CASE STUDY:
In the past six months "crowdsourcing" has become a buzzword in the industry and has morphed into an approach whereby firms invite and reward outside participants to tackle creative brand challenges. Most crowdsourcing firms typically invite either consumers to participate in challenges OR creative individuals from within the marketing industry (art directors, designers, etc.). However, BIGHEADS NETWORK is taking a more evolutionary approach. This New York City firm uses a handpicked social network/braintrust made up of over 1,000 creative and influential individuals from countless diverse disciplines (entertainment, healthcare, sports, technology, politics, education, fashion, etc.), who collaborate with brands to generate breakthrough product innovations and marketing solutions. If you ask them "why" they bring such a diverse group together to tackle brand challenges, they will point to the Henry Ford quote, "If I had asked my customers what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse." The point being, if you truly want to innovate and create new ideas, you need to go beyond your typical sources of inspiration. And their approach is built to do just that! A recent BigHeads project for J&J wanted to uncover innovations - from product ideas to display solutions - to help female consumers have a better retail experience with foundation selection, particularly to assist in complexion matching. Rather than enlisting the target demographic, BigHeads challenged their diverse members to generate ideas and inspiration. Allowing them to uncover new ideas from unexpected sources - a Navy Seal camouflage blending expert...a scientist who studied reptiles that shifted color to fit in with surroundings...a car restoration guru who used tools to match paint . . .and hundreds of others. RESULTS: BigHeads Network garnered an overwhelming amount of out of the box solutions because they were NOT target customers, marketers or researchers yet they had deep insights to the exact issue that the target was facing. Exceeding expectations, dozens of the concepts are currently in development beyond the Innovation team - to the brand, Shopper Marketing and PR teams. The process delivered well beyond the original scope and objective. If your team is ready to collaborate to drive innovation, insights & ideas its time to challenge BigHeads to find an open source approach for your business.
Contact:
Carlyn Kelly
203.219.3478
Carlyn@bigheadsnetwork.com
www.bigheadsnetwork.com |
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Greetings!
Marketing innovation is easy to talk about but hard to do. Rather than conceiving and executing new programs, many marketers fall into the habit of revisiting previous executions and tweaking them around the margins. However, today's environment may call for nothing less than a top to bottom overhaul of your marketing plan.
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Borrowing from a KFC tagline, it's time to unthink what you thought about marketing. In the age of social networks, mobile applications, and a wide range of highly effective non-traditional marketing programs, it's more than just out with the old, in with the new. Marketers are facing a profound transformation in the way consumers interact with brands.
At a recent 4A's conference, Nick Brien, head of McCann Worldgroup, told the audience "I spoke with 23 of our biggest clients, and each one of them told me that they believed the main drivers of business and market-share growth would come from marketing innovation."
New Thinking
Mike Linton, Forbes columnist and former Best Buy CEO, has observed, "Innovation is any action taken by the brand that changes consumer behavior in favor of the company." More and more marketers are recognizing this need to stay up-front on innovative ways to reach consumers. For example, PepsiCo has launched an innovation incubator called PepsiCo10, while Interpublic Group has created a new unit called ShelfLIFE, which is charged with pinpointing how these new media sources move a shopper from indecision to decision.
Don't Shout
Through innovation, marketers are finding new ways to impact consumer behavior. In May, Intel launched a global music initiative in partnership with a media agency. The multi-discipline, multi-country project includes an online component and a series of conferences in cities around the world. "Millennials, who this campaign reaches, don't want to be shouted at," said the company's Chief Marketing Officer, Deborah Conrad. "They want something authentic and generated by word-of-mouth."
Groundbreaking Social Media
Another example of innovation contributing to marketing efforts is how Old Spice generated a surge of word-of-mouth with its hard to miss "The Man Your Man Could Smell Like" TV spots. In recent days the TV campaign morphed into a social media phenomenon with it's groundbreaking YouTube video responses. Old Spice's agency Wieden + Kennedy crafted 150 tailor-made (almost real time) video responses to comments made by TMYMCSL's online fans. Each response is getting tens or hundreds of thousands of views and has set the blogosphere abuzz.
Outside The Comfort Zone
It's not clear how Old Spice will measure the success of the campaign. But according to Mike Linton, that shouldn't be a major concern. He says if it's true innovation, you won't know everything about it, including how to measure it. "You have to keep pace with the market, and [that means] the marketers have to get comfortable with the ambiguity," Mr. Linton said.
The Way Forward
The way forward for innovators may not have a roadmap, but there are some powerful tools that can help. PromoAid is one. Its one of a kind service not only provides in-depth detailed information about nearly 2,000 vendors, but its powerful search engine is great for helping your team brainstorm new innovative approaches to meet your marketing needs.
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More Than Just A Marketing Directory
PromoAid is a company that has streamlined how marketers and agencies screen, research and select marketing programs used to execute their strategic plans. We provide a one-of-a-kind marketing data platform containing comprehensive information on 1,800+ marketing service vendors. Backed by decades of experience in marketing and consumer promotion, the PromoAid team has created a service that performs program and vendor searches based on our clients specific marketing needs.
PromoAid compiled the most sought after information - reporting up to 30 data points of information for each vendor/programs, enabling detailed matching, evaluation and comparison for programs that match our client's specific needs. This provides our clients a more effective and efficient way to manage the selection process of marketing programs and gives them greater exposure to the types of programs available. It also saves them time and money.
To learn more and view a short video demo, visit PromoAid or call: (847) 425-1580. |
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