Vanilla. Camouflage. Wallpaper. Plain toast.

Do you want to be any of those things?

Didn’t think so.

I can think of a lot of brands (and people) that would enjoy inhabiting that world. They abhor the idea of unwelcome attention. They’re plugging along, calmly and safely, thinking of all the things that could wrong if they took a misstep, luxuriating in the warmth that is complacency, misguided as it might be.

Problem is, they’re at risk of fading into the background, never to be heard from (or purchased) again.

Brands should want attention, welcome or otherwise. It’s what gets people to notice and be interested, and once you have that, you have the possibility of connection. Once you have connection, you can work your way up to loyalty. And that’s the shizz.

Speaking of connection, a new ad campaign from Benetton is getting a lot of attention, good and bad, for connecting people a little too closely. They‘ve even had to pull one of them.

Benetton has a history of provocative ads that usually have nothing to do with the product, but everything to do with their philosophy of unity. Bing or Google Benetton and look how much press they’re getting. For a fashion brand, buzz is everything, and Benetton will never be vanilla. More like Amarena black cherry swirl.

And ps, those are some sick photoshop skills!

If you're dying for a good idea...*

Costco, home of 2 pound hunks of mozzarella, 10 man tents and $200 cabernets, sells caskets. If this is not news to you, I’m sorry (in more ways than one).

Let me start by saying, I love going to Costco.

I don’t mind the crowds. At checkout, they get you through the lines amazingly fast, and I like looking at people’s carts while I’m waiting to pay. It’s a great way to see all the wonderful things that are potentially in my future (an 8-pack of John Wayne Certified Organic Black Pepper Flavor Beef Jerky! Who know John Wayne was into organic!?).

I just love all the stuff. I don’t know why four boxes of Honey Nut Cheerios is better than one, but it just is. Maybe it’s American’s unofficial motto (“Gimme More!”) that drives people to fill their Costco carts.

For me, it offers the perverse challenge of getting through the Unofficial Home of Excess without going off my list. I love leaving with just the couple of things we need. I think it pisses some people off, indignant that I could go to Overshop Heaven and leave with just blueberries, batteries and water.

For my latest excursion to Costco I showed up right when they opened on a Saturday morning and took advantage of the empty store to walk down every aisle. I saw all the things I usually miss when I’m flying from the beer to the water to the pharmacy (with a stop at salmon).

At the end of the row with shredders and filing cabinets, I found the above aforementioned casket area. Glory Be! You can buy the last box you’ll ever be in, at the biggest box you’ve ever been in.

It’s genius. They sell tires, and gas, and vacations, and blinds…so why not make what will arguably be your last purchase at the same place where you buy all the things that help you enjoy life? It makes perfect sense. It’s a great idea. A bit macabre, perhaps, but if the Caramel Apple Pie rocks at Costco (which it does), why wouldn’t the caskets?

The only thing I wonder—and I didn’t stay long enough to find out—how many do you have to buy?

*posthumous thanks to Sid Rosset for this oldie but goodie.

The award for best use of hair extensions in a tv commercial goes to…

I love this commercial.

I don’t write about TV ads much anymore because they’re so pre-millennium, but there’s still nothing like moving film to disrupt your emotional state. In this case, in a good way.

This spot captures human nature subtly and beautifully in fun but understated performances. Each time you watch you notice a nice new detail. I especially love the way the dad gets his pony tail and then one more when he hears the second part of the boy’s career goals.

And it clearly brings to life the product’s selling proposition: that there’s such a great variety of flavors, there will be something for everyone.

In a world of executional dazzle it’s nice to see something as mundane as a family dinner become so funny, relevant, and engaging. And convincing. Let’s hear it for clarity and simplicity

A great idea in need of resuscitation

I’ve spent a lot of time in Los Angeles over the past 20 years, and I’d argue that LA is the least normal city in the world. In a wonderful, check-out-my-latest-face-lift, don’t-my-fake-boobs-look-natural kind of way.

The home of plastic surgery and plastic people, LA is also home to Skeletons in the Closet. A perfect name for any kind of store in a city where dirt is gold, but when it’s a shop run by the LA County Coroner, it’s even more perfect.

Lunch coolers and travel mugs with the Coroner’s logo, welcome mats and beach towels with chalk outlines of a body…lots of fun stuff. They even have a web site.

It’s an ingenius way of thinking outside the body bag to make a few extra bucks.

Problem is, they’ve been losing money, mainly because they’ve been selling the same merchandise for a while (most likely to the same people).

Won’t you help?

Please buy some dead guy stuff. Or better yet, send them some ideas for new stuff they could sell.

Embalming fluid as a hangover cure to bring you back to life after a rough night? Specials for couples like body bags for two? Or maybe rentals for a half hour on the slab?

One side note: This New York Times article mentions how Skeletons was created, but I’m betting whoever came up with the idea was watching Night Shift at the time. Bill Blazejowski, where are you when we need you?

Today’s great ideas are tomorrow’s wrinkles

When I read about an intriguing new idea it makes the corners of my mouth turn up and my eyes scrunch just a bit in a happy little salute. This happened the other day when I read a New York Times article on some of the New Year’s Eve tie-ins on Times Square.

Lip soother and kiss enhancer Nivea is a natural sponsor, giving out thousands of samples in preparation of thousands of midnight kisses.

Document company Cintas’ clever Good Riddance Day on December 28 gives people the opportunity to shred documents they want to forget about from the previous year. A woman from Tennessee won a trip to New York to be the first to shred: she’ll say Good Riddance to her medical bills from a life threatening operation in 209 that she paid off in 2010.

Smart, compelling, fun, relevant.

The only thing better than hearing about great ideas is watching them come to life in the very best possible way. Which makes me think of Waterford Crystal’s sponsorship of the ball that drops every year. No logo on it, people; they’ve just done a great job of popularizing the connection over the years. Now it fees like no other crystal is worthy of the Time Square ball.

A brilliant tie-in that’s incredibly well known with minimal promotional efforts. We should all be so lucky.

Riddle Me This

What’s a five letter word for “incites?”

I don’t know, because I’m not a crossword puzzler, but give me a little time. Trying to figure it out could help me land on a great answer to my next big conundrum.

Courtesy of Northwestern University (Go Cats) via The New York Times comes compelling findings concerning the power of puzzles to help people solve other challenges. Good news for those of us in the business of convincing people to trust their creative instincts and use them to solve problems in unconventional ways.

For all of you out there thinking about how to solve your current vexing challenge—I’m talking to you, marketers, cosmetologists, cosmonauts, animal husbandry professors, pizza twirlers and highway surveyors—yes, all of you, anyone in the business of coming up with ideas: take heed. This is a shot across your bow if you don’t believe in the power of using creative solutions to get to new creative solutions. Getting your brain into the ready state to show it’s stuff. Drawing order from chaos.

The next time you march into conceptual war, arm yourself with some unconventional yet highly effective tools of the trade: A good knock-knock joke, or a tough Sudoku. Get your synapses into a positive mood. According to these wily Wildcats, it’ll lead to better problem solving.

Chia Pests

I hate bad puns but I love great ideas.

So it’s with mixed feelings that I send you to this article in the New York Times. You’ll see for yourself that smart, less expensive ideas are still alive and well.

It didn’t hurt that the only client guidelines in this case were to “make it fun and engaging.” That’s every idea-thinker-upper’s dream direction.

And you’ll also see that having less money can sometimes mean taking on greater potential risk. It’s the point of this story. And the fact that this client was ultimately willing to take that risk paid off for them.

But this idea was also extremely relevant and incredibly strategic, and that’s the best part. They captured the moment in a way that highlighted their product and got attention in a good way.

That’s nothing to poo-poo.

Profit is overrated

Are you confident enough to give away some of your best stuff?

Nordstrom is.

I love it when someone or some entity is confident enough to be generous without worrying too much about how much they’re giving away. Creative partners, global leaders, basketball teammates…when you’ve got something someone else might want and can give it away, the good always gets greater.

I’m not saying Nordstrom’s latest announcement is completely selfless or entirely for the benefit of humanity. But it sure is a step in the right direction.

They’re opening a “philanthropic concept store” in Soho, with an eye turned to their goal of someday opening a flagship store in Manhattan , home and long time roost of Bloomingdales. The twist?

The store will give away all profits to charity.

This new endeavor is brilliant in many ways, not the least of which is getting New Yorkers to feel good about the Nordstrom name and ultimately getting them comfortable with setting foot in the store. With their legendary service, once they’re in the door, they’ll come back.

It also enables people to feel good about their purchases and charities to get lots and lots of unexpected donations.

If it’s true that confidence looks like generosity, then you better start spreadin’ the news, because Nordstrom is gonna be a part of it. New York, New York…

Why texting is good for your brain

The digital age will improve the way you think and write. And you can thank Friedhelm Hiilebrand.

I thought of Friedhelm this morning. I wanted to send an email to an old friend to congratulate her on her new job, but I only had her email from her old job. So I found her on Linked In, added her to my network, and attached a note, which was rejected because it was too long. 300 character limit.

Which is generous compared to the 160 characters you get for a text, and the 140 you get for Twitter.

So I revised my note to her, chopping and slicing words and phrases.

And it wasn’t just shorter, it was better. Better use of words and better use of her time. Tighter, smarter, more to the point.

So thank you, Friedhelm Hillebrand and your German friends, who created the universal texting length and whether meaning to or not, forced us to write in a more compact form.

Yes, I know our children speak in a consonant-less language and abbreviate everything, but it’s nothing the US military hasn’t been doing in spectacular fashion for decades, and they’ve survived pretty well.

Amidst the evils of rampant spellcheckmania and media multitasking, I’d argue that the digital age is forcing us to think and package our ideas more concisely, and write with intelligent restraint.

If only there was a character limit to powerpoint presentations.

Can't beat fun at the old baseball trapezoid

Collaboration in sports is usually a good thing. Just about every team has a huge amount of talent in the locker room, and often it’s chemistry that separates champs from chumps.

How often do you hear of a team making a late season acquisition of a player who has won championships on different teams? It’s not often the most talented guy available; in fact, more often that not, it’s a just-above average player who’s an excellent “clubhouse guy.” He’s a natural facilitator—he keys great collaboration and he helps get people to perform.

(And conversely, you only have to look as far as my beloved Wrigley Field to see two cases of the opposite of great clubhouse guys-- Milton Bradley and Carlos Zambrano--people whose poisonous attitudes have been able to take down a team all by themselves.)

So when is collaboration a bad thing in sports? When it comes to building baseball stadiums.

The interesting thing about ballparks, compared to football fields or basketball courts, is that no playing fields are the same. Football fields are 100 yards long, basketball courts are 94 feet from end to end and 50 feet from side to side. Baseball stadiums are all wonderfully uniquely different.

This was brought to my attention by some smart folks at snippets.com who used Google Maps to trace the shapes of all uncovered Major League baseball parks. The variance in shapes and sizes are truly amazing. While some teams actually do play on baseball diamonds, others play on baseball rhombuses and baseball trapeziods.

I won’t rant about this being another reason baseball is the best, most interesting and unique sport on the planet (despite most humans being unable to make it through more than an inning or two without going go get something to eat.)

I will suggest that the very best cultures allow for individuality to thrive even when great collaboration makes the difference between success and failure.

I daer yoo not 2 laff

Pablo Picasso may not have been real hip to computers, but he might have changed his tune if he'd hung around long enough to experience all of the wonderful stupidity of the internet.

Visionary entrepreneurs are building empires on the foundation of pictures of cats wearing ties accompanied by misspelled captions. I dare you not to laugh at Lolcats.

Or Fail blog.

Or There, I fixed it.

All these sites are owned by the Cheezburger network, a bunch of crazies who identify possible new Funny by monitoring community forums, blogs, and websites and use the intel to spin off new sites. The sites are easy to make and spread and they’re hugely popular. Thousands of submissions are rejected; many of the rejects are the basis new sites.

It’s a bastard stepchild of America’s Funniest Home Videos, a wonderful way to make something out of nothing by coming up with a new way to Twist what already exists, and it’s brilliant.

So see what's under that pile on your desk. Pay closer attention when you're surfing the web. Take another look at the back of your cereal box. Never hesitate to take a good look at what you already have; it's a good way to discover something new. It might even happen by accident.

Just ask these guys.

The military giveth, the military borrowith

The Military has given great things to this country, not the least of which being freedom for all of her citizens and pretty much the rest of the free world. So it’s nice to see the military being smart (and humble) enough to look to the most American of all sports for some of their Ideas:

The National Football League (sorry, baseball, just check the numbers).

The US military has over 24 million minutes of video collected by remotely piloted aircraft, ready and waiting to be used to track down the bad guys. But it’s relatively useless because military analysts have no way to search it or know what information it holds.

Enter the NFL, which has “the technology so you can pull an instant replay of every Brett Favre touchdown over his career.” From where did the idea to borrow from the NFL come? It could have come from a Five Star General chilling on a standard issue khaki couch one Sunday afternoon, but I think there was a secret ideation session led by an Army facilitator in a bunker somewhere south of Kandahar.

Either way, some smart person in the military who has probably read A Technique for Producing Ideas understood the value of putting together existing elements to come up with a sparkling new, smart idea. Now if he could only figure out a way to make Instant Replay in the NFL about a hundred times faster.

A lesson from D-Day: Great Ideas can change the world

"In wartime truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies."

This from one of the most quotable men of the 20th century, Winston Churchill, describing the massive disinformation and deception plan concocted by the Allies prior to the D-Day invasion of Normandy.

The multi-spoked idea was to stuff the Nazi information pipeline with enough facts, figures and plans to convince the Nazis that a much larger operation was coming, spread out over a greater swath of territory, and they wouldn’t be able to properly defend the real invasion points.

The deception was so elaborate that it must have taken months to develop, as well as the cooperation of hundreds of minds across thousands of miles. It included the creation of completely fictitious military divisions, like “FUSAG,” the First US Army Group, which did not actually exist. But the Germans believed it did, due to fake radio traffic and the use of double agents.

It also included parachuting dummies behind enemy lines and dropping strips of aluminum foil cut to a length that corresponded to German radar waves to create phantom fleets of bombs and troops.

Imagine the precise coordination of the cognitively disparate people necessary to make it successful. If one person betrayed the deception—and there were incidents that came close, resulting in quarantines and demotions—the whole plan might have been blown, and we could be watching Hogan’s Heroes episodes today that end very differently.

65 years later, we’re free to have Memorial Day picnics to remember the heroes and watch amazing stories of D-Day on TV. Military terms are everywhere, even in the world of corporate America, where, ironically enough, we use “war rooms” to figure out how we’re going to capture market share.

The sessions that the Allied leaders conducted in the original War Rooms were filled with amazingly creative thinkers and tremendous creative problem solving. Talk about an impactful ideation. Shows you what truly inspired collaboration can do.

When Stinking is good

Often, the very best thing you can do is chuck everything you ever learned out the window. Take your B school professor’s proclamations, those focus groups that seemed to make sense at the time, the very best ideation sessions, and throw them all away. Run hard the other way. Don’t look back.

Go with your gut and take it to the bank. Or the poorhouse.

The wisdom of telling Conventional Wisdom to take a hike isn’t brand new. It doesn’t always work but it surely is ballsy, and right or wrong, it’s proof that conviction still lives. And if it’s so ballsy that it’s brazenly outrageous, you can spin it positively.

One of my favorite stories is about Red Bull. It was originally a Thai energy drink called Krating Daeng, which in English, of course, means Red Bull. Even though people gave no chance of success to an energy drink with the stupidly ridiculous name of Red Bull, founder Dietrich Mateschitz, with nothing other than his gut informing him, stuck by the name. Red Bull’s done pretty well in the wing-giving business.

So now Domino’s re-launches their reformulated pizza by proclaiming that for years they’ve had really bad pizza. TV commercials show focus group footage of people being extremely critical of Domino’s taste, from the cardboard crust to the ketchupy sauce, and then they surprise those same critics by delivering the new pizzas, which, surprise!, taste awesome!

Whether or not clever editing helped play a role in the transformation of these pizza experts, the story is told well and believably. The spots work and the idea works, most likely because Domino’s really was terrible all those years (unlike the old Coke, which has always been pretty good) and they really have made it better. And they’ve received a boatload of favorable press, including a story on NPR.

So the next time someone tells you negative advertising doesn’t work, or you should never utter even one micro-mini-negative peep about your product, consider the one thing that’s even more powerful than contradicting Conventional Wisdom:

The truth.

Brilliant!!!!

There’s nothing in the world like the pubs, the Borough and Portobello markets are chock full of the most amazing and wonderful food, clothing, and chatchkes, and the classic English sights like Parliament Square and Big Ben are iconic and justifiably famous. But you can have Westminster and Buckingham; this is the single greatest thing about London.

It’s the very best way to get around town. Cheap, easy, and safe, with a heavy emphasis on Easy. The color coded tracks are a topographical (vs geographical) map, so while the distances aren’t exact, they’re intuitive, and clear to brains that don’t know the ins and outs of the city. Compare this wonder of creative thinking to an earlier version of the Tube map to see how much easier the current one is to navigate.

Other than perhaps Paris, I bet there’s nowhere you’ll see an equal amount of tourists and natives using public transportation, and I’d like to thank all the locals who tolerated me bumping into them from behind last week while I read my guidebook. Thanks for sharing your transit system and your beer. Lovely.

Hurts so good

The best advice in the world is often the most obvious. This is another reason why Steve Jobs is one of my business-world heroes.

Sometimes thinking differently simply involves good old fashioned editing. Stripping it down and leaving what’s best. It can feel painful, but just wait til you see how great the stuff is that’s left.

I love this woman

And not just because she almost runs the Darma Initiative.

Actually, Dr. Regina Dugan runs Darpa, which, of course, stands for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, a terrible name for a cool agency. Hence, the intriguing acronym, from which I’m sure the Lost guys took inspiration (or stole) for their little TV show.

You can read about what she’s done; it’s nothing short of incredible. My greatest respect for her comes from the ways she’s inspired the big manly men who work for her. Dr. Dugan demands creativity and innovation and she gets it. She’s living proof that it truly is all about ideas, whether you’re working for the Transformational Convergence Technology Office or selling tacos.

The world of marketing should take notice of the way one of her projects was affected by the real-world power of Social Media, leaving no doubt as to its tremendous potential when she offered a $40,000 prize for finding some balloons and 500 teams from around the world joined in the hunt (yes, that’s a tease).

Dr. Dugan, you’re our kind of person, and you have a job at Twist waiting for you as soon as you get bored in Washington.

Of puppets and love songs.

How do you tell a story that’s already powerful?
How do you dramatize exceptional customer service?
How do you bring to life an already acknowledged product benefit in a way that makes people smile and notice?
Like this:



How do you feature a product that everyone knows in a new and unusual way?
How do you use a nice piece of music (yes, that’s Colin hay from Men at Work) to help tell a story?
How do you almost (but not quite) pull off a touching story for a car rental company?
Like this:



Like or hate, Zappos and Hertz approach their message delivery in different ways than the norm. You could argue that Nike beat Zappos to the puppets, and that plenty of brands have told sappy stories of love with their product woven in, but I haven’t seen ads like this in these types of categories. Twist applied, Twist approves.

Demand > Supply = your very own bar seat

The first time I watched a Cubs game from the rooftop of a building across from Wrigley Field, the hot dog came from a Weber charcoal grill and the Old Style came from a styrofoam cooler. I had to stand the wh0le game because all the lawn chairs were taken.

Fast forward 20 years: the tube steaks have become horesradish crusted filet, the Old Style has become Old Vine Zinfindel, and the lawn chairs have become theatre style risers 20 rows deep. The rooftops across from Wrigley now resemble luxurious floating villages of gastronomy in the general vicinity of a baseball game. The people spoke (with their wallets), and the building owners answered.

Supply, meet demand. Three cheers for Adam Smith.

Nowhere is supply and demand more at home than in the world of sports. Want more proof than the Wrigley rooftops? Here you go. How about paying 500 bucks for a permanent season seat at a bar near Fenway Park? You can get one at Jerry Remy’s restaurant. Many members of Red Sox nation poo-poo the idea, but I give it a big thumbs up. Why not? Someone saw a potential area of opportunity and twisted the way people watch sports. Remy’s has already sold a couple hundred seats.

With nary a horesradish crusted filet in sight.

Anyone for a Thin Mint Julep?

Actually, that would be very inappropriate. But how would you feel about some Do-Si-Does Peanut Thai Chicken Salad?

Every year—and I can never remember when; it just happens—the doorbell rings, and there’s the cutest little dumpling in the world standing there in her Girl Scout uniform, with her order form and dimples, not saying a word, just daring you to order fewer than three boxes. And you know there’s going to be more dimples ringing your bell in a day or two, which means more boxes of cookies. There's death and taxes, and there's Girl Scout Cookies right beside those unassailable certainties.

Their incredible success, over 80 years strong and still crunching, is a testament to tradition, dimples, and cookies. But no organization lasts that long without innovating, and Girl Scouts has also done their fair share of twisting their thinking. One delicious proof point: some of the recipes they’re currently promoting.

Anyone for Samoas Fried Shrimp? How about a Thank You Berry Munch Cranberry Pecan Chicken Salad? I love reading about the ways Girl Scouts have come up with new ways to use their cookies. NPR even caught wind and did a story and taste test, and the recipes passed with flying colors.

You can argue that nothing can touch the joyful gastronimic purity of Thin Mints and an ice cold glass of milk. But maybe you should wait to make that argument til you've had a Tagalongs shake.