Ideas don’t just happen on demand. Often they require a spark, whether via conventional brainstorming or other tactics.
To prompt marketers to consider new ideas, Precisioneffect recently rolled out Wild Cards, a free app for iOS and Android devices designed to invigorate the brainstorming process.
With nearly 40 prompts, Wild Cards aims to jumpstart the creative process for discussions of all kinds. The prompts include a title, a brief paragraph describing the task and then a question to ask the group.
The 38 Wild Cards are designed to encourage marketers to look at problems from a different perspective, according to Precisioneffect innovation director Simon Wilson.
Wilson said that Precisioneffect chose to be strict about the format, focusing on fostering quick sparks.
“The Wild Cards had to be done in a similar style of language,” he said. “Quite often you’ll hear people saying ‘Hey, if you want to be more creative, do this.’ We were of the mind that if you can’t do it with your brain or a pencil and a piece of paper, then the idea is out. There are no props or prep — just read it and do it.”
The app is industry-agnostic, according to Wilson. He added that it was designed with multiple sectors in mind and supports innovations in process, branding and packaging.
Anecdotally, Wilson said users have told him that they use Wild Cards when they get stuck during a process. He said the app is not the basis for brainstorming but instead supports methods for exploring a large quantity of new ideas and furthering the creative mission.
“The best way to create innovative ideas is to come up with huge amounts of them. All of the science says that’s one of the best ways to do it; it’s one of the cardinal rules,” he stressed. “These things can help you go in when you feel like you’ve scraped the bottom of the barrel and you’ve got no more ideas. This is another way to look at things.”
