Organisations large and small continue to grapple with how ideas can be captured from anywhere and actually be acted upon. As we all now know, the very best ideas come from employees, partners and customers, but most organisations aren’t great at capturing and acting on those ideas.
We have partnered with BrightIdea, the world’s leading ideation platform manufacturer, and we are always interested in learning about how smart companies are using ideation platforms to capture ideas. So the recent launch by Heineken on their Idea Brewery caught our eye.
The platform sets a series of challenges that require novel solutions. “Ideas Brewery for us is a way to connect with creative minds, experts and also consumers around the world,” said Ellen Bark, Innovation Program Manager, Heineken.
The latest challenge asks people to come up with new ideas to enhance the drinking experience for people aged 60 years and over and was built on consumer insights identified in a previous challenge. The challenge saw creative minds from around the world submit fresh innovative ideas by taking into consideration the distinctive attitudes and needs of this group.
Recently HEINEKEN unveiled the winning ideas. Each taking home a share of $10,000, the three winning ideas appealed directly to the target market, taking into consideration both packaging and taste.
Tony Dianoff (Finland) was awarded first place with Fahrenheit +60, a range of beers brewed differently to give great new tastes with a great story to tell. In second place came Nathan Gabriele (USA) with an innovative labeling idea, while Charles McGregor’s (Australia) wine-inspired beer recipe was third.
The Challenge saw 150 ideas submitted online. The six finalists chosen by multi-functional HEINEKEN judging team were invited to the HEINEKEN headquarters in Amsterdam for a two and a half day workshop, where they collaborated with HEINEKEN innovation experts and external coaches to fine-tune their ideas. The candidates built their initial ideas into full concepts and the workshop culminated with them pitching them to the official jury that judged on four criteria: innovativeness, technical feasibility, commercial feasibility and the pitch presentation.
Fahrenheit +60 was awarded the top prize due to its roots in the art of beer making, its ease of execution and because it provides a great platform for story-telling. Above all, the quality of Tony Dianoff’s concept was seen as highly innovative and campaign-able.
Talking about the challenge, HEINEKEN Global Innovation Manager Paul Stanger said: “Tony Dianoff really impressed the whole judging panel. He clearly understood the Challenge and the needs of the 60+ market. We’re looking forward to taking this project further, following our co-creation workshop, to see if we can bring the idea into reality. We were particularly struck by Tony’s use of the insight that the 60+ consumer want to discover new tastes and the way he achieved this within our established brewing process. ”
“Innovation is a key pillar for HEINEKEN. We strive to be a forward thinking company, creating products and experiences that our customers are asking for. The Ideas Brewery crowd sourcing initiative is one of the Open Innovation initiatives within the company. The platform allows us to interact with creative minds around the world, to make sure that we are always on the front foot.”
If you would like to know more about ideation platforms, please contact us.
