High ROI Signup

PORTFOLIO

TESTIMONIAL

"It has been such a pleasure working with someone of your talent and professionalism. Your copy made all the difference in attracting people to our conference, and we couldn't be more grateful."

Sandy Thomas,
American Stock Exchange.

Current & Archived Newsletters

Dimensional Mail

When You Need A "Big Idea"

In marketing, we're always looking for the Big Idea. But in reality, there's not always time to get super-creative when dashing off a quick and dirty email promotion or doing a simple brochure.

However, every once in a while, you have a promotion that is so high profile that you simply must score a knockout punch.

This was the case for a product launch for MasterCard International that I was involved in some years ago. They were launching the Universal Travel Voucher (UTV) -- a standardized voucher that travel agents could use to confirm both reservations and payment.

The client asked us to come up with a breakthrough idea for a flip chart that bank salespeople could use to explain and sell this somewhat complex new technology to travel agents.

The obvious idea that came to us was a suitcase with a flip chart inside. But my creative director at the time really wanted to push for something that had never been done before. And the art director and I were pulling our hair out trying to come up with new ideas.

Luckily, I had learned about the "100 Idea Approach" - which is basically to write down every idea you have and push yourself until you come up with 100.

Now if you've ever tried this, you will find that you will run out of steam after about 35 ideas - when you've basically done a brain dump of every old thought you've ever had. The creativity really opens up when you're at a complete loss for ideas and now have to create something brand-new out of the ether.

The way I learned to do this was from a classic advertising book called Applied Imagination, by Alex F. Osborn (the "O" is BBDO, the famous ad agency). He suggests prodding your mind by asking it new idea-spurring questions, such as ... (I'm paraphrasing the questions here to fit a modern marketing challenge):

  • "What would someone famous say about this product?" (Have fun thinking what Letterman, Leno and other comedians might say)
  • "What if we changed the size of this promotion - making it very large, very small?"
  • "What if we changed the sequence of how we promote it?"
  • "What if added features, texture, dimension, etc. to it?"
  • "What could we say in one word to communicate it?"

Write down your ideas fast and furiously and you'll find yourself exploring a whole new frontier of ideas.

That's what happened in the case of the MasterCard project. As I thought and thought and thought - I suddenly remembered seeing an innovative greeting card that was in the shape of a deck chair. I ran over to the card store and the owner retrieved the card from the basement. It was made from cardboard, but it gave a sense of the kind of construction needed.

MasterCard Flipchart

From there, the MasterCard UTV "deck chair" flip chart was born. While it's hard to see from the photo, the striped "canvas" seat of the chair is actually made of multiple pages that flip up to explain the features of the UTV system. We also created a little deck chart leave-behind with an international temperature chart on it for travel agents to refer to during the day.

As you might guess, the client was thrilled with the idea and the entire program was very successful. There was also a direct mail campaign to introduce the program to bank CEOs to encourage them to offer the UTV through their institution, which pulled an outstanding 8% response.

The morale of the story: When you need a really Big Idea, don't go with your first idea - which is likely to be something that's been done many times before. Push your mind to keep exploring.

And if you don't have time for all that brainstorming, call me in to devote some undivided time to your creative challenge. Together with a talented team of designers, we can get your projects the attention they deserve.

I also offer a training session in the 100-idea approach called The Creativity Workout. Contact me to arrange a session for your organization.



Karen's ClickZ Columns on B2B Email Marketing