Ideas First® for Creativity and Innovation

Ideas First® is a specialist creativity and innovation agency that helps our clients to bring focus, structure and energy to regional and global innovation projects. Programs are run world-wide including high energy and focused creative consumer workshops combined with online innovation tools. We were founded in 2000 by Michael Simpson, an innovations specialist with experience of working with companies such as Procter & Gamble, Johnson & Johnson, Wal-Mart, Tesco, Reckitt Benckiser, Novartis, PepsiCo, Mars, Boots and Cadbury.See More

Our Team to Drive Your Innovation

Ideas First® has a dedicated team and network of experienced innovators that includes: project leaders and creative facilitators to help client teams plan and lead effective brainstorming and innovation workshops; online specialists to help plan and run virtual innovation projects; copy editors, concept writers, artists and idea illuminators who bring early ideas to life; creative consumer panels, online innovation software developers; global trend, insights and ideas agents; insights and creativity skills trainers.See More

Our Approach for Focused Creativity

We help our client teams to focus creativity on specific business innovation objectives and relevant consumer and shopper insights. We add in other creative stimulus tools and materials, and we always involve real consumers to help refine insights and to give us early feedback to new ideas and concepts, keeping consumers at the heart of our approach. Our projects are cost cost-effective, without compromising quality, through the smart use of local client resources and by using online innovation tools that reduce time and associated project expenses such as time and travel costs.See More

Innovation Results and Feedback

Our work has helped our clients to generate over 300 market winning concepts and over 130 market launches. User feedback also indicates that our tools and approach deliver real business results. For example, from a survey of over 200 delegates, nearly 90% “really liked the way the overall process focused on specific objectives", and "the specific project generated at least 3 new concepts that will drive business growth".See More

virtualHOTHOUSE®

Click the link below to learn more about the virtualHOTHOUSE®, a powerful new on-line tool that improves the way innovation teams can generate new insights and ideas.

Case Studies

Shopper Hothouse with Wal*Mart

Over the past ten years, Ideas First has run or supported over 40 innovation partnership projects between leading retailers and their key suppliers, including retailers such as Tesco, Carrefour, Boots and Wal-Mart. For Wal-Mart, we have run two large scale Shopper Hothouse projects in North America, to generate new ideas,...

Articles 23/02/2012

The Future of Innovation

How will "Smart Companies" generate new insights and ideas in the future? This article was a contribution for a book called “The Future of Innovation”, a compilation of articles and contributions by academics and innovation practitioners. Download the attached one page PDF article to read a few thoughts on how leading organisations innovate during an economic downturn.