Collaboration as Innovation - Adam Kleinberg

It39s common for marketers to get fixated on the tangible when it comes to innovationamp8212products features toolsquotLet39s create an iPad app to engage our customersquotquotLet39s use a DSP to buy our mediaquotBut let39s open the windows and see what39s going on outside of our industry How are other companies innovatingFirst companies outside of our industry aren39t quite so myopic in their definitionsLook at Walmart The Walmart customer experience sure ain39t no iPad However Walmart is just as innovative as Apple Walmart just chooses to innovate on how they deliveramp8212their supply chainamp8212instead of what they deliveramp8212their customer experience The Walmart customer experience is low prices Low prices made possible by their supply chain innovationSecond the world has shifted to a collaborative economy that our industry needs to adapt toamp8212within and across our organizationsTake Boeing They used to build the world39s best airplanes No longer These days their expertise is now in assembling the world39s best airplanes Boeing still builds some critical pieces of airplanes but most of those components come from dozens of bestofbreed suppliers around the globe The focus of their innovation has been how to become better collaboratorsOpportunities for Collaboration InnovationThe industry landscape is a cluttered mess Sitting between brands and customers are thousands of companies offering a dizzying array of overlapping products and services to help bridge the gap Meanwhile consumers are demanding more and more content and value from brands across more and more devices and channels At the same time they39re becoming less tolerant and less trustful of brandsponsored communicationsThe range of expertise needed to successfully market in this environment is daunting The need for coordination across all these areas makes it even more overwhelming Players don39t want to lose market share so everyone says they do it all But by trying to do everything companies wind up being not expert at anythingThis situation leaves collaboration ripe for innovation Here are some opportunitiesAgency partnership Agencies have had our heads up our collective assesamp8212too busy fighting for table scraps to come up with solutions to the greater problem Brands are coming up with innovative collaboration models themselves Pepsi now has an agency model where they brief all of their agencies at the same timeamp8212the best idea comes from anywhere Then all of their agencies go back to their respective corners and execute at what they39re best atTotal partner collaboration Last week I was at a quotStrategic Supplier Summitquot for one of my clients the largest personal and business finance software maker in the world Rather than solicit competing proposals from dozens of partners for their annual marketing push they gathered all of their partnersamp8212their ad agency media agency publishers ad networks affiliate networks Googleamp8212and requested one proposal that was best for the brandThis approach delivered efficiency and performance Win WinCrowdsourcing A handful of agencies have come up with models for crowdsourcing creative from the unwashed masses While this model will unlikely satisfy the diverse needs of clients in an increasingly complex media landscape it is certainly an innovative point solutionCrossfunctional teams Collaboration within your own company is an opportunity for innovation as well Knocking down the walls of departments embracing the idea that a good idea can come from anywhere structuring your process to drive crossfunctional team cooperation early on in a projectamp8212these things don39t just yield innovative results they are themselves a better way of doing things They are innovationI39ve seen time and again at Traction the benefits we reap when we leverage this approach When representatives of technology and media are sitting at the table early on with copywriters and art directors the ideas we produce become dimensionalized A way of delivering a message becomes a way of creating an experience We start saying things like quotooh we couldamp8230quot instead of quotoh that won39t workquot when we bring together minds early onEvolved twoperson teams Collaboration isn39t just about ideation Just like Walmart39s supply chain we can improve how we produce work as wellHistorically the art directorcopywriter team has emerged as a model for producing advertisingamp8212two people with complimentary skills sitting in a room working on solving a problem together by challenging and inspiring one another until they nail the briefToday the art directorprogrammer team is a model that ensures ideas are not just beautifully designed but efficiently and feasibly designed Having a process allows time for collaboration points up front ensures efficient delivery of services later onCollaboration mattersThe netnet here is that agencies and other marketing solution providers need to find better ways to work together and leverage strength in partnerships The companies that innovate and find a way to collaborate better will ultimately provide greater value to clientsStir never shake a spoonful of charisma a jigger of positive energy and a mind as sharp as a freshly plucked lemon and you get close to the cocktail that is Adam Kleinberg Adam is CEO and a founding partner of Traction an advertising agency and innovation consultancy in San Francisco He can be reached at adamtractioncocom Read all Adamamp8217s MediaBizBloggers commentaries at Adam KleinbergCheck us out on Facebook at MediaBizBloggerscomFollow our Twitter updates MediaBizBloggerMediaBizBloggers is an openthought leadership blog platform for media marketing and advertising professionals companies and organizations To contribute contact Jackmediadvisorygroupcom The opinions expressed in MediaBizBloggerscom are not those of Media Advisory Group its employees or other MediaBizBloggerscom contributors Media Advisory Group accepts no 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