Does anyone have ideas to make a brainstorm more creative?

I use play doh and candy, any other ideas on how to get creative ideas from a marketing team?

Public Comments

1. Is your team little kids? Try Starbucks!
2. I've had good luck with a tennis ball. The rules: I throw the ball to someone - they have 15 seconds to blurt out an idea, no matter how silly. Then they throw the ball to someone else, and it keeps going. Better to always have to thow the ball way across the table, and to someone who hasn't caught the ball yet. Once in a while I'll grab the ball to give everybody a brief break, maybe change the rules a bit (like let's all work off of this one idea) and we keep going until it's time to make and throw paper airplanes. The rule on that is put your idea on the airplane and launch it. Whoever catches is has to come up with an idea based on the idea on the plane.
3. Tell the group that you are going to divide them into teams of 5 and whichever team gets the most ideas down on paper gets a special dessert at lunch. Then put the teams in seperate rooms with big paper to write on that they can tape to the wall, and have them write down as many ideas as possible to increase sales (or whatever your goal is).
4. It is assumes that you work for a company that has a customer base. This customer base surely has written or called with complaints. Review these complaints and see if it leads to new products. Secondly, look at your customer base and review what they do with your products. Many times they are used in conjunction with something else. This something else could be a new product for you. Your team needs to investigate not just sit around a table and theorize. Looking at customer insure that whatever is suggested that a market is available for the product.