Innovation: The wonder drug for business

The best innovations are like aspirin.

They take away the pain.

Everyone has stood in the shaving aisle looking at replacement blades for their razors and wondered, "Why do these things cost so f#@*ing much?"

Dollar Shave Club was smart enough to create a business model that took advantage of that particularly painful experience.

It used to be that if you wanted one cup of coffee, you had to either brew a full pot and throw out the rest or head over to Starbucks, learn a second language, stand in line and pay through the nose.

Then Keurig created the K-Cup and caffeine-aholics everywhere rejoiced.

Every man has gotten into an argument for not stopping to ask for directions when lost in the car.

Then Garmin made GPS technology available to the masses, saving marriages across the country.

Great innovation doesn't just solve a problem. It takes away pain.

Strategy is undead

Strategy is a funny thing. You need enough of it to give your campaign meaning and purpose, but not so much that it becomes a set of handcuffs that prevents you from doing work that stands out.

That's what I'm trying to figure out about this spot for the New York Lottery. Is there a strategy here somewhere or just a spot that's supposed to remind people the lottery exists?



If the strategy is to communicate how big the winning are, I guess it works. "The New York Mega Millions jackpot is now millions of dollars. That's millions and millions of dollars." Uh, yeah. That's why the game is called Mega Millions. But there's nothing really new here.

If the strategy is to attract new, younger players to the lottery, however, then the zombie story might make some sense. After all, Walking Dead and other movies, shows and events featuring the undead are pretty hot right now.

Which is it? I'm hoping it's the latter, but I'm guessing it's the former. We'd have to see the creative brief to know.