RSS at Feed BurnerThe World is Running out of Ideas
When I was in college, I read a story about a guy that patented the concept of advertising on turnstiles. I thought that was awesome and since I wanted to start my own business, I tried to think of new places where you could advertise. I figured I could form a business around a entirely new form of advertising.
Everywhere I went, I made notice of where my eyes looked to see if that was a potential advertising space. But I had trouble finding places that did not already have advertisements. But it was not that we had run out of places to advertise, it is because I was not thinking about places to advertise in the right way. Instead of looking harder, it often takes a new way of thinking to find new ideas. Many new brilliant advertising models have arrived (not to mention the entire internet). But I heard about one today and thought it was awesome. It involved advertising on clothes hangers. It not only reaches a huge audience, but it has great visibility and you can target specific demos. And it is simple. Post-it note simple.
Recently I have heard some people say companies wanting to get in on Web 2.0 may be late in the game. They say the great ideas are already out there. Now it is just a matter of improving and innovating on them. That is ridiculous. There are always new and even totally revolutionary ideas out there. And even if there are a ton of great ideas out there, we always have Web 3.0.
“Everything that can be invented has been invented,” — Charles H. Duell, Commissioner, US Office of Patents, 1899.