“Innovation” is THE buzzword of the moment. Everybody, and I mean EVERYBODY, is innovating, wants to be innovating, or is talking about how they should be innovating. Innovation has become a “competitive necessity” for any organization. Yet, as with any abstract term the concept of ‘innovation’ is understood and re-interpreted very differently by companies’ business executives. For some “innovation” is the core, the essence, the only way to grow. For others, it is a desperate attempt to stay current and appeal to the new generation of consumers. Then there are brands that are so caught up in their old ways that they only look for ‘innovative ideas that have the biggest potential for keeping things just the way they are.’ Fortunately, old tactics, like lobbying Congress to enact legislation that will prevent smaller, nimbler, cooler rivals from entering the market are used less and less often.
And more and more business leaders are coming to realize that ‘beating down the small guy’ or simply ‘buying your way out of the problem’ is not a sustainable business strategy in a long run. Low-risk, incremental innovation and conventional strategies are a slow but steady road to oblivion. Why? Because you cannot force consumers to settle for less after they have seen the tangible benefits of doing things the new way. Media fragmentation, the proliferation of brands and offerings, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Blockchain, Mixed Reality, Internet of Things - require business leaders to look for new way to stay innovative. And it does not necessarily mean pouring millions of dollars into R&D to beat down smaller, nimbler and, often, cooler rivals.
Data shows that while boosting R&D spending may be a great way to identify the best practice within the industry, it is not something that will help companies secure their place as an industry leader. After studying the top 1000 most innovative companies in the world for over 12 years, PriceWaterhouseCoopers has found no statistically significant relationship between R&D spending and innovation success. Increased R&D spending has not led to any significant growth in sales, greater market capitalization or improved shareholder returns. In fact, Strategy’s report showed that the top 10 most innovative companies on the list were not the top 10 spenders in R&D. Steve Blank, a Silicon Valley serial-entrepreneur who has contributed to launch of the Lean Start-up movement, explains this with difference of focus. He believes that most traditional R&D labs are great at developing patentable technologies and making them work. They put in the centre technology itself. Start-ups, on the other hand, begin with developing deep understanding of the customer needs and then creating products that people will want to buy and use. Most start-ups are born digital, which naturally makes them more agile than their competitors. Unlike traditional companies, start-ups can and will tweak their value proposition several times until they get it right. That is why their biggest strength lies in identifying and unlocking emerging and latent demand of the market. According to CB Insights, published by Fortune, 58% of start-ups successfully pinpoint a clear market need for their product— including industry disruptors or those who fail to exist within the first year. That is much higher success rate than traditional companies can show for their innovation efforts.
Yet, if there is one grey area that most start-ups struggle with and brands almost always get right - it is scaling. Scaling is a big brands’ domain. While they may not be the ones to enter the stagnant market and shake things up, corporations have a colossal advantage when it comes to manufacturing, distribution, and marketing. This allows them to take a successful proof of concept and scale it quickly to the market. The truth is that megabrands and traditional businesses have all the tools to be innovative. They just need to learn from start-up how to set up innovation frameworks that will later trigger creation of new sustainable business models.

It does not matter whether you are making a toothpaste or selling life insurance, customer experience should become your top concern. Whenever someone talks about ‘industry disruptors’ what they usually mean are companies who have improved their products or services by making them ingeniously simple to the consumers. In order to achieve this level of “ingenious simplicity” brands have to stop focusing on what they ‘do’ and start thinking in terms of entire customer experience. Essentially it means bringing together customer centric thinking, smart design, and software.
Marketing leaders today find themselves at the crossroads of Digital innovation. The sheer speed of technological evolution, and If you want to maintain your growth, you’d better start leading by:
1. Repurpose blog posts into videos: Don't worry about coming up with fresh, new video marketing ideas. You don’t have to start from scratch. Repurposing your most popular blog posts into videos is a great way to reach new audiences and recycle content that you already know performs well. By repurposing your written content into videos, users who have previously passed on your blog posts can be pulled in with a format they prefer more - video. You can use a tool like Lumen5 to easily transform your articles into videos. Lumen5 uses artificial intelligence to automate video creation; all you have to do is enter a blog post or RSS feed, and the software will help you summarize the content and match scenes with relevant videos, photos and music. You can even customize all your videos with your branding, making it an effective way to attract new audience members and introduce them to your business.
2. Put a video on your landing page: Videos can increase your traffic and engagement, but did you know videos can increase your bottom line too? In fact, including a video on your landing page can increase conversions by 80 percent. When you incorporate videos on your landing page, users who visit your site can experience and absorb the message you are trying to get across with very little effort. It can also increase the number of time visitors spend on your page. Landing page videos should be high-quality with a great thumbnail, above the fold, and embedded in a stand-alone player such as YouTube or Vimeo. Whether your landing page video is about your company and who you are, customer reviews, or how your products or services work, users can easily understand the value of your company while being entertained, which leaves them much more likely to buy.
3. Use live video to interact with your audience: There is no better way to connect with your audience than to speak to them directly. Luckily, with the rise of live streaming, you can interact with your audience and customers any time you want. You can go live on Facebook, Instagram or YouTube and receive a ton of engagement that will grow your business. One great way to use live video is to schedule a Q&A session. Let your audience know when you are going live so that they can join in and ask questions in real time. Live Q&A sessions are a great way to make your audience feel like they are a part of something special and to present yourself as an expert in your industry.
4. Shoot teaser videos to spark interest: Many companies go through lulls where they feel like their audience is getting bored or forgetting about them. But by creating a bit of mystery and excitement around your company, you can spark interest in your audience and get people tuning in to see what is next for you. Shooting short teaser videos about a new product you are releasing or a big event that is coming up will keep users engaged and on the edge of their seats. A teaser video can be as short as three seconds and still be effective. For instance, if you own a restaurant and are coming out with a new menu item, film a short video showing a glimpse of the delicious new dish. You could even create a mini contest around your teaser video by getting your audience to take a guess at what the item is to boost engagement.
5. Record your screen for tutorials: If teaching your customers is an important part of your business, provide them with an awesome new way to learn by recording your computer screen for tutorials. For instance, if your company posts a lot of written tutorials on how to use your software, you can boost your engagement and your users can retain more information by providing them with video tutorials as well. You can record a demo of your software, show users how to use certain features or film your screen for an online course to entice your visitors into learning more about your product. There are several free and paid screen capture software options available online, including Open Broadcaster and Snagit, that make it easy to record in high definition as well as edit and add text or audio. Now that you have some creative video marketing ideas for your business, it’s time to get out there and start filming content that will make your audience want to click the ‘play’ button. Do not forget to share your videos on multiple platforms so that you can widen your reach and convert new users into loyal customers.
Besides if you do have any questions give me a call: https://clarity.fm/joy-brotonath