gareth kay think small | mdw august 2011

Think Small.

The bigger, the better

BIG ideas

BIG audiences

Big isn’t working

“In most categories, a brand’s market share is stationary”

4 out of 5 categories seen as increasingly homogeneous

Less than 1 in 10 ads seen as different

3 x $ spent on price cutting as on brand building in CPG

Source: Andrew Ehrenberg; Copernicus Consulting; McKinsey

We’ve confused the end with the means

It’s time for small.

Small

Why small matters

What small ideas look like

How to think, and make, small

Small

Why small matters

1. Big problems don’t need big solutions

2. ‘Small’ culture

"Square is elegant. The user's flow through payment or application has been reduced to the fewest possible steps; the app has minimal features. He espouses a tremendously attractive belief that good industrial design wins customers' trust by disappearing."

In an increasingly well designed world, it’s small things that

make the big difference

3. Small is good for business

‘From suck to non-suck’

Pixar

“The bigger you get, the smaller you have to act”

Andy Spade

Small

Why small matters

What small ideas look like

1. They’re in the service of people

They build bridges

2. They remove friction

Elegant solutions trump elegant things

3. One of many

A culture full of depth and complexity

The rule of 5%

New economics

“Any idea is dangerous if it’s a person’s only idea”

Organize the world’s information

and make it universally

accessible and useful.

Google Search

Google 411

Google Docs

Googlelabs

GoogleShopping

Google Scholar

Google Books

GoogleMaps

Google sketch

Google.org

Fossil fuel Challenge

Youtube

Chrome Browser

Blogspot

Source: John Grant, ‘The Brand Innovation Manifesto’

High frequency, low value, semi-predictable rewards

4. They do,don’t say

Stop communicating a product and start making communication products

Listen to the music

5. Small ideas build long ideas

LO

NG

Small idea

Small idea

Small idea

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The long campaign

Co-creation and participation

Lots of small bets

Coherence

Ideas you advertise

First iteration is the beginning not end

Paid media creates more media

Small

Why small matters

What small ideas look like

How to think, and make, small

Build brands from the bottom up

not the top down

Be useful, entertaining,

interesting and playful in the

service of people

Make communication strategy learn from

UX design

Doing something leads to something interesting

Strategists need to tinker

Make communication products, not PowerPoint

Build a culture of experimentation

not planning

Communications R&D

Eradicate the pointless quest for

perfection

“The show doesn’t go on because it’s ready; it goes on

because it’s 1130”Lorne Michaels

Be rewarded for good behavior

Break the tyranny of big

Embrace small

Hack culture

“If you don’t like change, you’re going to like

irrelevance even less”Gen. Eric Shinseki

Thank you

@garethk