The Spark

Experimentation. Hotspots. Humans.

Whatever you test, think small. And sippable. No one has the time to navigate the ocean anymore.

Make a big business by nurturing a niche network

Why data visualization is a game-changer for explaining your big idea

To keep your audience looking hot

How smart brands find new audiences without losing their current one.

How design sprints and heat-testing bring speed and confidence to product innovation.

How to survive (and thrive) in a marketing world that’s increasingly niche-ified

How blockbusters can crowd out product innovation

In innovation and new product development, bad ideas are not the problem. The problem is the ability to discern good from bad.

Your strategy: deconstruct, reconstruct, test.

When do you step out vs toe the line of average?

How to identify the best innovation ideas

From social media to customer acquisition cost, here’s your ultimate guide to understanding the basics of customer acquisition

Hello, and welcome to prediction season. If your appetite for soothsaying hasn’t yet been sated, here is a collection of about 100 predictions for 2023 from everyone from Accenture to the Zukunftsinstitut.

Signs you’re due for a brand refresh

Down the rabbit hole of a new sustainable beverage brand

Is your company running faster and faster just to stay in place?

How to talk about innovation in a topsy-turvy time

The Innovation Your Brand Needs to Age Well

How rebrands are putting on a great show.

Spring forward and work backwards: How to build momentum for a big new business idea

Is there a right way to generate new business ideas? 

Dear Digital Diary, HELP-I'm Drowning! Why we need a middle layer to protect us.

Change is afoot in 2022

Ways To Build Innovation Into Your Business.

According to survey data from BI Survey, “58% of respondents say their companies base at least half of their regular business decisions on gut feel or experience [emphasis added] rather than being driven by data and information.” Hmm.

Everyone from AAA to Zipcar has a form of membership. What’s driving all this joining?

Let’s use failure to learn as much as possible. But failure, like success, can be managed.

How do you prepare for disruption? First, know what’s coming. There’s no certainty, of course, but there are smart ways to plan for big shifts.

Validate-first, build-later requires product innovators and marketers to get their hands dirty with testing when the product is still just a tiny spark of innovation.

Why this year? We think 2021 is going to be a year of great change.

In this issue, we will do a quick survey of how growth strategy is changing and then explore a framework for thinking about customer acquisition strategy.

The massive shift in behavior accelerated by the events of 2020 is causing a follow-on lurch in marketing—marketers are sprinting to keep pace with a customer whose behavior and attitudes have changed in a matter of months.

Whether live or remote, college is restarting, and so we are saying good-bye to two amazing marketing interns who helped us manage a busy summer.

Can we innovate our way out of an economic crisis? Fingers crossed, everyone.

This week, we are celebrating the innovators and the hustlers—the people who are finding solutions because they see no other choice.

Glib or not, digging through the manure pile to find a glimmer of opportunity will contribute to getting the economy back on track.

If you are wondering how marketers behave when panicked, look no further than your email inbox and social media feeds a month or so ago.

Need some new plays?

The business book is a conundrum. With so many ways to convey ideas, why does it still exist?

In the beginning, there were catalogs.

By all accounts, the rental economy is on a tear. And it’s not only millennials who are eating it up.

We have big plans for this year, and we bet you do, too. In fact, expectations are so high for the new year/decade, it can seem a little overwhelming.

Big companies are getting savvier about innovation. And a number of service firms (Spark No. 9 among them) are evolving to help them.

Sometimes we get stuck. We need the big idea—the hot new product concept, the clever business model, the catchy tag line. We’ve done our homework on users and their needs.