I have to admit that I am generally a late adopter of buzz-words (poor form I know for someone who works in an Innovation company). One of the latest buzz words that I’ve encountered late-ly is Open Innovation. Now I’m ahead of the game, welcome to: Dew Mocratic Innovation.
If you read the Wiki link, you’ll see that Open Innovation has its roots in technology. Yet, the concept is fast gaining traction in many FMCG companies from P&G to Kraft. (Skeptics might say that OI is just a formalization of existing practices, namely: for years consumers-with-something-to-say have been sending companies “great ideas for the next best thing”. When I worked on advertising for BMW, we’d get ad ideas sent to the agency every few weeks, not by copyrighters but by owners.)
Mountain Dew, the US soft-drink brand aimed at teenagers, are busy taking the Open Innovation trend into new and exciting places.
Smartly packaged, their latest marketing campaign “Dew Mocracy” sees the company getting their 13-25 year old ‘fans’ to:
1. Invent new products and flavors
2. Come up with a catchy name
3. Create an advert to promote it
4. Vote for the best idea.
The chutzpah/brilliance here is that Mountain Dew has managed to get a whole lot more than just a bunch of cool new flavor ideas.
A. How much time each month do you dedicate to innovation? 1. About 5 minutes
2. 1-3 hours
3. 5-10 hours
4. Should I also include sleeping and weekend time?
B. How many innovation books have you read over the last year?
1. They write books on this stuff?
2. 1-3
3. 2-6
4. I lose count
C. How many Innovation companies are you familiar with?
1. Ooh, an innovation company! What’s that?
2. 1
3. 5
4. All of them
D. How many innovation conferences did you attend over the last 2 years?
1. I’m sure I’ll visit one some time soon…
2. 1
3. 2
4. Attend… or speak at?
Sales data can tell you some things about what customers think of your product, as can focus groups and customer surveys. But how do you really gauge how just deeply your customers care about you? Burger King’s answer was to take that product away.
In a recent stunt (a curious fusion of market research and marketing) Burger King made one of their US branches a “Whopper Free Zone”. Using hidden cameras, they simply recorded the reactions of their customers upon being told “Sorry, we no longer serve Whoppers.” As the clip illustrates, the contorted disbelieving faces tell more of a story than answers on a survey every could. The stunt was aptly named the “Whopper Freak-out!” So, what we have is an innovative market research approach, using, you’ve guessed it: the Subtraction tool.
Consider the following joke:
“My wife just ran off with my best friend. Boy, do I miss him.”
Now, look at the following ad for Pedigree Dog Care products (Advertising agency: TBWA\Paris, France, Creative director: Erik Vervroegen)
“Beware of the Dog. He’s got terrible diarrhoea”
Both are funny. Now, what’s interesting is to ask, why?
As a budding copywriting student in the Watford College of Advertising, I used to wonder how I too could create ads like Stella Artois’ “Reassuringly expensive” campaign.
No matter how hard I tried to be witty, original and persuasive, few of my concepts ever seemed to quite resemble those magnificent campaigns that graced our screens and magazines. Bruised but not (totally) beaten, I limped off to become an account planner, where from close distance I watched my colleagues in the creative department bash out their wares week in, week out. What was their secret? What was I missing?
SIT Advertising and MarCom facilitator. Oriental Studies (MA) from Cambridge University and post-grad diploma in Advertising and Marketing. Formerly a strategic planner at Lowe and WCRS (London) and Optimum (Tel Aviv). Married to a planner (that wasn't planned) and have two young children (planned), so hobbies are, in the main, imaginary.
