Endeavour Relationship Media Group went through three phases to define what makes a great idea in 2013. Phase 1 involved collecting and analyzing ideas to identify key attributes of good work. Phase 2 tested their conclusions at Cannes by observing other attendees. Phase 3 resulted in three outputs: 1) a book capturing the best works at Cannes, 2) a framework identifying foundations of great ideas, and 3) a prototype workshop board game to help create ideas.

1. Endeavour Relationship Media Group
The overall objective of Endeavour Relationship Media Group project was to define what great ideas
look like in 2013, from that to clearly articulate the Maxus ideas 'way' and then become the champions
of our approach, ensuring that it is delivered on clients briefs.
We got there by passing through 3 distinct phases
1. Pre-Cannes
A) On a practical level we become familiar with the work that the industry was producing and each of us
in the team reached our own conclusions as to what the key attributes of good ideas are.
We were "idea collectors" – always on the lookout for work that was surprising, interesting, exciting,
magical or that just has a little nugget of brilliance hidden somewhere within it. Once we saw something
we liked, we collected it, thought about it, reached a conclusion as to why we thought it was good and
then shared it with other members of the group. We had series of conference call debates where we
discussed the ideas and reached some big conclusions together.
B) We supplemented that with more theoretical approach looking at great communicators from the past
(or present). Over time, we covered three area: Popular Culture, Propaganda and Creative thinking.
Our objective in the run up to Cannes was to craft our own view as to what the key attributes of good
communications are today.
2. At Cannes
At Cannes we tested and amended the conclusions made during Phase1 by observing, listening
questioning and debating with the huge amount of creative talent at the festival. We were eyes and ears
of Maxus at the festival, tweeting and blogging on what's hot and what's not.
3. Post Cannes
Once we have taken all our conclusions from Cannes we began to draft our output for Maxus as a
whole.
1. We released a book, “Cannes Lions 2013”, capturing the best works at Cannes Festive with our
point of view as to what made it a winner.
2. We released our version of what makes a great idea- Anatomy of An Idea- Brilliant Basics,
Compelling Differences, where we identified four foundations that all great ideas share and if we
made sure that everything we do was grounded in those brilliant basics we will be ahead of
competition.
3. Created a prototype of a board game which would be a 2 hour workshop- a guide to help Maxus
create great ideas.