Redefining the Brainstorm: Ideasicle X Launches Platform to Facilitate Virtual Idea Generation for Remote Teams
Boston-based startup seeks to streamline and improve virtual idea generation for advertising agencies with SaaS-based platform
BOSTON, May 18, 2021 (Newswire.com) - If 72% of people get creative ideas in the shower, why are we still conducting brainstorms the same way - with multiple people gathered together around a now-virtual conference room with one hour to do it? With today's launch, Ideasicle X is breaking the cycle of ineffective brainstorms. With its new SaaS-based platform, Ideasicle X empowers both the agencies who need ideas and freelancers who love coming up with them by enabling organizations to leverage a pool of freelance creative minds and diverse perspectives for idea projects and campaigns.
While not designed in reaction to COVID-19's ushering in of remote work, the pandemic has only magnified and exacerbated the "creative development problem" agencies face today; the tools designed to help teams stay connected are not built to facilitate virtual idea generation. Ideasicle X's platform serves to close that gap, allowing users to track multiple jobs, create new idea jobs, recruit the perfect team of four freelancers, monitor the idea generation process as it unfolds, and pay freelancers. The platform facilitates the entire idea ecosystem, yielding faster, better, and more economical ideas.
"The conventional wisdom that creative collaboration is best when it happens in-person is misguided," said Will Burns, CEO and founder of Ideasicle X. "We have seen over the past decade that a virtual model of idea generation produces better results than in-person. The real magic of the platform is the building and riffing that happens between the team members on a job. They can post ideas any time, from anywhere. And we have found a way to remove the human-centric barriers of in-person interactions, like gender, race and body language. Everyone here is a typeface, meaning the ideas - not the person - shine."
How It Works
Designed as a subscription SaaS (Software as a Service) model, users sign up for an Ideasicle X account and are able to create unlimited idea-jobs throughout the subscription period. While the platform can be used across industries and types of organizations, it was designed with advertising agencies and in-house agencies in mind given their frequent use of freelancers and need for ideas that support existing client work and new business pitches.
Once a freelancer posts an idea, the others on the team are immediately notified so they can see, build and riff on it. The results unfold on the Idea Stream, or an organized page of ideas, where one can see the original idea post, all of the builds and riffs, and any reference images or videos posted by team members.
For each idea job, users:
- Set the time period, the budget (including per-freelancer fees) and recruit the freelancers within the platform that best fit their project (or even they invite their favorite outside freelancers or their employees to join).
- Prepare and post a video and PDF of the creative brief that sets the tone, parameters and goals.
- Monitor the idea generation process in real time through the Idea Stream, where the agency customer can also comment, course-correct, and build on the ideas.
- Download a list of favorite ideas from the session to individual PDFs for distribution to internal teams for further development.
- Archive jobs and pay the assigned freelancers directly within the platform.
Ideasicle X best practices:
- Choose four freelancers, as that number has been shown to be the most effective number of idea generators for a virtual project.
- Set a time period no shorter than two days and no longer than one week.
- Actively monitor ideas as they come in to encourage the team and to keep the team on strategy.
"The Ideasicle X platform is a great way to drum up ideas for existing clients and quick-turn projects," said Ginger Ludwig, Head of Marketing & Communications at ad agency CYK Antler. "Whether you're looking to complement your existing creative/strategy team with freelance talent that will look at a specific quick-turn project brief in an entirely new way, or develop some new proactive thinking to bring to a client, the opportunities seem endless to spark inspiration for both your internal team and a client."
Burns continued: "We have seen organizations use the platform to develop ideas for big client campaigns, ideas to round out a pitch, ideas to develop go-to-market strategies - and everything in between. Even using the Ideasicle X ideas to inspire more ideas within their own teams."
For more information or to sign up, visit https://www.ideasiclex.com/.
About Ideasicle X
Ideasicle X is the first SaaS platform designed from the ground up specifically for idea-generation for teams working remotely. A virtual platform where any four talents of your choosing mentally collide, spark each other, and build upon each other's ideas. Ten years in development, the model we have pioneered is changing the way advertising agencies work with freelance creative talent and with their employees. Founder and CEO, Will Burns, is an advertising veteran from such creative agencies as Wieden & Kennedy, Goodby Silverstein & Partners, Mullen and Arnold.
For media inquiries, please contact:
Elizabeth Yekhtikian (on behalf of Ideasicle X)
(617) 686-9541
Source: Ideasicle X