The demand for breakthrough ideas is intensifying. You can be patient and hope a big idea comes along, or rally the troops and paper the walls in hyper-brainstorming sessions. We've found that true innovation demands more.

SpencerHall's unique Flashpoint innovation workshops help clients connect with their consumers, ensuring the team sees, feels, thinks and reacts through the consumer's heart and mind. We know that the mind sets neural pathways that help us solve problems every day, without having to "reinvent the wheel." However, those set pathways can lead people to the same ideas over and over. At SpencerHall,we've developed proprietary techniques that break through those neural paths to generate truly creative thinking.

We believe that a mix of disparate perspectives helps create an "alchemy" of truly breakthrough thinking, so we include relevant outside experts in each Flashpoint innovation workshop to share their insights and help brainstorm. We also include artists to help bring ideas to life.

Typically, the Flashpoint innovation workshop runs for two days. We conduct the sessions in venues that are reflective of the assignment, and conducive to creativity, ranging from the Hot Pink Suite at the Palms Hotel in Las Vegas for a liquor innovation project, to a botanical garden for air freshening, and a major league ballpark for male grooming products.

We begin with a "Meeting of the Minds" to ensure the entire team is grounded in key objectives and focus areas. This includes translating consumer insights into posters that are kept on display, to literally surround the client team with their consumers.

Then, expert Flashpoint facilitators stimulate revolutionary thinking among participants, using a series of creative exercises, generating hundreds of new ideas. SpencerHall translates the lead ideas into complete written concepts, including key visuals that are ready for consumer evaluation/optimization.

Our Flashpoint process has been successfully used by clients for new product development across a myriad of categories, consumer segments and geographies, consistently resulting in a portfolio of ideas that exceed our clients' success criteria.