers are still getting used to the platform. And we see three common mistakes made that are easily avoided in order to maximize every idea-generating job.
Read MoreWe started a TikTok Channel with short videos on each finding. We call them “Creativity Tips” and so far we have one about how walking increases creativity, another on how the placebo effect works for creativity, and yet another one on the positive effects of moderate amounts of alcohol. But we’re only just beginning. We invite you to subscribe to our channel below and start using science to improve your own creativity.
Read MoreEver heard of apophenia? I hadn’t either until I watched a recent video from the BBC called “Why we are so prone to seeing patterns in randomness.” It describes apophenia as a condition we should avoid because it will lead us astray. The problem is, what it describes as a “condition” is a necessary ingredient in the creative process. Have a watch and I’ll explain.
Read MoreIdeasicle X is all about ideas, but it’s not the “normal” way to generate them. It’s all virtual, it’s in teams of four, there are no meetings, etc. Well, David Baldwin has been an Ideasicle Expert since 2010 and has been a customer of Ideasicle X with his agency, Baldwin&. Here are David’s tips for other freelancers invited to idea projects on the platform. Wise.
Read MoreIdeasicle X, as wonderful as we think it is for coming up with great ideas quickly, is not designed to replace any creative departments. It’s a fear we’ve heard more than once. In fact, quite the opposite is true. Ideasicle X is designed to be a behind-the-scenes complement to magnify the power of creative departments.
Read MoreOne of the reasons Ideasicle X works so well is that the team feels comfortable and unafraid. Nothing scares creativity away better than fear, right? Well, our platform is designed to minimize fear and maximize ideas. Here are three ways we do that.
Read MoreSince we launched Ideasicle X this summer, we’ve learned a lot from our customers and trial users. The idea generation model we’ve created is working incredibly well so far. It’s what surrounds the idea generation we’re improving. Just recently a major creative agency in New York City conducted a trial of the platform and not only loved the outcome, but plan to deploy it throughout their NYC and LA offices. But under one condition: the platform needs to allow more people to be involved in the process (not the idea generation part—that will remain four to a team—but the process surrounding it). It was an “aha!” for us and may be for you, too. Here’s how the platform is improving as a result.
Read MoreWe all know by now that the advertising industry has responded incredibly well to virtual, remote work. The day-to-day with clients is getting done, work is getting produced, and in many cases relationships with clients are improving. But one feature of the Zoomification of advertising I was curious about was perhaps the most important one. How has Zoom (and the like) affected agencies’ ability to sell creative work? So yesterday I posted a poll to my LinkedIn contacts, most of whom are in the advertising business and got some interesting answers that come with implications.
Read MoreA new study suggests that, counter to conventional wisdom, the best ideas in a brainstorm are not the first ones that come easily, but are the ones that take a little time. Add to that the reality that creativity has a mind of its own and can’t be forced into a particular time frame. What we’re left with is the realization that time matters and we have to be careful with it when it comes to ideas.
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