As we all know, in any relationship, it’s the small things that matter. Yet what many people don’t realise is that it’s not only in our personal relationships that small things can have a big effect… they can also have a similar result in the relationships marketers, brands and companies have with their customers or business partners.

And why do small things matter? Well, as anyone who has ever bought a girl flowers knows; something small but effective can have a kind of result that is absolutely out of proportion to the cost.

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A very talented retoucher by the name of Dan Watkins introduced me to TED last year and ever since I have been a massive fan. Over the weekend I got a chance to catch up on my TEDGlobal 2010 viewing. The highlight so far has to be this talk from British author Matt Ridley entitled ‘When ideas have sex’.

In the talk Matt Ridley shows how, throughout history, the engine of human progress has been the meeting and mating of ideas to make new ideas. It’s not important how clever individuals are, he says; what really matters is how smart the collective brain is.

Click the ‘read more’ button below to watch his talk.

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I like it when someone shares something with me that I have never heard of before. So I have the very talented retoucher Dan Watkins to thank for this posting. A few years ago Dan did some retouching for me on a shoot we did for Marisota that was shot in Portugal… fast forward to a few months ago and Dan and I bumped into each other at a talk I was giving about how Advertising Agencies are embracing all forms of digital video.

Yesterday Dan shared a riveting talk with me by Malcolm Gladwell on spahetti sauce, which if you get time you simply have to watch. But what Dan has done is more than that. He has shared with me a fabulous website that is full of inspiration… a website that I have never come across before but I am now kicking myself that I have not known about sooner.

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