154 Doing It day-to-day operations. And innovation has historically suffered from high failure rates which add to the challenge. Consequently innovators find that generating new ideas and products is at the same time exciting and laden with anxiety. To help reduce anxiety and improve the chances of success, organizations need to get close to consumers. Enabled by, although not de- pendent on, technology co-creation provides the opportunity not only to ask consumers their opinions, but also to engage them fully in the process of conceiving, designing and developing new products and services. Co-creation, as we have defined it, is of course not the only way of reach- ing a high level of connectivity but it has two important virtues. First, it cre- ates the possibility of recruiting the right individuals to participate, where `right' means those who best match the innovation goals of the business. This is different from other forms of open innovation where anyone can contribute. Second, it can involve people in exploring beneath the surface of their lives to get to the real issues they face. Here time is the key factor be- cause the nature of large-scale workshops lasting two days and continuous communities provides the opportunity for depth. For example, Virgin Media consumers spend an average of 10 minutes 59 seconds per visit ­ twice as much as they do on Facebook. This depth is valuable not only in helping to establish the tangible aspects of the innovation but also in defining the appropriate language and imagery when it comes to the marketing process.