It’s always an interesting discussion when you sit down with a prospective client for the first time and the first things out of their mouth is, “so we have all these great ideas, but we’re not sure if they are any good, and we really have no clue where to start”.    Many of these ideas stem from the over stimulation of creative and experimental media we are bombarded with on a daily basis.   We think to ourselves, what would I respond to, what really works.   But how do you decide where to start, what to do first, and how much budget or simply human resources should you dedicate to new ideas.   Notice, that I’m not detailing what type of ideas, since they can pretty much be anything - spanning from whether or not to attempt a viral-based or social networking campaign to whether or not to put a new arcade room in your office (wink).  

A few weeks ago, I was part of EMG’s executive retreat in which we were determining the future of our agency and how we could continue to effectively set ourselves apart from the competition, continue to grow soundly and profitably and how to remain at the forefront of what many consider cutting-edge marketing and technology strategies.   The format that we followed in order to achieve this came from a fantastic book called “Blue Ocean Strategies”.   The premise essentially is to make your competition irrelevant by creating and developing a new uncontested marketplace.    Sparing you the details, there is one central theme to this concept.  Using “value innovation” as a guiding rule for determining which ideas to move forward with.   Value innovation is simply a different strategic logic and mindset.    It places equal focus and weight on both value and  innovation.    

Value without innovation tends to focus on “value creation” - or otherwise something that is not sufficient to make you stand out in the marketplace.   Likewise, innovation without value tends to be considered market pioneering or futuristic, however it often shoots beyond what your audience or consumers are ready to accept, engage or even pay for.     So next time the light-bulb goes off or a think-tank, or even dare we say a COMMITTEE is formed, take into account this concept of value innovation to determine the best ideas to support and commit to.