When Facebook switched layouts to the current Timeline model a lot of businesses, including the one I was working for, had to rethink their strategy a bit. A lot of the tricks methods we use to rely on were altered or removed. It definitely took some trial and error to figure out what strategies created the best results. I wish I had found this post on Mari Smith's excellent social media blog sooner. She gives a comprehensive guide to the new layout, item by item. Check it out:

Last week Joshua Gross' blog Unwieldy posted some interesting research. Through combing various articles and studies Joshua investigated the impact of New York City requiring licensed taxi cabs to install machines to accept credit card payment, and more importantly, the application of quick tip percentage buttons. He found:

During payment, the user is presented with three default buttons for tipping: 20%, 25%, and 30%. When cabs were cash only, the average tip was roughly 10%. After the introduction of this system, the tip percentage jumped to 22%.

Joshua goes on to point out that over the course of a year and 13,267 registered taxi cabs in New York, the additional tips generated totals roughly $144,146,165.oo.

This statistic perfectly illustrates the value of a slight shift in incentive and the power of societal pressures.

When New York taxis were a cash business, the rider had to do some quick math to calculate an appropriate tip. Most would get 80% of the way to an exact amount, round to the nearest dollar, and hand some cash to the front seat. That grey area left room for optimistic interpretation, "I think I gave a tip around 15%." It also didn't account for inflation. If you had been tipping a few bucks a cab ride for years, you weren't likely to add a cost of living increase.

Now with the new system, you were forced to stare an exact number in the face. Also, by only including 20% and up options, it added a pay-for-convenience incentive. Were you a 20% tipper? Or would you do your own math just to tip less? Based on the average tip of 22%, I would say most people just hit 20% and went on about their day.

This kind of psychological incentive is something that every small business can aspire to. Is there a new system that you can apply which will increase the perceived value of your products and services? A simple add-on which will be a no brainer during checkout, but one that nets a few percentage points on every transaction?

It's certainly an interesting challenge to consider.

While Marc Jacobs is hardly a small business, I thought that the recent vandalism-turned-marketing-coup which has been all over the blogs, was a great example of creative marketing with which to kick off this site.

Let's recap briefly: Kidult is a French graffiti artist who is known to frequently target major fashion labels. Last week he scrawled "ART" across the fecade of the Marc Jacobs store here in NYC.

Now, I am a fan of graffiti. I believe in everyone's right to express themselves in the space that they inhabit, and I love creative rethinking of how public space in meant to be used and enjoyed. But on a real world level, the employees of that particular store are not a corporate entity. They are the ones who have to take down the art. I have worked in retail most of my adult life and let me tell you, no matter how much you love graffiti, that will ruin your day real quick.

So here is where things get brilliant. Upon discovering the repainting of their storefront, somebody at Marc Jacobs (I'd like to think it was one of the store level employees tasked with the cleanup) decided to turn this art into a branding exercise. They tweeted their own photos of the graffiti, taking pride in the art that was thrust on them. Essentially becoming that kid in school who accidentally wore two different color socks but turned it into a fad.

Then the Marc Jacobs team took it a step further, offering T-shirts with photos of the ART for $689. Again, I would like to think that the $689 number equals the total cost of the cleanup, but that is probably reading-in more meaning than is actually there.

At any rate, the whole thing is an extremely clever way to turn a tediuos day of cleanup into a big marketing win for the company. This kind of creative thinking is even more applicable to small businesses who are able to meneuver quickly and stand to gain valuable community support.

The New York Observer had the best final take on the incident:

While it is inherently difficult to root for capitalist enterprises, any artist trying to subvert something through destruction for attention (such as Kidult clearly does) is difficult to root for as well.... Especially when the response is as crafty, canny, and genuinely more artful than the provocation it’s answering.

Welcome to The 21st Idea. Here's the theory: it takes twenty ideas on a project to get through all the standard solutions that aren't bringing anything new to the table. It takes twenty ideas to really start engaging the brain and thinking outside of the box. The first twenty ideas are just process.

Inspiration starts at idea number twenty one.

More realistically, inspiration can come at any time. But if you do the work, and put out twenty one real ideas, you ensure that your brain is engaged and you are doing your best work. Twenty one ideas is a minimum. If the project isn't worth spending the time to come up with twenty one, then it's not worth starting.

The 21st Idea is my marketing project focussing on the challenges of marketing a small business. On this blog I will share my ideas and projects as well as strokes of brilliance found around the web. My goal is for this site to be a resource for both small business owners and marketing professionals looking for creative solutions and inspiration.

Great ideas are made to be shared.