Useful Lunacy:
Thinking about thinking, creativity and the power of ideas.

If you need inspiration or assurance while developing ideas, you can’t do much better than being given the permission to fail.

When failure is embraced, allowed, encouraged and accepted as a necessary cost towards innovation and success, then you (the idea creator) have no choice but to swing for the fences.

And that simple task—embracing, allowing, encouraging and accepting failure—can only be done by those in power, by those who commission.

It takes confidence on both sides of the equation.

A compelling example of this kind of leadership comes courtesy of my friend David Armano, via an interview with his CEO, Richard Edelman. Richard’s comments on leading innovation begin at 55:14.

There seems to be an idea vacuum in the mobile advertising space. At least, that’s what you might glean from this chart provided by mobile analytics firm, Flurry.

The mobile audience is there, but the ad spending isn’t. At least, not compared to established media like print.

Ezra Klein’s optimistic perspective (which I share) suggests some of the rationale behind the disparity in ad spending in mobile versus print.

“The business model behind printed news might be dying. But the business model behind information is just transitioning.”

In other words, ideas (and media spend) exist in print, in part, because of a familiar architecture. Time spent by consumers in print may be waning, but the space is well known to CMOs, art directors, account managers, et al. The ad industry plays to its strengths, providing more ideas than the audience apparently has time or interest to consume.

But over in mobile, the space is still being invented. The rules are changing frequently. As The Next Web puts it, “Right now, consistency, standards and best practices don’t really exist on the mobile frontier.” How many media planners have more than a year buying mobile ad space? How many art directors have created more than two mobile ad campaigns? It’s simply not part of a routine yet.

It can be difficult to develop a wealth of ideas in an ever-evolving realm. But that’s also the best opportunity for ideas that define the new realm.

Scale is another way of asking an idea about the future.

Design firms test the scalability of a logo idea by reviewing it at different sizes, in different colors and in different media conditions. Does the idea translate consistently from a print ad, to the side of a building to a 16 pixel-square favicon? Does the logo idea scale across different languages and cultures?

Food manufacturers test the scalability of a new product idea in terms of a formula: manufacturing, marketing and distribution costs versus the size and appetite of an addressable audience.

In the short term, politicians measure the scalability of their ideas with polls and fundraising. History takes care of the rest.

Writers test the scale of their book ideas with blogging.

Web engineers might test the scalability of an idea by estimating server traffic. (Side note: Fascinating article here on Tumblr’s astounding technical growth related to serving 15 billion page views per month.)

So the question, “Will your idea scale?” has little to do with the present moment. Nor is it about revelation or intended insight. Rather, “Will your idea scale?” is an exploration of an idea’s flexibility, its resilience and the cost to sustain it over time. It is a question of potential.

It boils down to intent, doesn’t it?

Advertising ideas seek to persuade. Software ideas seek to be used.

An advertising idea has finite relevance. Once we’re persuaded, the idea’s purpose wanes. Or as Howard Gossage put it, “How many times do you have to be told that your house is on fire?”

The idea of software has evolution and adaption built into its purpose. Lack of use defines lack of useful purpose.

This distinction illuminates some of the gap between agencies and tech start-ups.

If your objective is finite then fleeting (as advertising’s often is), you’ll define strategy and process in a manner distinct from those who’s objective is ongoing and adaptive (as software’s must be).