Brands and bedrooms

Whilst Raul's been discovering the joys of South African vino, I've been busy busy. So busy infact that my productivity at one point reached zero as I became overwhelmed by "stuff to do" - both for my own ventures and for clients.

The answer to my probs has been a whizzy online site called Voodo. What Voodo does is very simply organise my workload into lists - based around projects and tasks, to which you can allocate time and deadlines. This means that I can now very simply look at what needs to be done + tick the tasks off one by one. So far it's changed my life. No longer am I overwhelmed - as all my probs (work) is neatly organised and prioritised into manageable chunks.

One of the things that got me thinking about this in relation to brand participation was the fact that THIS is the kind of the thing brand could do in a cost effective way. As a brand aimed at the busy working professional this could be a great tool for them to develop (or sponsor) to help make people's lives easier so they free up time to do other things.

The basic notion is thinking of developing marketing / brand assets that have real value for the public - rather than just a throw away value. For me this is one of the key values that should underlie brand participation, and has ultimate value for the brand - leading to product innovation at the same time.

Importantly this kind of innovation doesn't have to be expensive if executed on the web. Voodo is a clever idea produced by a bloke in his bedroom, and I'd suggest brands spend more time fooling around in the bedroom too if they're looking for real innovation . . .