It’s Innovation Day 2022!

Mission Field likes to celebrate all things innovation - such as our cutting-edge EMBR (Energize, Make, Burst, Roar) innovation process - and February 16 is Innovation Day here in the US. In an effort to celebrate innovation, I thought I’d focus on how to keep that innovation spark burning the other 364 days of the year. Here are some ideas that we use to feed our innovation flames all year long:

Be curious.

Talk to people. Really. It doesn’t have to be formal market research, and it doesn’t have to be formal questions. I’m a professed introvert, but I get new ideas from people all the time in some of the most unexpected random conversations. Those conversations help you make connections you wouldn’t otherwise have made. You friend’s husband just tried a new drink? Ask him about it - what did he like and what could have been improved? Something he says might be applicable in some tangential way to the completely different category that you’re working in. And there’s a spark…

Read a wide array of materials.

What is the Today Show covering? What’s in USA Today? What about Mother Jones, Apple News…? These help you be aware of what’s popular, what’s up and coming, where the next trend(s) might be coming from. But don’t just focus on what’s happening within your category, look at what is happening in other categories or just in general to get ideas that you might be able to use on your own brands/categories.

Go walk the aisles in your local stores in different channels.

Look for new products, look for new claims, look for stuff that you wouldn’t normally be shopping for. Go to stores you normally don’t think about shopping at for your own purposes and really keep your eyes open. Then ask yourself what is the connective tissue that you’re seeing? How could you apply that to your own brand? You can see nootropics and adaptogens jumping around from category to category right now as an example.

put “thinking time” on your calendar.

There’s a reason that we all have examples of those great ideas or solutions to problems that come to you while you’re in the shower… It’s just really hard to be creative or see information in a new light if you’re buried in emails, or P&Ls, or your annual strategic plan. You need to schedule thinking time where you can let your mind wander a bit and play with how far you can take an idea. This is the time that going off on tangents is really welcomed.

Then, if you need help taking that spark of an idea and turning it into something tangible - give us a call. We’d love to hear about it and see if we can help you turn that spark into a flame.