As an in-house agency, you have a choice. You can have a closed ideation ecosystem or one that pushes the boundaries and opens up the ideation process to a broader team. IHAF Member, Vistaprint, recently proved that the latter choice can jump start the creative process. 

Vistaprint's in-house agency wanted a fresh approach to market their business-cards franchise. They turned to Ideasicle, a virtual ideas company with a network of 24 creative experts from around the country, to conduct two rounds of ideation. In the first round, Ideasicle’s team came up with 16 ideas that solved the problem in different ways. In round two, Ideasicle took Vistaprint's favorite round-one idea and "blew it out" into several go-to-market ideas.

Through its battery of ideas, Ideasicle got the juices of the Vistaprint in-house creatives flowing.

The two rounds of ideation (versus just one) were critical because, let's face it, sometimes seeing a range of ideas helps us know what we want as clients. Some ideas were immediately discarded for brand or business reasons. But the great majority were real contenders, with the best of those getting the in-house agency folks teaming with their own ideas.

“It wasn’t so much outsourcing ideas as it was importing inspiration. The Ideasicle process virtually guarantees large doses of speedy inspiration. The rest is up to us.”

—Bridget O’Brien, VP Brand, Communications & Creative

 Outside ideas don't have to be prescriptive or give you less control over your brand. In fact, outside ideas can nourish your in-house agency teams, inspire them, and, in short, jump-start their own creative process. 

 Vistaprint is currently in production with one of the outcomes of their recent collaboration with Ideasicle. For more information on how Ideasicle partners with in-house agencies and complements existing creative teams, contact Ideasicle founder and IHAF fan, Will Burns.