IDEAS

THE CURRENCY OF THE 21ST CENTURY

Principle One: Do What You Love

Passion is everything, and it keeps you going when you face inevitable setbacks. Be obsessed and improve the areas that you love. To achieve success, passion is not enough - follow your obsessions, tailor them to your skills, and focus on what you can make money from. What is your calling and your destiny? How can you change the world? Success = Passion + Skills + Market Demand

Principle Two: Put a Dent in the Universe

Innovation doesn't take place in a vacuum. Have a vision, because innovation cannot occur without one. What's the bigger picture and how can you share your vision with enthusiasts who will make your vision a reality. How is your product or service going to change the world? How can you leave the world a better place than you found it? How can you make your customers' lives better? Margaret Mead: "A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."

Principle Three: Kick Start Your Brain

Seek our new and novel experiences, and bombard your brain with them. Who is doing something remarkable that you can learn from? Steve Jobs studied the Four Seasons Hotel and Mercedes Benz because they are aces when it comes to remarkable customer experiences. Jobs introduced a Concierge Service in the Apple Store based on what he learned from observing the Four Seasons Hotel. A critical part of this principle is to make connections among disparate things and force yourself outside of your physical and mental comfort zone. To live a vision requires creative thinking which requires immersion in novel experiences. New experiences expand the way you think. Surround yourself with people from different cultures. Experiment, and try new things. What are two things that you can do differently to improve the way in which you deliver your product or service?

Principle Four: Sell Dreams Not Products

Understand your customers, and help them to fulfill their dreams. Get to know them better than they know themselves. How can you change your customers' worlds? Create remarkable customer experiences and market that.

Your customers often do not know what they want, so be a linchpin and anticipate what they need before they do.

Principle 5: Say No to 1,000 Things

Take the road less traveled. Remove distractions so you can focus on the core product. Eliminate distractions from the customer experience and go for simplicity and elegance. Simplify and focus on your product and service offerings. What are you best at? What is one thing that you do extremely well? Focus on it and simplify.

Principle Six: Create Insanely Great Experiences

Create emotional connections with your customers. What are five ways you can enrich the lives of your customers? What relationships are you forming with your customers? Look outside your industry for examples. Create memorable experiences so you have rabid fans. Before you innovate, hold your customer in your mind's eye, and proceed from there.

Principle: Master the Message

Effectively communicate your vision. Innovate around the way you communicate the vision. What are master presenters and communicators doing? Emulate them. Be a great storyteller, and be consistent in your messaging

A Technique for Producing Ideas

Immersion: Engross yourself in background research. Watch consumers interact with your brand. Digestion: Play with the information. Look at it from different angles. Write down phrases. Work your mind. Hard. Incubation: Put your work away. Go for a walk. Shoot some hoops. Think Sherlock Holmes. Illumination: Once your brain has been allowed to relax after being loaded with info, it will spurt out an idea. Capture it! Reality Testing: Check your idea with other creatives, account partners to see if it stands up.

Theres a big idea in the creative brief.

NutriGrain breakfast bars People want to eat the right thing BUT they are tempted by junk food that goes directly to their hips & thighs. Big Idea: they arent selling breakfast bars, but self respect. The tagline: Respect yourself in the morning. AD samples: A humongous dounut wrapped around someones waist. Another ad showed giant sticky buns stuck on a womans rear end. Billboards were placed next to donut shops & fast-food restaurants.

How to turn an Idea into a Campaign Theme

http://www.chick-fil-a.com/ Cows on drop-down menu. Study commercials to see what gives them legs. Campaign ideas transcend different media: see how the big idea cows pleading for people to eat mor chikin works in out-ofhome, TV & radio. Bud Light commercials: plane, kitchen etc. Your big idea must seamlessly move from media to media, and time to time 5 to 10 years or more.

Where will your ad run?

Media placement is part of the creative: Example: Y&R stenciled the sidewalks of New York city with the message: From here it looks like you could use some new underwear. Bamboo Lingerie. Example: Crispin Porter + Bogusky used unconvential media on shopping carts Closet, bus shelters House, park benches Bed, and trash dumpsters Kitchen to describe what its like to be homeless.

Each had the same copy: When youre homeless, you see the world differently. To help call: 395-3943.

Whats the Context of your Message?

Think what will your target audience be doing when they see or hear your ad? Example: Clorox coupon insert inside boxed DVD sets of Mad Men Season Two: Getting ad guys out of hot water for generations. Example: Noxzema: Look as good as the woman your date is hitting on.

Whats the Timing of your Ad?

When will your ad run? Example: Pepto-Bismal magazine ad at tax time Vicks NyQuil holiday season ad: Silent Night. Dont rely on major holidays etc. for a source of inspiration. Look up some of the more offbeat holidays and see if you can make a connection. Example: Chick-fil-a gives free meals to customers who dress up as a cow. cowappreciationday.com to share cow costume tips etc.

Whats in the News?

Ads that tap into current events reflect whats on peoples minds and make your brand seem timely. Example: Dairy Farmers & Milk Processors often tap into major sporting events, elections etc. Super Bowl shows the winning quarter back sporting a white mustache. Pedigree dog food ran an ad addressed to president-elect Obama: Wed love to help you fulfill your first campaign promiseadopt a shelter dog because no dog is in more need of hope.

Can You Borrow from the Pages of history?

McCann uncovered an old 30s ad with President Wilsons wife promoting Simmons mattresses.

Are there Negatives about Your Brand?

Turn the negatives into positives (a selling advantage). Always tell the truth.

What If Your Product were Something Else?

Make an analogy. If your product were an animal (cat, mutt, swan). If it were a tree (giant west coast cedar or a bonsai. Example: Good Housekeeping magazines Seal of Approval to advertisers: The seal is like your therapist: It assures you that everything will be alright.

What is Your Target Audience Reading & Watching?

Books, movies, games & TV programs can be an inspiration: highbrow or pop culture variety. Make sure its relevant to your audience. Example: FedEx commercial based on the movie Castaways with Tom Hanks. Even if you werent familiar with the movie it still made sense on its own. Approvals. Approvals. Approvals. Budgets. Budgets. Budgets.

What Does the Product Look Like?

Example: Burger Kings fiery fries campaign. A fry dipped in ketchup. McDonalds golden arches appear in ads as the straps on a backpack, the ears on an Easter bunny, and the body of a car. This under scores the graphic nature of creative (and art direction).

Where is the Brand Made & Sold?

Example: a billboard for Zambolis Italian restaurant told drivers the mileage to the closest great Italian food: Great Italian Food Ahead Rome 4,724 km. Venice 4,934 km. Zambolis Next Right What regions of the country (or the world) will see your ad? Can you customize it by going local? For instance, can you have fun with a regional accent? Example: Hallalu eh. A tourist magazine invited people to visit The Boston Museum of Fine Ahht.

Is There an Ideal Spokesperson or Spokescharacter?

Example: Cheetos. Created a mischievous character called Chester Cheetah. Commercial: An obnoxious woman at an outside caf: I must be on the ugly side of town because everyone here is like, gross. Chester points to the roof across the street

Is There an Idea in the Brands Name?

Pizzaville in order to register its phone number with a public that are all too familiar with the 20 year old campaign slogan: 967-1111, call Pizza Pizza hey, hey, hey. To break through Pizzaville poked fun at themselves with the announcer explaining to the listener: It was a rainy day when Pizzaville introduced its goat cheese, spinach & bacon pizzacall: 736-36-36 Not 736- free sex, free sex.

Whats the Opposite of What Youre Trying to Say?

Volkswagen ad campaign entitled Think Big showing a Beetle in a large, no-scene environment.

Guidelines for Brainstorming Agency Style

Dont think you must come up with the big idea all by yourself. True: a great visual idea can come from a writer. True: the perfect headline can come from an artist. True: creative solutions can come from media experts. You may want to work alone then bounce your ideas off your partner. You may want to start out by doing free association 1 or more colleagues; or, a group. Designate a leader to keep the session going & record the ideas. No idea is stupid; sort through them at the session end.

Guidelines for Brainstorming Agency Style

Start a swipe file. Expose yourself to all sorts of excellent creative; all media. If you find great work file it away, not to swipe somebody elses idea and use it yourself but rather to use it as a springboard to trigger an idea that could apply to something youre working on. Write down expressions, words, ideas you hear that appeal to you creatively, and file them away.

Guidelines for Brainstorming Agency Style

Pay attention to lifes experiences. The best ads create an emotional connection with consumers. Take note of situations (big or small) that move you. Chances are, it would move other people. Example: 10 year old boy offering Mean Joe Green his Coke.

Guidelines for Brainstorming Agency Style

Exercise your creative mind regularly. Hang out with creative people of all sorts. Go to the zoo. See a movie. Do something youve never done before. Pay close attention to the nuances of everyday life.

Guidelines for Brainstorming Agency Style

Give yourself some down time. Give your mind a break or youll overload on stimuli. Try spending time alone. Cut out all media for a week to remove the noise of everyday life. Keep a journal & brain dump 1 ti 2 pages daily.

Guidelines for Brainstorming Agency Style

Come up with a lot of ideas. Dont give in to the tension to come up with something. Keep in mind the great ideas are usually the last of 400. Give yourself the freedom to come up with bad ideas.

Using Criticism to Improve Your Ideas

A critical part of the creative process involves working in teams and checking your work by asking others to react to it. Why? It makes your idea better if its good, and gets rid of it if it isnt. Others can appraise your idea objectively. Theyre not evaluating you, theyre evaluating your idea. If your evaluators know advertising then they can appraise your idea both as a consumer & as a professional. Look for positive things first, then question things that are unclear, weak or simply dont work for you.

Using Criticism to Improve Your Ideas

1. Make I statements. Own your criticism by saying: Im confused by this sentence not you confused me. 2. Be clear & specific, commenting on the work, not the person. Instead of saying Why do you always make the same mistake? try This should be written in two sentences. Do you remember doing that before? 3. Never say, This is great butthis is threatening; get to the point. 4. Control your emotions and speak in a normal tone of voice. 5. Show some empathy and understanding. Perhaps the directions for this assignment were unclear.

Using Criticism to Improve Your Ideas

6. Offer practical suggestions. Without suggestions on how to improve the work, criticism is usually useless. 7. Be honest. If you dont like something, explain why. Begin with a positive comment and end with a positive comment; sandwich the negative comment between the two.

Guidelines for Nonverbal Behaviours for Receiving or Offering Criticism

1. Make eye contact with the person. Looking away diminishes the power of the communication. 2. Show your sincere interest through a warm & expressive tone of voice. 3. Use facial expressions that are consistent with your message. Dont grin as you address deficiencies and dont frown as you offer compliments. 4. Dont slouch or slump. These gestures suggest that you are uncomfortable with what you have to say or, youre not honoring the evaluators effort.

Guidelines for Nonverbal Behaviours for Receiving or Offering Criticism

5. Stand or sit an appropriate distance from the other person. Either you both stand or, you both sit. 6. Choose an appropriate time and place for this discussion. As the recipient of the critique, you have both rights and obligations in this process. 7. First, you have the right to ask for a later meeting if the time or place chosen is inconvenient or uncomfortable. 8. Second, you have the right to terminate the critique if it is delivered in an offensive manner.

In-Class Activity
Form a team of two. Think of unconventional media to convince people to stop smoking, to drink responsibly, and to recycle. Develop messages for each of these issues.