From Ideation to Impact: 3 Ways to Accelerate Innovation & Why It Matters at Bliss

Almost 50 years in, the heart of Bliss as a business is still very much public relations and marketing communications, but our soul is that of an ageless innovator. Being established doesn’t mean being old-fashioned. Being trusted doesn’t mean sticking to the status quo. In fact, maintaining a reputation of trust and excellence requires pushing the boundaries of your industry and your capabilities.  

At Bliss, innovation is about finding new solutions to complex problems, pushing through boundaries, and building useful tools with smart applications from scratch. Here’s how we’re doing it…and how you can too. 

Make Time and Space for Innovation 

The day-to-day responsibilities of a busy marketing communications professional don’t leave a lot of time for ideating the next great thing. A new solution isn’t built overnight, and it definitely isn’t created by just one person. Brainstorming, iterating on ideas, collaborating with colleagues, and thinking through weak points all take time.  

Most of us don’t have a dedicated block of time to sit down and brainstorm creative solutions to the problems we’re facing. And when that’s the case, taking time away or off to focus on developing your latest ideas might be a good option. For example, Bliss offers an Innovation Sabbatical, which allows employees to take a fully paid leave of absence from their accounts to focus on building a solution of their choice to alleviate a pain point in the marketing communications industry or for clients.  

Push Technology Further 

There are so many great tools out there to help create, improve, and measure campaigns. However, there is also a lot of room for expansion and refinement. One of the challenges Bliss and other agencies face is getting inside the minds of target audiences to understand what they want to hear and what will push them towards a decision—not just what they are already hearing and reacting to. Our solution was to create Executive Signals Platform, a proprietary intelligence tool that analyzes the online conversations of executives representing more than 600 businesses across 250K+ social posts. It allows us to understand the trends and topics resonating right now, identify the publications that receive the most engagement, benchmark executive thought leadership programs against industry peers, and gauge what’s really resonating. Building on top of existing technology to create something that works harder and smarter for you is key. 

We took a similar approach when developing Pitch PRfect. Today’s media landscape is so crowded and getting a positive response to pitches is harder than ever. In response, our Research & Analytics team built a proprietary pitch generator that optimizes existing pitches based on a proprietary large language model and makes recommendations on everything from subject lines to sending times. 

Invest in the Next Generation of Innovators 

Innovation is also about looking outwards and helping the next generation of leaders develop their solution-building muscles. We need to give growing professionals opportunities to push what’s possible even farther forward. Hosting panels and events for professionals at every stage in their career to convene on the latest trends is one way. Partnering with local colleges and universities to encourage innovation is another.  

Bliss recently joined forces with the NYU School of Professional Studies to sponsor an Innovation Challenge. Graduate students from every department were invited to submit GenAI solutions to a real-world marketing communications challenge for a chance to win one-on-one mentorships with Bliss professionals and access to special industry events. The structured format and clear incentives encouraged young innovators to create some truly incredible solutions. 

At the end of the day, innovation is less about whether a new tool is successful and more about what you learned by building it. Bliss is committed to driving innovation within our own walls and externally because we believe that the best solutions come from the freedom to think creatively and collaboratively about a problem. Happy innovating! 

By Cortney Stapleton

Photo by Johannes Plenio via Pexels