Tag Archives: innovation

Hey, What If We Were More Innovative?!

90% of ideas never go beyond idea generator’s desk; 3% of the remaining 10% obtain backing to become projects, with less than 1% being commercially launched

This year, LinkedIn listed “innovative” as one of its top 10 overused terms and I don’t wonder at why: anyone who works anywhere is likely being asked to “innovate” and so many would perceive the value of innovativeness in a potential hire as high. Why is innovation so important lately – it’s not a new term, but it definitely has that “buzzword” quality about it and like most buzzwords, the what is of innovation is often misunderstood and misused. Nonetheless, just because it is a buzzword does not necessarily make it a dirty word nor does it imply that the concept is fleeting, and especially in this case.

forget-your-customers-develop-innovative-business-models

So this might not be a complete guide to innovation, but some major ideas and theories to inspire your innovative endeavours.

What is innovation?

“To raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old problems from a new angle, requires creative imagination and marks real advance in science.” Albert Einstein

Innovation is the transformation of an idea into a new product, service or process that is brought to market or implemented – if it remains an idea, it is not an innovation.

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Marketing Trend: Incentivized Innovation

Many digital marketers are opting not only to listen more attentively to what consumers are saying about their brand, they are also providing opportunities where consumers are rewarded for innovative ideas that promote corporate needs.

This is nothing new – getting shoppers and employees to come up with name, slogans, essays have been popular for a long time. After all, countless minds working on a problem are better than a mere few. Now, with the increase of larger retailers employing social media to market their brands, consumers are challenged to produce ideas, inventions and content, and the stakes are getting ever higher.

57tweedjinglecontest

User Generated Videos & Web Content

I blogged a while back about Best Buy and their partnership with MoFilm to ask consumers to create their own Best Buy branded “true stories” videos. YouTube has proven that user generated videos can go viral to an extent that corporate made videos cannot. Take for example the Dr. Pepper Tay Zonday Chocolate Cherry Rain video – 7,988,016 (and counting) people have opted into watching this Dr. Pepper “commercial” on YouTube, all their other commercials get a fraction of this traffic. Best Buy and Dr. Pepper are not alone in promoting user generated content. 3M, Doritos and Tourism Queensland have all achieved fairly substantial successes with their own user generated content contests. A recent Forrester report states that companies in the travel, food, entertainment, fashion, and retail verticals gravitate to such campaigns.

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