how to come up with digital ideas

How to come up with digital ideas.

A talk for Melbourne AwardSchool 2012 By Ben Keenan | Clemenger BBDO

Twitter @warmcola

The internet is a relevance engine

So any advertising idea mustbe relevant.

And since people don’t like ads.

You should try to do

SOLUTIONS not ADS.

Think like an

INVENTOR & STORYTELLER.

stolen from @damianroyce

A demonstrationA collective action A creative platform A phone app An interactive video A tool A product A game A character A world A visulisationAn experience money can’t buy

But....

A demonstrationA collective action A creative platform A phone app An interactive video A tool A product A game A character A world A visulisationAn experience money can’t buy

But....

Use technology simply.

Don’t simply use technology.

Do something RELEVANT to the medium.

THIS IS A TV AD.

THIS IS A DIGITAL EXECUTION OF THE SAME THOUGHT

Be interactive.

Put the audience inside the idea.

Do a product demonstration.

Show, don’t tell.

Create a game.

Bring data to life.

Be useful.

Think small.

Not big.

Watch: Rory Sutherland: Sweat the small stuff

Create a product.

Remember the web is super niche.

So make your idea super

RELEVANTto who you are talking to.

So how do you generate

relevant digital ideas?

(Some techniques)

An idea is a new relationship forged

between two or more existing thoughts.

Creativity is just connecting things.

When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something, it seemed obvious after a while. That’s because they were able to

connect experiences they’ve had and synthesize new things. And the reason they were able to do that was that they’d had more

experiences or they have thought more about their experiences than other people.

Unfortunately, that’s too rare a commodity. A lot of people in our industry haven’t had very diverse experiences. So they don’t have enough dots to connect, and they end up with very linear solutions

without a broad perspective on the problem.

The broader one’s understanding of the human experience, the better design we will have.

- Steve Jobs.

Put down fifty boxes on a page, and fill each with a thought, an idea, an insight, something that might solve the problem.

50 BOXES.

++

Boxes is

Divergent Thinking

It’s creating choices.

It takes you beyond first thoughts.

It gives you a beginning and an end.

More boxes, more dots.

You don’t think up ideas. You merely recognise them.

Watch: Elizabeth Gilbert on nurturing creativity

Jump six months forward and look back at everything that may have happened. Calendar events such as Mothers Day, football

season, winter weather. What trended, succeeded, failed, become popular, fell from favour. What might happen?

What are your predictions/hunches?

HINDSIGHTING.

Predictions/Hunches?

We get our music/software off the cloudInternational AusterityAustralian TV is awful.

Kony2012 debacle - Selfless acts now selfish acts?The personal information gap?

Bookstores/record stores dying off.Myki system is going to make Melbourne riot.News media is competing with social media.

Tweeting & TV are now normal.You can now buy 3D printers for home.

Hindsighting

How can you make the problem you are trying to solve relevant to what is going on around you?

Start conversations, instead of making statements.

Make decisions*

____________________

Convergent thinking

*The simplest solution is the best solution

Be objective. Don’t take criticism personally.

Remember,we recogniseideas, they are never ‘ours’to begin with.

A Summary

The internet is a relevance engine. SOLUTIONS not ADS.

Be part INVENTOR part STORYTELLER. Be relevant to the medium. Be relevant to the audience.

Be interactive Put the audience inside the idea.

Show don’t tell.Be useful.

Think small. Not big.

Closing Thought.

Everything I have just

said may not be relevant

in week’s time.

This is the idea we came up with for the NBCF (from the 50 boxes example). A tribute idea with an online group donation mechanic. Can you see the dots we connected?

Good Luck.

You can download this talk in the blog bit of...www.thethoughtpolice.com.au

Follow me on twitter here: www.twitter.com/warmcola