Did you know you have around 50 thoughts a minute? That's 70,000
thoughts per day and over 25 million each year. Evidently, it’s easy enough to come up with ideas. The hard part is coming up
with good ones. Here's how I do:
(If you're like me, after holidays, like
an old car on a cold morning, the brain takes time to warm up. So, this post
is as much for me, to help get my brain into gear, as it is to share how I do.)
1. Noticeable
Your idea needs to be noticeable. Otherwise known as getting cut-through, or what I predict will be 2014's darling buzz word, 'disruptive'. Your creative needs to
get noticed. This is
the reason we, creatives, go to work. Because if an idea doesn’t get noticed the brand may as well be talking to
a wall.
Money can get you noticed. Buy a lot of media space over a long
period of time and you’ll get noticed. But it’s because our clients don’t
have an endless pool of money that they employ advertising agencies (creatives specifically) to achieve
noticeability.
How do you get noticed? Simple. Do something unexpected, something
original. Break people’s guessing machines and surprise them.
2. Memorable
Make the brand or product you're advertising memorable. Ideas need to be ownable by the brand. There’s no point in making an
ad if it’s not remembered for the brand. Without being remembered, specifically
in a buying situation, then your advertising is meaningless.
How do you achieve memorability? By using the right
tone, using the brand's market based assets (logos, colours, taglines), making
the setting of the ad and its contents all apart of the closed world of that
product or brand. And, most importantly, make the brand or product relevant to
the story being told in the advertising. To see how this works go here: What fires together, wires together OR How advertising actually works
3. Likeable
And the most obvious one, yet bizarrely most overlooked - make your advertising likeable. Like getting noticed, this can be achieved through spending a lot of money on media and achieving like-ability through familiarity, but because clients don't have that money tree, again, they rely on great creative to achieve this.
We have to stop advertising and start entertaining. (Advertaining, anyone?). Being noticeable and memorable isn't enough, because this can be easily achieved through the dark arts of advertising: jingles. An ad has to be likeable, so when it is remembered, it's remembered in a positive way, which leads to your audience reaching, on autopilot, for your brand and not your competitors.
We have to stop advertising and start entertaining. (Advertaining, anyone?). Being noticeable and memorable isn't enough, because this can be easily achieved through the dark arts of advertising: jingles. An ad has to be likeable, so when it is remembered, it's remembered in a positive way, which leads to your audience reaching, on autopilot, for your brand and not your competitors.
But all this is for nothing if you don't communicate a message. What's the point of communicating if you have nothing to say?
The message doesn't have to be a so-called unique selling proposition, it simply has to say something (ideally a category benefit) and be noticeable, memorable and likeable.
I’ve written ‘Message’ in the middle of the triangle above, because it's the starting point (but not finishing point) of an idea. You read your brief, pull out the message, say it straight and then using the triangle, say it great.
The message doesn't have to be a so-called unique selling proposition, it simply has to say something (ideally a category benefit) and be noticeable, memorable and likeable.
I’ve written ‘Message’ in the middle of the triangle above, because it's the starting point (but not finishing point) of an idea. You read your brief, pull out the message, say it straight and then using the triangle, say it great.
Christopher Ott
