Adam Glickman

Joining a raft of new creative talent-based online ventures, Tokion magazine founder Adam Glickman has launched The ideaLists, a site that brings together briefs and creative ideas.

“A few years ago I had an idea for an online platform that would help more music videos to get produced,” explains Glickman. “Like a Match.com for bands/labels/managers in need of videos on the one side and potentially interested directors/production companies on the other. I started thinking about successful web platforms like eBay, and how one person’s trash can be another person’s treasure. What if you were to apply elements of those models – which essentially create value – by providing proper matches to marketing and media?”

Functioning as an open-source online creative agency encompassing a broad spectrum of creative disciplines, the site has already garnered proposals from The Guggenheim Museum, Diesel Jeans, Incase and the Kanye West Foundation.

Members are vetted by Glickman and his team. They must work in communications and have a strong portfolio with relevant experience to be accepted. Once a member, creatives can upload ideas and clients can upload briefs, with each able to respond to those that interest them. The site already boasts some 400 members, but Glickman says he doesn’t want it to grow much more, emphasizing quality over quantity.

Remuneration works on a ‘freemium’ model. It’s free to post and browse ideas, but for more sophisticated services there’s a fee. “If members want to take advantage of our agent services (sorting good ideas from bad, crafting a handpicked team, ensuring a quality deliverable), then we charge a percentage of the budget.”

A natural concern with such a forum is IP ownership and the sharing of ideas, which is why there are safeguards in place, including built-in NDAs and monitoring of what ideas are seen by whom. In a media environment where ideas are developed simultaneously and travel quickly, Glickman argues that the site offers a way to log ownership. “In today’s information-driven world, we are all absorbing the same cultural memes. Any idea you might have, it’s a pretty good bet five other people have a similar one. At that point it becomes all about the one who executes first. By posting here, at least you can be first to lay claim to an idea in a controlled, semi-public forum.”

Although it bills itself as a matchmaking agency that works on a project-by-project basis rather than an AOR, Glickman says that the future plan is to provide account and production services, where required, as well as to create custom, closed networks whose invites are controlled by a client.

With minimal overheads, no full-time account or production teams and no AOR status, The ideaLists is a creative agency in its rawest, nimblest form. “I come from independent publishing, which has a very different approach to ideation. First you come up with an idea and then go to advertisers to get it funded and produced. Agencies approach ideas from the opposite perspective. Our hope is to find a sweet spot at the intersection of these two approaches.” Q

www.theidealists.com