Idea Market

I think we do good work at Idea Market; websites that are pretty to look at and do cool things. They provide real value to our clients and to our clients’ clients. Sometimes, they may even help to make people’s lives better. Maybe that’s a bit of a stretch, but I believe that a good town website (for example) can be beneficial to its citizens in actual, real terms. But with the possible exception of a fire ban notice perhaps, it’s not exactly a matter of life and death.

Which is why we don’t just do municipal or commercial work. I believe that if you want what you do in life to have deeper meaning, you need to apply your knowledge and skills to something that has a broader significance. Something that is a matter of life and death.

Now this isn’t meant to be a “Hey, look at us! We’re so great!” sort of blog, but I want to give some examples of organizations we’ve helped with recently that has brought a bit of fulfillment to the work that we do.

1. The United Way of Central Alberta held its 2011-12 campaign kick-off last week. It was inspiring to see so many people in one place, all in support of helping people in our community. And we’re not talking about helping just a little bit; we’re talking about helping to the tune of $1,960,000. That’s a huge number. Maybe too big to even wrap your head around. But then they told some real-life stories, including one about a guy named Barry. In a nutshell, Barry had hit bottom and only through the help of programs funded in part by the United Way was he able to get back on his feet and move forward. I met Barry after the program. He’s a real person who lives (and now works!) in our own community and doesn’t hesitate to admit that he wouldn’t be here today if it wasn’t for the help he received. Check out the United Way’s website to see how you can donate or otherwise support their work.

2. The organization on the ground that helped Barry the most?: The Central Alberta AIDS Network Society (CAANS). Don’t let the name fool you, though. While they certainly do great work within the HIV/AIDS community, they’re also a vital service to the broader “at-risk” population of Red Deer including drug users and sex trade workers. For many of their clients, the CAANS office is as close to a home as they have. Which comes as no surprise if you’ve ever spent any time inside their walls. There’s a warmth and acceptance there that is hard to find elsewhere. I personally spend several hours a week volunteering at CAANS; time that I’m pretty sure has come to mean more to me than to them. Idea Market hasn’t done a whole lot in terms of actual design for them yet… but we will be soon. Check back in a month or so when we launch their new brand and website.

3. Closely tied to CAANS is The Safe Harbour Society for Health and Housing. They quietly operate all over Red Deer, providing services including emergency shelter, housing and detox. I’ve toured their facilities and listened to their stories. Some are heartbreaking; others are highly inspirational. Yesterday I had the pleasure of attending their AGM on the shores of the Red Deer River at Fort Normandeau. This was not your typical AGM; we all sat outside in a circle, ate together, laughed together and hugged a lot. At the end of meeting they unveiled the new brand, banner, brochures and website that we got to create for them. I’ll have the details in our portfolio soon, but you can learn more about what they do on their newly launched website at: www.safeharboursociety.org Make sure you watch the video to get a better feel for the heart behind what they do.

4. Finally, as I write this we are putting the final touches on the 2011 edition of Red Deer’s Vital Signs, put together by the Red Deer & District Community Foundation. Much like the United Way, the Community Foundation is an over-arching organization that helps fund many other organizations in our area. The Vital Signs document is sort of like a report card on how the City is doing on a wide range of topics, from crime to library usage and from employment rates to air quality. It’s the study that helps identify what we’re doing well at and what needs more attention. This will be the fifth one we’ve designed for them and it launches on October 4. Please take the time to read through it; it may help you get a better feel for what’s happening around you and how you can make an impact.

Idea Market’s involvement with these projects has dramatically changed how we define our corporate mission. It’s changed how we feel about ourselves and how we feel about others. It has brought new value to how we spend the bulk of our day.

Maybe you’re in the same boat. Maybe your day-to-day work doesn’t mean that much in the great scheme of things. What can you do to change that? How can you use your talents to do something to help others? Figure it out and do it. Because I guarantee that it won’t just help them; it will also bring meaning and fulfillment to your own work and life.

The last year or so has been quite easily the most difficult in my life. (I guess my very first year was a tricky one, too (lots of crying!), but I don’t remember much about that.) There have been lots of bad decisions, lots of bad things that just sort of happened, lots of bad luck. I was forced to recognize things about myself and how I did things that needed to change if Idea Market was going to survive. The good news is that I have learned at least a few things from all this and I’ll share those in future blogs.

There’s a place between failure and learning, though, and for me it was a time of shame, depression and loneliness. It’s hard to admit that you screwed up and let people down and it’s equally hard to face those people afterwards. OK, where am I going with this, other than trying to make you feel sorry for me? I’m not really sure – hang on…

Yesterday I had a meeting with a client who had just brought in a new person that would likely be my new primary contact on the project. Oh, and it just happens to be one of the people that I failed the most with and have been avoiding ever since. Perfect. After the initial reaction of pure dread, I knew I had two options:

1. I could maintain this weird barrier between us based on my past mistakes and carry it forward onto the current project.

2. I could move past that and recognize that this was a new thing and that I wouldn’t make the same mistakes I had made before. Besides, this person was actually really good to work with and I really liked her on a personal basis.

Obviously, I went with option 2. We had a really good meeting and I’m confident the project will go very well. I’ll do things differently this time and I know she’ll keep me accountable. And I’ll report back here when it’s all done – promise. Most importantly, though, it forced me to emerge from my hole, face the light and start moving forward. Exactly what I needed.

I have so much more to say about failure and lessons and the graciousness of good people, but I really should be working on this client’s sitemap now…

Let me start by saying that I have a bit of a man-crush on Merlin Mann. He is an erratically brilliant guy that talks about productivity and other stuff. He speaks in metaphors and parentheses and I mostly don’t understand any of it, but once in a while there’s a shining gem of wisdom. The latest was when he was talking about the four options that his book publisher gave him for the cover design:

“[It's] like somebody giving you four piles of poodle poop and saying ‘which one has the least corn?’”

The problem was that they didn’t understand what he or his book was really about and they whipped up a bunch of cover designs without any of his input. And it wasn’t that long ago that that was the default for most design work. “We don’t really understand (or want to take the time to understand) what you’re about and we don’t really want to have to work together with you on this, so we’ll just whip up three designs and hope you like one.”

Now I won’t lie: we still do multiple concepts when it comes to logos. I’m not sure why – maybe we should change that. But we do not do this when it comes to web design and here’s why:

We have two possible uses for our time in a web design project:

option 1. Lock the doors, put our heads down and put together three different designs, hoping that one will catch the client’s fancy.

option 2. Talk to the client, go visit their place of business, do some research, talk to the client some more, look at the competition, take a bathroom break, talk to the client even more and then start designing the “right” solution for this particular project. (Our ongoing process is also fairly collaborative, but I’ll talk about that some other time.)

While each of these two options will likely take about the same amount of time, the outcomes are different:

option 1. The selected design may or may not be “right”. Meanwhile, the other two options are thrown away; they’re wasted effort.

option 2. We end up with a better, “righter” design, we learned a lot, and we made some new friends.

We like option 2.

PS. We have never ended up with a “wrong” solution using option 2.

I really like the idea of blogging, but (as should be obvious here) have a really hard time actually doing it. In general, it’s the common problem of “paralysis by analysis”. I like to research the crap out of everything and have 100% of the information before I start. As a result, every little thing I want to write ends up being a giant project that, quite frankly, I don’t have time to tackle and so it never happens.

As I struggled with this (again) recently, my brain landed on something Merlin Mann (or perhaps Don Murray) says about writer’s block: “just move your hands”. In other words, open up Google Docs (or whatever you use) and start typing. So that’s what going to start happening here. None of it will be perfect. Heck, a lot of it probably won’t be relevant or even make sense. I’ll talk about things I learn and things I feel. I’ll probably end up talking about music I love and hockey teams I hate. And I’m sure I’ll talk about a bunch of other stuff in between those things.

No, it won’t be perfect or relevant or sensible. But it will be something.

First off, if that title doesn’t make sense to you, you need to do two things:

1. Read Seth Godin’s book Purple Cow
2. Not miss the next big Idea Market event.

Let me explain. On February 9th, we held our client appreciation Christmas party. Say whaaat? Here’s the thing: if we had held our Christmas party in December like sensible people, it would be just another Christmas party in a string of Christmas parties at a time when the last thing you want to do is go to another Christmas party. So hey! – let’s have ours in February!

That’s the first “purple cow” of our story. For those that don’t know, a purple cow is something that stands out from the crowd; something that makes your head snap back and say “what was that?!” It’s also something that you remember and want to tell your friends about after.

Paeton Cameron - live!

Now if we had served wine and cheese and had iTunes running in the background, the party would still have been largely forgettable, even in February. So instead, we shook it up a bit. As our guests approached our office, they were greeted with a finely-dressed 9-year-old who gave them a blue carnation corsage and their choice of custom-made Idea Market buttons. Once inside, they were enveloped by live music (thanks, Paeton Cameron!) and the sweet smell of bacon. Lots of bacon. Nothing but bacon, in fact: maple bacon, applewood smoked bacon, turkey bacon, bacon dip, bacon chips, bacon & chicken skewers, bacon-wrapped scallops and… chocolate-dipped bacon. That’s right: chocolate-dipped bacon. Trust me on that one; it was a real hit. Finally, we gave a parting gift of a home-made mix CD to each guest with four options to choose from, compiled by each of the four Idea Market team members. (My CD was most popular, but only because I was the only one to include Bette Midler.)

Mike vs. choco-bacon

The result? That evening, both Twitter and Facebook were abuzz with comments about the party, especially the chocolate bacon. Two days after the fact, people are still talking about it with their poor friends that weren’t there. We successfully created a purple cow event: one that was different, memorable and word-of-mouth-worthy.

Was it any harder to put together than a more “standard” party? Not at all. It just took a little creative thinking and the willingness to be a bit on the unorthodox side. Were the results different? Dramatically. Can you apply this same thinking to your own business’s marketing? Certainly. Look at what your competitors are doing. How can you differentiate and truly stand out from the crowd? How can you zig when they zag? How can you ensure that what you’re doing will be both remembered and talked about? Be bold; go where no man (or woman) has gone before. And reap the rewards.

Happy New Year!

Ish. (Give me a break – I wrote five blog articles this year already! Writing this kind of brilliance takes time! But seriously, can I be serious for a minute? (5-7 minutes for you slower readers.)

First, let me just say that I won’t bore you with a review of 2010 here. No! Instead, I’ll bore you with it here: http://www.ideamarket.ca/2011/01/idea-markets-2010-in-review/

Bored? A little sleepy? BAM! Let’s kick it up a notch! Let’s talk about 2011! We have so many changes to talk about! And by “so many”, I mean “two”:

1. We’re going to focus clearly on the web this year. That’s not to say that we’re abandoning branding or print completely. Two of our first projects of the year are branding projects for the Town of Innisfail and the City of Wetaskiwin and we just finished a 324,000-piece print run for realtor Richard Pochylko. So what’s the point? We’re already pretty good at web. This allows us to focus more and get even better at it. We’re also broadening our scope of online services to include mobile, writing for the web, social media etc. Check our services page for more details on that stuff.

2. In the past, we have been guilty of having an attitude of wanting to do things “great” or not doing them at all. If a client didn’t have the budget for “great”, we often turned them away. So what happens then? Do they go elsewhere with lower standards? Go without completely? It felt like we were doing them a disservice. So we’re dropping the elitist mentality. We still strive to do great work, but we understand that not everyone is ready for the moon. It’s not about lowering our standards, but rather offering people more options. Maybe you don’t need a completely new website; maybe we can help spruce up what you already have. Or maybe you’re happy with your design and just need a CMS put in behind it. Maybe all you need is an hour of advice. We’re here to help. Call us. (I’m making that hand gesture with my thumb in my ear to emphasize the point. You know what I’m talking about.)

What’s not changing in 2011? For the love of numbers, man! A grand total of two things:

1. We’re still going to be really social. In fact, just the other day we visited Patrick Galesloot of Century 21 fame to drop off a birthday card and present. (Want your own present? Email us back and tell us your birthday and we’ll hook you up! Don’t be shy…) We’re also having regular open houses and workshops, so keep an eye on our website for that. Hint: be sure to keep February 9 open…

2. Working with charities and social groups. We love working with the Red Deer & District Community Foundation, the Red Deer Kinsmen and the United Way (check out the site we did for them at http://www.caunitedway.ca/). We’re also adding one more to the mix in the Central Alberta AIDS Network Society. We both volunteer with them as well as help with design work. (Watch for their annual report soon!) Let us know if you’d like to help out in any way with any of these great organizations and we’d be happy to point you in the right direction.

In conclusion:

1. I grew a moustache in November. If you didn’t see it in person, you really didn’t miss much.

2. Idea Market still loves you. Don’t ever forget that.

One of our clients – Medicine River Wildlife Centre – recently made an interesting move. They bucked a major trend and moved from an e-newsletter back to a print version. Why? in their own words:

“An interesting thing has happened since we began sending out email newsletters; we have seen a dramatic decrease in donations, membership renewals and gifts from our wish list. When you receive a hard copy it gets left out for you to read over and over, show a friend and remember to stay involved in Medicine River, but an email can get read, deleted and we are forgotten. We have come to the conclusion that the extra cost and time of preparing a hard copy newsletter is probably worth the effort and is more personal so for now we will be returning to a mailed hard copy.”

Perhaps this is just a small example of the purple cow concept: when everyone else is doing one thing, the best way to stand out is doing something different. Even if that thing is the thing that everyone else used to do. It’s a strange world.

What was it that Talking Heads said so eloquently in their song “Psycho Killer”?

“fa fa fa fa fa fa fa fa fa fa better
Run run run run run run run away
OH OH OH
AY AY AY AY AY WOO”

No, not that part – this one:

“You’re talking a lot, but you’re not saying anything.”

If you’re not careful, that can be exactly what happens on social media. An example of this was brought to my attention on Twitter recently. I noticed a user that was kind of irritating with their updates; it was to the point where I questioned the value of their efforts. Then I reasoned that it maybe that was OK for them as long as it was outweighed by the benefits. So I checked their follower list to see who they were potentially talking to. The list was small: well under 100. Looking more closely, it became obvious that most of their list was filled with spam accounts, competitors, other businesses looking for follow-backs and other irrelevant users. How many were real, actual people? About seven. How many of those might really, actually care about what they’re saying? I’m guessing one or two, max. I know for a fact that their negative tweeting habits have turned off more people than that.

I’m not saying that social media or Twitter is a waste of time; far from it. I’m saying that you have to think about what you’re doing, how you do it and who you’re doing it to. And that the number of followers or friends you have can be deceptive. Take a closer look.

I recently read an article that refuted the adage of “good is the enemy of great” within web design. I didn’t agree with all of it, but it got me thinking. We have been guilty of having an attitude of wanting to do things great or not doing them at all. The downside of this is that if a client didn’t have the budget for “great”, we often turned them away. So what happens then? Do they go elsewhere with lower standards? Go without completely? It felt like we were doing them a disservice.

Our solution? Drop the elitist mentality.

We still strive to do great work, but we understand that not everyone is ready for the moon…. It’s not about lowering our standards, but rather about offering people more options. Maybe you don’t need a completely new website – maybe we can help spruce up what you already have. Or maybe you’re happy with your design and just need a CMS put in behind it. Maybe all you need is an hour of advice. We’re here to help.

Every little bit we do to make the internet better is a step in the right direction.

We don’t need a psychic friend to figure out the direction Idea Market is heading in 2011. As mentioned in yesterday’s blog reviewing 2010, print jobs really started to be replaced by web projects in 2010. Add to that the fact that we’re all really passionate about internet stuff and it seems like an obvious choice: we’re going to focus clearly on the web this year.

That’s not to say that we’re abandoning branding or print completely. Two of our first projects of the year are branding projects for the Town of Innisfail and the City of Wetaskiwin and we just finished a 324,000-piece print run for realtor Richard Pochylko. We still like doing the occasional non-web thing; we’ll just be a little pickier about which ones we do. And if things get too busy, we’ve already made arrangements to call in help from strategic partners like Focus Design Group as needed.

So where’s the good news? We’re already pretty good at web. This move allows us to focus more and get even better at it. We’re also broadening our scope of online services to include mobile, writing for the web, social media etc. Check our services page for more details on the specifics.

So here’s to 2011, to playing to our strengths and to doing what we love. Cheers!