Here you’ll find relevant use cases for Ideasicle X. Articles on the art of generating ideas while working remotely. Insights and studies into creativity itself. All from the desk of our founder and CEO, Will Burns.
Artificial intelligence is shrinking that marathon into a tiny little sprint. It’s more like idea teleportation. AI can take an idea and turn it into a fully realized video ad at dizzying speeds. The gap between idea and execution isn’t just closing—it’s practically gone. And that changes everything for advertising agencies.
Read MoreThe advertising business hasn’t gotten any easier over the years, has it? Fewer AOR relationships, more unpredictable project work, and dead-end pitches make agencies feel less in control than ever. But one thing you can control is your agency’s ideas. It’s what you’re best at. And I think it’s your biggest weapon for growth. Here’s how you can leverage this superpower to grow your business.
Read MoreWhat follows are 11 of the campaign ideas this brilliant team came up with. Below that is how we did it, a video of the actual Idea Stream where the magic happened, and a link to see what the “client presentation” would have looked like. A real look under the hood of a typical Ideasicle “IX Concierge” project.
Read MoreThis interactive tool lets you slide through the five variables, tweaking each one to see how it impacts your pitch odds in real time. Think your strategy’s a 10 but your client relationship’s a 5? Well, that client may not see that strategy as a 10 (even if it is). Slide those dials and watch the odds adjust, with instant feedback on what to fix.
Read MoreI have been in advertising long enough now to see that “creative ideas” have had a hell of a ride. Depending on the decade, ideas have been the champion soaring to glory, they’ve been battered by industry upheavals, and nearly lost in a sea of endless channels. What follows is my interpretation of the “hero’s journey” of the creative idea through advertising’s chaotic past—its triumphs, trials, and a future where I believe it’s poised to reclaim its rightful throne.
Read MoreWhat if we handed the whole brand—every doc, every win, every faceplant—to an AI that never blinks, never misreads, and never clocks out? Picture an AI that keeps learning as your brand shifts, but locks down everything you’ve ever thrown at it. No more “I think the brand would do X.” No more drift. Just a flawless, evergreen brand brain that can talk to you.
Read MoreArtificial Intelligence cut our Hallmark production costs by about 70%—and it’s coming for the $500 billion ad industry next. For 15 years, Ideasicle stuck to ideation, leaving production to clients. It was principle: no 'production bias' to filter out ideas we don’t have the staff to produce. But when Matt Resteghini at Hallmark saw our AI-generated pitch images, he threw down the gauntlet—produce the campaign Hallmark approved with AI, on a tiny budget. The creative team, Rich Wallace and Ernie Schenck, and I said yes. Why? The campaign was too good, and AI was the only way to do it within budget. What we didn’t expect? This little pivot might just kill the 'time of staff' model for good.
Read MoreWhen you love an idea “for some reason,” that gut feeling isn’t guesswork. It’s the sum total of everything you’ve absorbed, synthesized into an instant and unshakable conviction. The best advertising minds know this. They don’t just have good instincts; they build them. And how do they do that?
Read MoreWhen you work in advertising, ideas are currency. And when you’re swimming in a sea of ideas—30, 40, sometimes even 50 in a single Ideasicle X project—the question isn’t, “Do we have enough ideas?” The question is, “How do we find the great ones?” It’s not about logic. It’s not about metrics. And it’s certainly not about ticking boxes on a checklist. For me, choosing the best ideas comes down to something mysterious and visceral. It’s energy. Psychic energy. A kind of creative spark that lights up something deep inside.
Read MoreAh, mid-December. The season of holiday cheer, last-minute shopping sprees, and—if you’re a marketer or an agency—a full-blown panic attack. Budgets need to be spent. Campaigns need to launch. And, oh yeah, the Super Bowl is coming. It’s enough to make even the most seasoned pro make like Griswold and reach for the eggnog. But at Ideasicle X, we say: breathe. We got this.
Read MoreMany virtual brainstorming tools focus on one main function—creating a shared virtual space for ideas. Platforms like Miro and Google Docs provide simple online frameworks for brainstorming, offering a blank canvas or a shared document where teams can contribute ideas in realtime or over time. While effective for light collaboration, it doesn’t take long to realize these tools were not developed for the advertising business. Google Docs wasn’t even developed for idea generation. Here’s why that matters and what you can do about it.
Read MoreIn much of the advertising world, the creative brief is treated like a static document—a checklist, a rulebook, a set of instructions. But at Ideasicle X, we see it differently. For us, the brief isn’t the final word—it’s the first spark. It ignites the creative process, and while the brief itself doesn’t change during the creative process, its influence on the creative team grows and evolves as the ideas take shape. When approached the right way, a brief doesn’t dictate creative solutions, it fuels them, turning into something dynamic and alive.
Read MoreThe advertising world often worships the new, the fresh, and the young. But dismissing older creative people as "out of touch" is highly short-sighted. Are experienced creatives more expensive? Sure, on paper. But here are five reasons why older creatives can be invaluable to any advertising or marketing team, despite their higher ticket prices:
Read MoreThe advertising world is in flux, and so is the way we think about utilizing creative talent. Good talent is expensive and hard to find, the talent an agency has is maxed out, and to top it off client budgets aren’t getting any bigger. In fact, brands are rejecting traditional "agency of record" relationships. Instead, brands are dipping in and out of agencies as they build up their in-house teams. What is an advertising agency to do in this environment? I’ll tell you. Agencies need temporary help on a continuous basis.
Read MoreWhile the stock market has been on fire this year, economists warn that stock-market performance is not how we assess the overall health of the economy. And it turns out other key economic indicators are pointing to a downturns. In fact, the agencies and clients I speak with regularly tell me they are already starting to feel the economy weaken. Less advertising business for agencies and freelancers because their clients are understandably getting more nervous every day.
Read MoreWhen agencies need freelancers they need them yesterday, not three days later after they’ve been called, negotiated with, W9s received, an office found for them to work, hotels to put them up, etc. What if freelance talent could be intimately integrated into an agency’s existing creative process, where teams who know your client’s business are but keystrokes away at any given moment and could be coming up with ideas within hours not days? Well, we have the meats.
Read MoreI have an idea for Zillow that I think could increase their revenue substantially, effectively creating an entirely new channel for advertising. The idea has been collecting pixel-dust on my hard drive for at least a year, and I don’t have the time to identify the right people, beat down their doors and get this idea in front of them. So instead I’m simply going to post the idea below. That’s right, I’m going to give the idea away.
Read MoreNorth Advertising was invited into a very attractive pitch recently for the Ledlenser portable lighting business and North felt they needed to manufacture every advantage humanly possible in order to win. After a deep strategy cycle designed to unearth the brand's "real,” they decided to augment their own creative muscle with a bit of IX creative juice. Here's their story as told by Rebecca.
Read MoreI was the director of biz dev at Arnold Worldwide for seven years, so I know how competitive it is and, more importantly, how savagely an agency will look for an edge over the competition in any given pitch. As long as it’s legal and wouldn’t get us kicked out of the pitch by the pitch consultant, we’d consider it. Well, we have a feature within the Ideasicle X platform that I wish I had when I was at Arnold. It’s an edge that I think will help some of the bolder agencies win pitches, but not every agency will have the guts.
Read MoreIdeasicle X is a software platform designed to help marketing organizations and agencies tap into world-class freelance talent to come up with creative ideas. It’s an incredibly powerful tool R&D’ed over a ten-year period of virtual trial and virtual error. However, it is a clear disruption to our normal ways of coming up with ideas. As such, it’s not right for everyone. What follows a five situations where an Ideasicle X Subscription (IX) may NOT be right for your organization.
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