Wednesday, April 13^th, was a day of celebrations for Ideas Collide.  Not only was IC/MC celebrating six years as a company but we were also celebrating IC/MC’s president and founder, Matthew Clyde’s birthday.  The day was a milestone for the company and in order to make it memorable we decided to go to the Arcade Fire concert.

Arcade Fire is an Indie/Art Rock band with a hipster vibe.  The band consists of seven members, all of who contribute to the band’s music.   Their songs are creative and captivating.  Since our Ideas Collide team is huge fans, attending the concert seemed like the perfect way to celebrate the big day.

The festivities took place at the Comerica Theatre in downtown Phoenix, where we secured a party suite complete with great food and drinks and most importantly, the company of clients, friends and family.   The band did not disappoint. The energy and excitement of the crowd made it a night to remember.

We are thankful to our clients and coworkers who have helped Ideas Collide become so successful over the years.  We had a blast celebrating with everyone. We look forward to continued success in the years to come!

My name is Lauren Williams and I have been interning at Ideas Collide for the last two and a half months.  I am a student at Brigham Young University but took off a semester to work with the IC/MC team.  While working with the team I have been able to observe the hard work and creativity that goes into every project.  I have also been able to help team members with projects such as a television news broadcast for Gold Canyon, putting together coverage scrapbooks, and creating gifts for our clients. All of these tasks have helped me to understand how a great marketing firm works.  While interning at Ideas Collide I have also come to understand that client happiness is the number one priority.

At Ideas Collide we really appreciate our clients! We try to show our gratitude by interacting with them in fun ways.

Valentine’s Day

For Valentine’s Day this year, we wanted to make sure that our clients were “feeling the love.”  So the team got together and created a sweet tweet.  We came up with the idea to order some yummy, heart-shaped sugar, cookies from the AMAZING Pie Snob.  Some of the cookies were filled with strawberry jam and drizzled with chocolate and others were decorated with sprinkles.  To go along with the cookies, we created darling customer lovebird cards.  We packaged everything with love, topped the gift with a red bow and hand delivered them to each of our “beloved” clients.  If our clients enjoyed the cookies as much as we did, then V-Day was a success!

Spring Training

A few years ago the Ideas Collide team got together with our valued clients to watch a Spring Training baseball game at Phoenix Municipal Stadium. Our team had so much fun we decided to make it a tradition.  So, this year we took our clients to watch and cheer on the Oakland A’s!  We had tumblers made with the Ideas Collide logo and created a witty card expressing our team’s appreciation.  After we rented a suite, ordered some amazing game day food, we took the tumblers and balloons in hand and headed off to the ballpark. We sure hope that our MVP clients felt that March 8^th was a homerun!

There’s a trend, innovation, emerging concept around every corner at ad:tech. Keeping up with this at every second of the conference can be at times exhilarating and at others overwhelming. We collected over 20 pages of notes (thank you to the amazing and useful Evernote app) and here is a quick summary of our ten ad:tech takeaways.

1. “We Need an APP GPS for Our Soul” – Arianna Huffington Keynote

At some point we need to DISCONNECT from our hyper connected lives. We are all missing something in constant multitasking. At some point we need to stop, focus, listen. To achieve more balance, we need a GPS for ourselves to show how we are out of alignment and what we need to do to realign our soul. It will be a killer APP for optimal living. And that means getting more sleep for better health and creativity. Because it’s very hard to be creative and enchanting when you are sleep deprived.

2. Screen time is exploding — being drive by tablets and mobile. Forrester is predicting that the replacement rate of tablets will be closer to mobile phones — as opposed to that of traditional desktops. By 2015, 82 million US consumers — one-third of US online consumers — will be using a tablet. This is beyond the iPad but they clearly have market leadership or as Jeff Cole from USC Annenberg School Center for the Digital Future see is, “Apple has moved the goal post before the others have even entered the field.” Between tablets and phones, screen time continues to grow and entertainment, social networking, e-commerce are the consumption benefactors. Jeff Cole’s insights and predictions are always a must watch, view his entire key note on YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bj6vTXTpXOk

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After a great “Inspire” session on Monday and a first full day at Ad Tech, here are a few insights that are top of mind to share after four keynotes, hours of networking and a dozen sessions later:

1. Design matters more than ever. Especially in the mobile and tablet space.

2. Design is an essential strategic differentiation. Michela Abrams, President of Dwell Media calls out the impact: Think about any company that has differentiated themselves in the last ten years and made a significant increase in market share, DESIGN has played a intricate role in bringing about that market share. Design still matters significantly.

3. You need a compelling story. Amid our uber-multi-tasking, 3+ screen lifestyles, there is relevancy in the art of a great story to deliver your message and reach your audience. Stories engage, persuade and inspire action. What’s the story your brand/product/service needs to tell? If you can’t articulate it, you become (if you’re lucky) annoying background noise or (worse), you are completely tuned out.

4. Data has its own story to tell. There is very little that can’t be tracked, monitored, analyzed and determined in today’s digital landscape. But within every piece of data, there is a story to be told. What matters is determining and finding the right story that needs to be told.

5.  Mobile. Social. & Clouds. It’s incredible to be part of this dynamic digital world where the playing field is constantly shifting. As the future takes shape, look carefully to mobile, social and cloud networks to be the new bridges across this sea of change. If you don’t have a plan to embrace and engage in these areas, now’s the time to make it happen.

More insights, ideas and shares to come. Be sure to follow @ideascollide on Twitter for “in the moment” Ad Tech sound bites.