Creativity is notoriously hard to pin down. In fact its mysterious, ethereal nature is the very thing that drives it and makes it valuable. But for those of us in the business of ideas it sometimes helps to have a framework by which to try to understand creativity (even if it fully evades totally logical rationale), so that we can get the best out of it. I’ve been in the media business my whole professional life. Now two years of running a creativity strategy consultancy,

“Television needs to innovate, not regurgitate.” So said Liz Warner, a top TV exec, recently in a speech. As Broadcast, the industry rag reported: “Warner used her Bafta Television Lecture to call on the industry to snap out of its creative lethargy and recognise the “creative chasm” that has appeared in its failure to respond to the digital age”. The vital issues that Warner raises of connecting with young audiences and keeping the broadcast television alive and well aside,

Earlier this year I was really pleased to welcome Sam and Carla from Bath Spa University as Ideally’s first interns. But what does it mean to be a Junior Strategist – and what even is a creative strategy consultancy? And how can a second year media & communications or psychology & business studies student both learn from and contribute to a one-person start-up? Over to the interns themselves to explain… Sam says… On my first day at Ideally in January this year, my fellow int

Should old creative habits die hard, or be milked for all they’re worth? January is typically full of resolutions to change and promises to be better – usually to ourselves, and more often than not, unfulfilled. But should we be making commitments to improve our creative skills and instincts in 2016? And if so, how? As a society, we almost hero-worship the concept of change. Things should never stay the same, they must change – with the strong implication than innovation

8 REASONS YOU NEED YOUR AUDIENCE & WAYS TO USE THEM In my experience there are some TV types (and all sorts of content-makers) who seem to only appreciate their audience when it comes to the hard numbers. They think of them only really in terms of overnight ratings, box office attendance, circulation figures, unique visitors, click throughs, shares, likes and downloads. It can feel like the end consumer exists, if anything, to provide validation for their creative genius or

Ally celebrates the first full year of trading with some of her tried, tested (and very much borrowed) favourite pieces of strategic wisdom. I’m really happy to celebrate a year since Ideally Consulting was born. It’s been a fantastic adventure, both personally and professionally – completely made by the brilliant people I’ve worked with and the interesting projects I’ve been involved in. From bad first date stories to international urban sports, via the Battle of Waterloo,

Why Twitter may have reached its ceiling of users - and what that says about how the medium dictates the message. Sometimes, honesty isn’t the best policy. Just ask Twitter. In June 2015, after admitting that its user growth rate was slower than predicated, the Chief Exec ended up resigning the following day and just six weeks later share prices were at their lowest level in a year. And this, despite reporting revenues and earnings for the second quarter that were better t