Rethinking innovation, with Innocent in mind....
September 23, 2009
I'm sympathetic to Travel Rants' complaint about innovation in travel. But it left me wondering whether the way we approach 'innovation' needs an overhaul itself. (I'm not singling Darren out here, I'm just as guilty.)
For obvious reasons, the last 10 years or so have led us to associate innovation with technology and online media.
The connection is very frequently justified, and quite frequently excites me. But perversely, it also leaves our thinking about innovation ploughing similar furrows.
Ask someone to pinpoint an innovation and they'll instinctively look for a mobile app or a website - usually one of many inspiration sites offering (often clever) thematic varaitions on the same essential model.
It's as if we're stuck in one category. An operator could come out with a genuinely fresh way to tour the Atlas mountains, and we'd ignore it because the 'tours of Morocco' category isn't a candadiate for innovation.
Likewise, innovation in marketing is now virtually synonymous with social media. Again, that isn't necessarily wrong, but it can blind us to (potential) innovation in less sexy forms.
Personally I'm still waiting for travel's Innocent. The all-conquering smoothie people admittedly found a good gap in the market, but they also talked to consumers in a fresh way - humorous, knowing, friendly and without vanity, but still consistent and instantly recognisable.
The case study on the Design Council site is a good backgrounder.
I'd argue it was very innovative stuff. Most brands don't talk like that (though more do post-Innocent) and anyone with a week of marketing work experience will tell you it's brutally hard to get right.
Moreover, tone of voice is pivotal - by it all of our social media experiments will live or die. As the British prime minister will tell you, a likeable politician on boring old BBC1 is better than an awkward one on Youtube.
(Oh, and a good answer to the consumer protection mess would be pretty innovative too. Just a thought...)
Nathan Midgley
Comments (5)
You are correct. Innovation to someone like me, who spends a fair bit of time online, innovation is in the shape of websites, online tools, mobiles etc.
There's probably tons of innovation going on offline in travel agencies, at hotels etc. but I doubt I will ever notice it. Which is a shame.
It would be good to hear about the type of innovation that is going on off-line.
Posted by Darren Cronian | September 23, 2009 11:41 PM
Posted on September 23, 2009 23:41
And I'd love to be able to post a list off the top of my head - but as I say, as a web-focused chap myself I'm just as guilty.
Nor am I guaranteeing that it's there. Indeed, in my example - Innocent's tone of voice - I don't really think anyone in travel has pulled that off. The closest is Mr and Mrs Smith I think, or maybe STA. And you'll get the odd isolated thing that has a twinkle in its eye, like the MyTravel press conference spoof from a few years back or the Virgin 25th anniversary ad, but nobody has a coherent voice like Innocent. IMO.
Trade readers who think I'm wrong should take this as in invitation to post counter-examples, because it very much is...
Posted by Nathan (author) | September 24, 2009 12:05 PM
Posted on September 24, 2009 12:05
Stop thinking about innovation! [Alex is broken record again]
Commoditisation is equally interesting.
e.g. low cost flight companies are not innovative but commoditisers. Most web models are around commoditisation not innovation.
Posted by Alex Bainbridge | September 24, 2009 1:01 PM
Posted on September 24, 2009 13:01
Hi Alex, I kind of agree, in that I don't think an obsession with innovation is healthy (as I commented on Darren's original, I think the penetration of/pace of change in the electronics industry has skewed expectations somewhat).
But I'm not sure innovation vs commoditisation is a like-with-like comparison... different categories I'd have thought. Commoditisation is a model, but I don't see how 'innovation' can be one. Surely you could be a commoditiser but do it in an innovative way, in the same way you could be a plain old tour operator but still create an innovative tour. That's what I'm getting at in the post.
Posted by Nathan Midgley
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September 24, 2009 1:18 PM
Posted on September 24, 2009 13:18
I don't really agree with that, I mean, maybe it's right people generally thinks about innovation at high- tech news... But not necessarily.
The companies, in my case, tourism company, just have to present their products as innovation, i don't think they do it... and when they do, people are ok this is new, this is an innovation... but the fact is no-one is advertising a trip to Morocco as an innovation.. maybe THAT is the real problem..
Posted by Grosse Poitrine | October 1, 2009 10:18 AM
Posted on October 1, 2009 10:18