Good Ideas Trump Deep Pockets

Have you seen the latest commercial for Android? For a full minute, the commercial depicts various animals—species you wouldn’t think would ever intermingle—playing together in total peace and harmony. It’s got dogs and monkeys, cats and baby chicks, dogs and tigers—and then, in the end, a simple message: Be together. Not the same.

What strikes me about the commercial is its simplicity. There is one central idea, stretched out over a full minute; the commercial never even talks about the features, the bells and whistles you might get from buying an Android device. It’s all about that idea of the animals coexisting—together, but not the same.

I suspect that the commercial was relatively simple to assemble. One imagines that the footage all came from YouTube—and since both Android and YouTube are owned by Google, it probably didn’t cost much to dip into those archives. Meanwhile, the music comes from the old animated Robin Hood movie—again, probably not the most expensive licensing rights to acquire.

Of course, we all know that Google isn’t exactly hurting for money. If any corporation could have gone into its deep pockets to fund a truly extravagant and costly commercial, it’s Google. But Google didn’t go that route, and perhaps didn’t need to. Google had something better than an expensive idea. It had a really good idea.

Personally, as an entrepreneur, I find this to be inspiring. It’s a vivid reminder that a good idea trumps deep pockets. And while that’s one thing in the context of Google, it’s genuinely empowering for the rest of us—for those of us who don’t have deep pockets, but do, perhaps, have good ideas.

The conventional wisdom, especially in marketing, is that spending more money gets you more value—but that’s not necessarily the case. And when you first launch a business, you’re probably not going to have a limitless supply of cash lying around.

But not to worry: You can still have good ideas. And that, it turns out, goes a lot farther than money.

Good Ideas Trump Deep Pockets