This one is really simple and fairly obvious but you know I hadn't thought about it in a long time and it is a hard concept to grasp when you do think about it.
So here we go. I am organising a creativity session for part of my job and wanted to get the point across that one of the reasons for doing it is that we can't stand still. In this case due to competitors continually trying for the same business we are.
I know the Earth moves, well we all do, so I thought that would be a good analogy. So my point was that even if you wanted to stand still you can't (so you might as well get on with it). I wanted some facts and figures though so I went to Google and did a quick search and that was the mind blowing bit. As I said before we all know the Earth moves so we all grasp the concept "The Big Idea" but it isn't until you look at the figures that the full impact of that fact hits you.
STOP look at your watch - now just look at it for the next 5 seconds - you have just moved 150km (just under 100 miles). That is how far the Earth has travelled through space in 5 seconds.
We are currently travelling at 1670km/hr which is the speed at which the Earth rotates. To put that in perspective the last time I was on a plane travelling to the USA it travelled at 820 km/hr so the earth spins at a speed over twice as fast as a jet plane.
Finally and this is the big one. In a year the Earth travels 924,000,000km, or 577,500,000 miles, through space.
Those facts in themselves are mind blowing but it got me thinking about clients. If I had a £ for every time I have been told by a client they want a big idea I wouldn't need to work. Sometimes however the real WOW factor isn't in the big idea it is in the detail. So the next time somebody starts to tell you something and you think "Heard it before!" just stop and get into the detail because you may just be surprised