3 Common Mistakes Agencies Make When Using Ideasicle X For Virtual Idea Generation

Ideasicle 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.

ONE: Briefs that are too long.

We offer two ways to brief your virtual team: video and pdf uploads. We recommend doing both so the pdf can be as simple as possible and the video can be a complement. Most agencies already subscribe to the “one page” rule for creative briefs, but not all. I can tell you from experience that more than one page can become quickly overwhelming for creative people.

Remember who creative people are. They LOVE to solve problems using their superpowers of creativity, but they have short attention spans. So if it takes you ten pages to explain the problem, they will lose interest and feel demotivated.

Same for the video brief. The idea with the video is to quickly explain the pdf brief from top to bottom and include those tangential things that would otherwise junk up your creative brief pdf. Nuances, creative preferences, directions you’d like to see explored, etc., all in a video under ten minutes long. Together, these two vehicles—the pdf and the video—should give your team everything they need to feel inspired and ready to solve the problem. The video and pdf magically appear right at the top of the Idea Stream so when the team starts the job, it’s the first thing they see.

But if you overwhelm them with ten page briefs and 20 minute videos, you may lose them right out of the gate. So…brief briefs.

TWO: when you don’t participate enough.

The platform is designed so that you are not only the client organizing the job, selecting the team, and briefing them, but an active participant. The beauty of the platform is that you can see the ideas as they are posted, in realtime. As such, you can encourage your team when they post something great and course-correct them when they go off track. You can even post your own ideas.

If your team doesn’t hear from you for too long, they will feel like they’re flying blind. Creative people WANT feedback, they like to know that they are on track, and above all are enthused by any praise you heap.

So don’t be shy. Get your hands dirty.

THREE: not using employees enough.

The platform offers you a deep bench of Ideasicle Experts to choose from, and you can invite your own favorite freelancers who are not in our system. However, you can also invite your own employees to be on the idea team, but customers don’t always think of this option. There are a few reasons why employees can be a great choice.

For starters, they’re free. Well, not free, but you’re already paying them so there’s no additional expense vs paying an outside freelancer. Employees who are familiar with the account or pitch can also ground the other outside freelancers on the team into the realities of that account or pitch, which leads to more useful ideas. Lastly, recruiting a team from various departments in your agency is a great way to get multiple perspectives working on the problem together. Not to mention the fact it’s fun for employees to be asked and motivating to help the agency in this new way.

So think about bringing in employees on your next project.

Customer Advice From A Customer: Teri Sun, Chief Strategy Officer at White Rhino.

I recently interviewed Teri to get her advice and experience in using the platform. She’s been using Ideasicle X since it was in beta and has never looked back. Ten projects in, she knows a thing or two about the platform and shares all her tips and tricks in this interview.