Protecting your ideas just got a heck of a lot easier

This month saw the launch of a new service for the industry called Creative Barcode, and what a simple and excellent idea it is. It’s so simple you’ll wonder ‘why hasn’t anyone come up with this before’. We think this is so fantastic we had to write about it – a simple affordable service for creatives, designers, inventors, scientists, engineers, artists, design-led thinkers and originators alike.

So here is the low-down; ideas, patents and trademarks are only worth something if you have the money to protect them. Protecting your ideas and the generation of IP is a very complex and expensive process. It’s a minefield of classifications, wording, semantics, views and opinions – which often comes down to one person’s word against another.

Creative Barcode acknowledges this and provides a much easier and affordable model of protection by way of a contract.

Once your account has been set up concepts, designs, ideas, proposals and tenders watermarked with a unique identifier can be sent through the system to the intended recipient. The recipient then receives a link to a download of the file from the Creative Barcode website where they agree to terms and conditions prior to download. This sets up a binding contract between sender and recipient.

And why is this so great? It means that the recipient cannot act on the content supplied without coming back to discuss it with the originator first as outlined in the terms. The trick here is that a breach of contract is both easier and cheaper to prove than the theft of IP/ideas. Once a breach has been identified, any damages arising from the breach can then be considered.

Creative Barcode provides proof of contract by keeping a record of all those you give access to and who download the files. If files are shared offline it acts as a deterrent by having a clearly branded mark and unique trackable number embedded/printed on the file.

This is a fantastic service and has so many applications, but most importantly it is an affordable answer to a long-standing issue for both creative individuals and companies alike in the protection of the circulation of their ideas.

It doesn’t solve everything but it is a great start. Registration costs £195 creating your account and your first 5 barcodes, and additional barcodes can be bought for around £9 each.

We think that this one of the most significant industry developments in a long time, especially given the growth in open innovation and ideas sharing forums and platforms. If you think this is a great idea and believe in upholding the value of creativity then please also sign-up to the Trust Charter on the Creative Barcode website by clicking here. You won’t be alone, with names like Rodney Fitch already leading the way.

Bonfire CI are shortlisted in the Marketing Design Awards 2010

Marketing Design Awards 2010

Marketing Design Awards 2010

The highly successful ‘Countdown to Rebrand’ campaign that Bonfire Creative Intelligence developed for Randstad Education has been shortlisted for the prestigious Marketing Design Awards.

The campaign is a finalist in the ‘Rebrand’ category of the annual awards, which are run by leading industry magazine Marketing, and winners will be announced during a gala ceremony at London’s Grosvenor House on 2nd November.

Bonfire CI designed an integrated campaign to raise awareness of Select Education being renamed Randstad Education in January 2010. Randstad, the world’s second largest staffing services group, had acquired Select Education and was entering UK education recruitment for the first time.

A rebrand strategy was developed to raise awareness among existing and prospective clients, and internal and external stakeholders, in the period leading up to the official switchover. The aim was not just to inform the target audience of the change but to reinforce key brand values, and this was achieved through a range of media.

The strategy was to deliver the campaign across five monthly phases, following a ‘five-four-three-two-one’ pattern, primarily through direct mail and press ads in key industry titles such as The Times Educational Supplement (TES). In addition, a parallel PR campaign saw the launch of a schools competition to increase engagement with primary and secondary schools, and an internal awareness programme focused on keeping staff informed and engaged.

The first creative, based around the simple tagline ’5 months to go before Select Education becomes Randstad Education’ listed ’5 reasons to count on our teachers’ and a visual that mixed in the answers with popular trivia and quiz questions linked by the number five. This continued with ’4 reasons to count on us’, ’3 services in one name’ and so on, building up to a ‘blast-off’ launch in January.

The content highlighted key advantages of the Randstad Education service, such as comprehensive background checking, value for money and quality guarantees. The contemporary design, vibrant colours and witty copywriting were a slight departure from Randstad’s fairly formal brand tradition, and was intended to introduce Randstad Education as approachable and exciting.

Bonfire CI Director Stephen Judge said: “We’re absolutely delighted that our campaign for Randstad Education has been recognised in this way. It’s a great example of an agency and client working closely together to create something memorable, exciting and, above all, effective. As a result, what could have been a standard corporate rebrand became a lively, high-impact, multi-channel engagement initiative that really resonated with its target audience.”

Helping school children SMILE

smile grabTaMHS (Targeting Mental Health in Schools, a collaboration between Central Bedfordshire Council and Family Matters Institute) have just launched an innovative pilot service called ‘Smile’. Its objective is to raise awareness of mental health issues in schools and engage teachers, parents and young people with the goal of reducing the time taken to identify and support young people suffering from, or affected by, these issues.

TaMHS approached branding agency Bonfire Creative Intelligence to help develop the core brand tools for the pilot. Stephen Judge, Bonfire Director commented, “Our approach to the project and stakeholder research process was underpinned and validated by previous insight gained whilst working on communications projects for Connexions.”

Before the Smile identity was created, Bonfire developed and delivered a series of workshops with three middle/lower school clusters (Biggleswade, Houghton Regis and Ampthill) in partnership with an educational creative facilitator. This process enabled Bonfire to filter imagery, names, words and themes that were accessible to both age groups and provide a basis for the brand development. Once the workshops were complete a clear leader for the name of the scheme had emerged – ‘Smile’ – a message that was clearly understood and to which students responded very positively.

A set of culturally neutral characters were developed, alongside the name, supported by age group specific language styles. The overall solution ensures pupils can develop a trusting relationship with the Smile brand at an early stage and continue this throughout their middle school years.

A set of brand guidelines were also developed so the management running the project could successfully implement the brand using skilled service providers throughout the pilot period.