CES 2017: The innovation mandate
We are just one week into 2017 as 200,000 people ascend on Las Vegas for the 50th year of the Consumer Electronics Show. Whilst CES has become the place for marketers to see the latest and greatest, meet with agencies and partners, and just have a good time, the real reason to attend CES is to get your innovation agenda in place for the new year.
Every marketer should adopt an innovation mandate – be it a manifesto, a framework or a roadmap. Innovation is not an accident. The best innovation is intentional. This is the difference between true innovation and ideation. Marketing innovation is separate from creative ideation. The two often get confused as the same. Innovation is the delivery of ideas that causes disruption or accelerates opportunities.
Successful innovation mandates are:
- True to a marketers’ organisation and brand
- Measurable (good or bad)
- Long-term visions with short-to-mid-term flexibility
- Supported broadly across the organisation (top down, bottom up)
- Safe zones for an organisation to push teams
- Not an accident: They are carefully designed and structured
If done right, marketing innovation removes friction, tells a story and allows for emotions to overweigh data. Sometimes you need to fire before you can aim. Innovation mandates will allow you to define the disruption opportunities (think Netflix 1.0–DVD distribution) as well as acceleration opportunities (think Netflix 2.0–content creation).
As you continue to walk the halls of CES or get enamoured by what’s in the trades this week, don’t forget that innovation is intentional. Reaching consumers in new ways and in new places is seldom achieved on just a leap of faith. Spend time analysing your innovation agenda and updating it for the new year, new gadgets, new trends and new opportunities.
At CES 2017, OMD has focused on Immersive Marketing at the OMD Oasis, an invite-only program structured to galvanise our clients, our global leadership and Omnicom friends around innovative conversations and extraordinary ideas. Learn more at ces.omd.com and follow #OMDOasis and @dougs_digs.