The Innovation Formula

CHAPTER 4 DEBATE Walking in stupid, and other ways to fuel innovation

You may have never heard of Wieden+Kennedy, but I can guarantee that you have seen its work. Wieden+Kennedy is one of the world's top creative advertising agencies. One of the agency's founders, Dan Wieden, was responsible for coming up with one of the most famous taglines on the planet: Nike's ‘Just Do It'. In recent years you might have watched actor Isaiah Mustafa riding a white horse backwards, claiming he was ‘The man your man could smell like' and thus reviving the Old Spice brand. Or perhaps you remember the agency's 2008 Super Bowl ad for Coca-Cola that featured two huge inflatable cartoon characters chasing a giant inflatable bottle of Coca-Cola across New York City, with an inflatable Charlie Brown emerging victorious having caught the Coke bottle. Adweek named it best Super Bowl ad of the decade.

One of the factors that has been identified as critical for creating a culture where innovation thrives is ensuring that different points of view are encouraged and that ideas are regularly debated. And at Wieden+Kennedy, challenging the status quo and debating different views is par for the course.

One of the first things visitors to the London office see is a shop-window mannequin that has a blender for a head. The mannequin is carrying a briefcase that has the words ‘Walk in stupid every morning' written on it. The message represents something that cofounder Dan Wieden believes in strongly: that is, ...