Big Idea: big idea
Rules? What Rules?
Maya Lin received a B+ for her Vietnam War Memorial concept while an undergraduate at Yale University. Her unconventional design stood in stark contrast to the other 1,400 entries in the competition. But controversy surrounded her until the monument’s completion in 1982. The prevailing attitude at the time was that monuments should rise heroically above the landscape like the Iwo Jima Memorial sculpture and the Jefferson Memorial, which is based on the Pantheon in Rome. The formula for monument design dictated that any typography on memorials should be a minimum of three inches in height. Maya Lin’s Vietnam wall violated[.....]
Buzz is not a Big Idea
How often have you heard someone say “our strategy is to generate buzz” or “our idea is to do something viral”? How sad. Like sales, buzz and pass along most certainly aren’t themselves a strategy but the result of a big idea. So to be clear: Buzz is not an idea, nor are executions such as banner ads, a Web site or press tour. A big idea has a meaning so compelling that when it’s cleverly messaged it measureably changes attitudes and behaviors. It is born of a consumer insight that the competition doesn’t know or has yet to harness. And given[.....]
