Posts tagged advertising
Why Generic Ideation Tools Fall Short for Remote Creative Agencies
Why Generic Ideation Tools Fall Short for Remote Creative Agencies

Many virtual brainstorming tools focus on one main function—creating a shared virtual space for ideas. Platforms like Miro and Google Docs provide simple online frameworks for brainstorming, offering a blank canvas or a shared document where teams can contribute ideas in realtime or over time. While effective for light collaboration, it doesn’t take long to realize these tools were not developed for the advertising business. Google Docs wasn’t even developed for idea generation. Here’s why that matters and what you can do about it.

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CommentaryWill Burnsremote work, advertising, brainstorm
Turning the Creative Brief Into A Living Organism
Turning the Creative Brief Into A Living Organism

In much of the advertising world, the creative brief is treated like a static document—a checklist, a rulebook, a set of instructions. But at Ideasicle X, we see it differently. For us, the brief isn’t the final word—it’s the first spark. It ignites the creative process, and while the brief itself doesn’t change during the creative process, its influence on the creative team grows and evolves as the ideas take shape. When approached the right way, a brief doesn’t dictate creative solutions, it fuels them, turning into something dynamic and alive.

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Creativity, CommentaryWill Burnscreative brief, advertising, inspiration
The Future Of Advertising: Temporary Help On A Continuous Basis
The Future Of Advertising: Temporary Help On A Continuous Basis

The advertising world is in flux, and so is the way we think about utilizing creative talent. Good talent is expensive and hard to find, the talent an agency has is maxed out, and to top it off client budgets aren’t getting any bigger. In fact, brands are rejecting traditional "agency of record" relationships. Instead, brands are dipping in and out of agencies as they build up their in-house teams. What is an advertising agency to do in this environment? I’ll tell you. Agencies need temporary help on a continuous basis.

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CommentaryWill Burnsfreelance, advertising, talent
It's Time To Prepare Your Brand For A Down Economy. Here's How.
It's Time To Prepare Your Brand For A Down Economy. Here's How.

While the stock market has been on fire this year, economists warn that stock-market performance is not how we assess the overall health of the economy. And it turns out other key economic indicators are pointing to a downturns. In fact, the agencies and clients I speak with regularly tell me they are already starting to feel the economy weaken. Less advertising business for agencies and freelancers because their clients are understandably getting more nervous every day.

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Use CasesWill Burnseconomy, downturn, marketing, advertising
What If Creative Freelancers Were As Integrated Into Your Creative Process As 'Siri' Is Into An iPhone?
What If Creative Freelancers Were As Integrated Into Your Creative Process As 'Siri' Is Into An iPhone?

When agencies need freelancers they need them yesterday, not three days later after they’ve been called, negotiated with, W9s received, an office found for them to work, hotels to put them up, etc. What if freelance talent could be intimately integrated into an agency’s existing creative process, where teams who know your client’s business are but keystrokes away at any given moment and could be coming up with ideas within hours not days? Well, we have the meats.

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Use Cases, Tips & TricksWill Burnsfreelance, advertising, creative department, agency
A Free Revenue-Generating Idea For Zillow. Yes, Free.
A Free Revenue-Generating Idea For Zillow. Yes, Free.

I have an idea for Zillow that I think could increase their revenue substantially, effectively creating an entirely new channel for advertising. The idea has been collecting pixel-dust on my hard drive for at least a year, and I don’t have the time to identify the right people, beat down their doors and get this idea in front of them. So instead I’m simply going to post the idea below. That’s right, I’m going to give the idea away.

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PromotionWill BurnsZillow, advertising, idea
IX Use Case: North Jump Starts (And Wins) Ledlenser Pitch With Ideasicle X
IX Use Case: North Jump Starts (And Wins) Ledlenser Pitch With Ideasicle X

North Advertising was invited into a very attractive pitch recently for the Ledlenser portable lighting business and North felt they needed to manufacture every advantage humanly possible in order to win. After a deep strategy cycle designed to unearth the brand's "real,” they decided to augment their own creative muscle with a bit of IX creative juice. Here's their story as told by Rebecca.

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Use CasesWill Burnspitch, advertising, agency, ideas, collaboration
IX Use Case: Win Your Next Pitch With Unprecedented Creative Transparency
IX Use Case: Win Your Next Pitch With Unprecedented Creative Transparency

I was the director of biz dev at Arnold Worldwide for seven years, so I know how competitive it is and, more importantly, how savagely an agency will look for an edge over the competition in any given pitch. As long as it’s legal and wouldn’t get us kicked out of the pitch by the pitch consultant, we’d consider it. Well, we have a feature within the Ideasicle X platform that I wish I had when I was at Arnold. It’s an edge that I think will help some of the bolder agencies win pitches, but not every agency will have the guts.

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Use CasesWill Burnsnew business, pitch, advertising
IX Use Case: An Ideasicle X Subscription Isn't Right For Everyone. Here's How To Know If It's Right For You.
IX Use Case: An Ideasicle X Subscription Isn't Right For Everyone. Here's How To Know If It's Right For You.

Ideasicle X is a software platform designed to help marketing organizations and agencies tap into world-class freelance talent to come up with creative ideas. It’s an incredibly powerful tool R&D’ed over a ten-year period of virtual trial and virtual error. However, it is a clear disruption to our normal ways of coming up with ideas. As such, it’s not right for everyone. What follows a five situations where an Ideasicle X Subscription (IX) may NOT be right for your organization.

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Use Cases, News & UpdatesWill BurnsIdeasicle, ideas, marketing, advertising
For The Love Of God, If You're Going To Spend $7M To Run A Super Bowl Spot, Spend $30K On A Great Idea
For The Love Of God, If You're Going To Spend $7M To Run A Super Bowl Spot, Spend $30K On A Great Idea

The game is over, the ads have run, and once again we are sorely disappointed. The Super Bowl is supposed to be The Beatles of advertising, the best of the best, the spots with the biggest and most creative ideas. But, with a few exceptions this year, they were flat and/or non-ideas. Yet still cost on average nearly $7M a pop to run. Not sure about you, but we’re tired of it and we’re taking this problem into our own hands.

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PromotionWill Burnssuper bowl, advertising, creative, spots
An Organizer, An Observer, And An Idea Director Walk Into A Virtual Bar...
An Organizer, An Observer, And An Idea Director Walk Into A Virtual Bar...

Just this month our crack developer team added some exciting new functionality to the Ideasicle X platform. If you haven’t heard, customers told us they wanted a division of labor with the implementation of idea jobs, as follows:

  • Organizer: sets up the idea jobs

  • Idea Director: monitors the team’s ideas within the Idea Stream

  • Observers: can view the Idea Streams but can’t engage with the teams in any way

Today, I want to share a deeper dive on these roles, what to expect, and how each can add as much value as possible to the idea-generating process.

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Tips & TricksWill Burnsideas, creativity, advertising
IX Use Case: How Holding Companies Can More Effectively Tap Into The Talent They Hold
IX Use Case: How Holding Companies Can More Effectively Tap Into The Talent They Hold

The 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.

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Use CasesWill Burnsholding company, advertising, creativity, remote
How Do You Know An Idea Is Great?
How Do You Know An Idea Is Great?

It’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.

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CreativityWill Burnsideas, creativity, advertising
IX Use Case: If An Idea Could Start World War 3, An Idea Could Prevent It.
IX Use Case: If An Idea Could Start World War 3, An Idea Could Prevent It.

I 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.

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Use CasesWill Burnsukraine, ideas, advertising
A Technology Platform Whose Algorithm Is Human
A Technology Platform Whose Algorithm Is Human

We 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.

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News & UpdatesWill Burnstechnology, ceativity, ideas, advertising, freelance, remote work
Platform Update: Major Innovations Coming To Ideasicle X
Platform Update: Major Innovations Coming To Ideasicle X

Since 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.

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News & UpdatesWill Burnsinnovation, ideas, advertising, updates
Survey: Selling Creative Work Virtually Is A Significant Challenge For Ad Agencies
Survey: Selling Creative Work Virtually Is A Significant Challenge For Ad Agencies

We 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.

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CreativityWill Burnsadvertising, selling, ideas