Ideas are everywhere these days. They are a dime a dozen. They grow on trees. But, have you ever thought about what makes one idea better than another? Think about the ideas that you wish you owned – Facebook, iPod, Twitter, Google, Red Bull.
The power of original thinking is evident in every industry. Look at the iPhone for example. Not only is the device itself the coolest PDA/MP3 player in the universe, it’s even cooler because of all of the apps that you can download to the device that make it that more enjoyable. Apple was ingenious in letting anyone that had the ingenuity develop a specific app and sell it to iPhone users through ITunes. Instead of relying on the developers within Apple, they opened it up to everyone who had an idea.
Today more and more companies compete on the originality of their ideas and the power of their point of view. Several authors have used the idea of originality as the groundwork for some great books. Mavericks at Work, Blue Ocean Strategy and Purple Cow are some of my favorites. What advertising has lost is its originality. With more and more emphasis on ROI and metrics, the power of the original idea has faded.
Original ideas have value. Consumers engage them, seek them out, share them and most importantly – buy them. The advertising industry has seen more change in the last few years than in the first 100 years of its existence. The old model is obsolete and most traditional marketing tools simply don’t work anymore. We believe that originality is new strategy, the new killer app that will take clients and their products to greater heights. No other agency is working off this platform of originality and we believe this is our Blue Ocean opportunity. We won’t be perfect, but we sure as hell are going to enjoy the ride!