Remember the awesome advertisement ideas we featured in one of our previous posts, and mentioned that they were all obtained from 'Ideas to Steal'? Could you believe that the cool ideas we are talking about could actually have been rejected at the first place. Yes, most of them were! But thanks to the mind behind 'Ideas to Steal', the amazing idea did not go missing.

The website is a boon to the ones who want to see their ideas transformed into reality but can not find the way to it. This is what the makers have to say on their website, "And then we thought: why not turn two negatives into one positive and help each other out? So we created this website where advertising creatives can post their unwanted but nevertheless brilliant ideas and allow fellow creatives (or even account handlers or clients for that matter) to steal them for a chance to actually make them happen."

The website offers a great platform for creative people and also for those who are looking for great ideas to work on for their respective advertisements. Here the ideas get the deserved second chance. The concept is undoubtedly unique. Read on the interview with the creators of the website and know the story behind the idea.

1. Hi Timo! please introduce yourself to our readers?

We are Timo Klaarenbeek and Kalle Everland, a freelance creative directors team from London and together founders of 'ideastosteal.today'.


Ideastosteal.today is a platform for advertising creatives to share their bottom drawer ideas and let other "steal" them for a chance to actually get them made. The only rule is that the "thieves" credit the uploaders of the idea they stole (or used as inspiration).


We believe every creative has had the frustration of seeing ideas being rejected either in internal reviews or by the client. Some times creative literally take ideas from one job to another secretly hoping they will finally get it produced but in the end it never really works out. On the other hand creatives are under a lot of pressure to come up with ideas and as we're all human this doesn't always work either. So we thought why not turn these two negatives into a positive and allow creative to share ideas.

4. Please explain how does it all works, from the point of conceiving an idea till when it is finally used.

It's quite straightforward. The ideas on the site can be used and obviously need some fine tuning to make them fit the specific client brief. If the client buys into the idea (obviously not knowing the inspiration came from the site) and the idea gets made just like any other advertising campaign. We only ask the uploaders to be credited when the creative send in the work for award shows or trade press. It's like a gentlemen's agreement.


We both have been in the advertising industry for about 20 years and know a lot of people. First port of call to spread the word was our own network.

Beside that Timo blogs for Amsterdam Adblog and Dutch advertising magazine Adformatie and that made things a lot easier. Apart from that we just sent out a press release to all major advertising blogs and quite a few were writing about our site. People then tweeting about it caused a snowball effect and got other influences involved.

6. What kind of hardships did you face in the initial phase of your career and then with 'Ideas To Steal.Today'?

Every creative has a point in their career when they struggle to get their ideas made, usually in the early stages of their career. When you get more experience you learn how to think quicker and to be more spot on. But the risk of your brainchild being ruthlessly discarded never disappears and that was the inspiration that led to launching our site.

7. What measures do you take to make sure that the 'stealer' credits the person who originally came up with the idea?

Like we said before it's a gentlemen's agreement. But the website is open for comments. If an idea would be "stolen" and not credited the uploaders always have the site and date to refer to.

8. Personally speaking, I really like the concept of the website, some of the ideas available on the website are worth a million. What are your thoughts about sharing the profits earned by the 'stealer' with the creatives who have posted the idea, besides just only giving the credit?

Obviously it would be a shame if an idea gets taken and the person would become a millionaire, but we hope people are generous. On the other hand that's also the risk of uploading an idea. If someone fears that their idea could be misused we simply advise not to upload it.



We like the stealers to use the ideas on the site almost like a springboard. It's up to the stealers to add something to the idea, to make it fit the client brief they're working on and sell it to the client. That’s by itself makes it an unique execution – expression of the original idea.

10. What are your future plans for 'Ideas To Steal'?

We have not really thought about it yet. We were pretty much overwhelmed by the site's success. Ideally the user base will grow steadily and we would consider a stolen idea winning an advertising award a huge victory.

11. What do you have to say as tips to newer start-ups?

Just do it! Better to fail trying and learn from it than not doing it. It's just so much fun. Before we launched we talked about the idea with friends and out of that came the strategy of just creating a working version and improve the site along the way. It doesn't have to be perfect when you launch.

Thank you so much Timo for your time and doing this interview with us. It was great to know more about you and Ideas To Steal. We wish you and Kalle all the very best for your future.

Stay tuned tuned to E-junkie to know more and more about such cool ideas.