How do you get creative ad ideas?

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Van Shea Sedita on July 24, 2007 at 11:00am

I usually look toward common ground of ideas. Nature, simple words, simple shapes and colors. Leading to clearly defining my goals and target audience.

Permalink Reply by Robert VASILE on July 24, 2007 at 11:17am

being creative is not like i dig out the ideeas;
it's true i always have a start-up pack of client/product/service insights, category specific market profiles (by age target, most of the times), but the final ideea just pops out at the right time; then it's true, starts the strugle of keeping it simple (no matter if the idea relates to a concept or a design)

Permalink Reply by TJ Bennett on July 24, 2007 at 12:40pm

i wish there was a simple formula for coming up with ideas, but if there is i haven't discovered it yet. usually my partner and I just sit around and throw out whatever comes into our head, good or bad. quite often, the stupid idea turns into something smart with a little more thought. i think the key is to not edit yourself too early in the process. i also believe that all of your experience is fertile ground for thought starters. if something sticks in your brain for some reason, it could very well have the same effect on others.

Permalink Reply by Brantley on July 24, 2007 at 2:52pm

i agree, there is no simple formula. Having a well defined strategy helps a lot tho. when you have a very clear profile of the person you are trying to reach AND a very clear message of the one thing you are trying to tell them. It's a much easier start than just waiting for that big idea to visit you from out of no where. After those pieces are in place, then it's all about being inventive and unignorable. I avoid looking at other advertising to get inspiration for a specific problem. I gives you a chance to invent something totally new.

Permalink Reply by Mary Baum on July 24, 2007 at 6:57pm

Okay, okay -- I've been staring at this for a couple of days now. Must be time to answer -- which is exactly how it starts, most of the time.

See, after the meeting, or once I've read the email and all its attachments (often work comes that way), it's gotta cook for about 48 hours, or sometimes longer, depending on the deadline.

Then, when I can't put it off any longer, as Brantley pointed out, it starts with the person we're trying to reach and the thing we're trying to tell him or her. And a clean page in a spiral-bound sketch book or possibly TextEdit or Word, depending on whether it's headlines or a graphic first.

My goal is quantity: 25 - 50 headlines or taglines, or thumbnails that often I can only decipher. It's probably a conceit that I don't go for 100 the way I did twenty years ago. Do I really think I can nail it that much faster, or do I just get bored and complacent more easily -- especially with nobody really pushing me?

If it's headlines or taglines, it'll key off a word or a phrase, then when that fizzles out, pick up another phrase that laterals out in a different direction.

(As a solo practitioner, I should probably upload concepts every so often and just have you guys rip 'em apart for the fun of it. Especially you under-30s . . . wonder if I've got that much courage?)

But there is something that happens -- viscerally -- when a decent one hits the paper, or the screen. Most of the time I'll make the effort to go another ten or twelve to make sure there's nothing else in there, or start a new direction.

Starting points are generally from the point of view of the target audience. Writing copy is almost like acting -- method acting, if I understand that term right -- getting into the shoes of the reader and looking at the world from those eyes; understanding the problem, feeling the pain and reaching for the product as the solution, and working hard not to talk down to the reader, or presume to know more about his or her situation than I can see from the outside in.

Visually, I start with type -- logo comes from logotype, after all. It's true that with print slowly giving way to the web for everything but postcards and business cards, practically, we have the luxury of color, except we don't. We still have to deal with all that merchandise -- hats, shirts, even pens. So logos still need to work in one color, one centimeter or two picas tall.

And what story can't we tell in the human face?

Permalink Reply by Steve McNamara on July 25, 2007 at 9:59am

I actually do have a formula. It goes something like this:

1) Info immersion. I digest the brief - and send it back for clarification if necessary. Depending on the deadline, I’ll spend time with the client’s sales team, interview the Marketing Director, shop for the product - even interview customers.

2) Solo. I like to start by getting some concepts down on paper. Sometimes I do that at the computers, sometimes with a sketchpad.

3) Brainstorm. Share my ideas, and generate more ideas with my art director. I also like to get ideas from a larger and more formal group brainstorming session, especially if it’s a big project.

4) Refinement. By this time we’ve got a lot of ideas and multiple approaches so it is just a matter of selecting the top three or so, getting them ready for the presentation.

5) Other tricks. I will sometimes thumb through award books, search online databases of photo images, wonder the streets in search of inspiration. But a lot of that is psychologically akin to taking a shower - if you know what I mean. I get kinda spaced out, float into an altered state of consciousness.

My best trick, especially when I need a lot of solid ideas, fast - is to use AdCracker’s Concept Cracker. It’s like electronic flash cards. And it helps me cover all the bases. “What if I personify the product?” “How about some ambient ideas?”

Another thing I’ll do is go back to the basics. I’ll ask, is this ad mostly about positioning, or branding or direct response. Is it mostly about getting people to think or feel or act?

I’m probably not as talented some of the others here. But I’ve won a lot of new biz in my time. And I usually sell what I present. It’s very rare for me to get stuck in a cycle of rejection with a client.

Permalink Reply by Jeremy Hogan on January 9, 2008 at 10:29am

Steve,

Your process is pretty similar to mine, which I just blogged about the other day:
http://centerline.net/blog/?p=39

I find "info immersion" really useful to do a half day or so before the proverbial shower, load up the mind, then do something that occupies the active brain, and let your subconscious work its magic. It's akin to the acting trick where you memorize the lines verbatim, to really grok the substance of the scene and then forget them in order to get the point across in a natural voice.

Permalink Reply by Henry Chinea on July 25, 2007 at 2:39pm

They come to me when they come to me. I could be having dinner with my family or chasing dogs around a backyard. If an idea makes its way to me, I have to run and write it down. One example of something ridiculous and silly that I thought of the other day as I walked down the juice aisle at Publix and came across the Looza brand: "Sometimes it's okay to be a Looza."

Permalink Reply by brian batong on July 27, 2007 at 12:15pm

Since I am both copy and art-based,I don't know. I just try to put myself in the client's shoes 'wandering aimlessly' in the moon while trying to coerce himself "to buy or not to buy". From this point, I track out all the strategies possible. Somewhere inbetween, an on-strat concpet pops out and it becomes the beginning of no-sleep thrills.

Permalink Reply by J.S. Gilbert on July 27, 2007 at 1:38pm

There are a few things.
1. Anything that gets me to laugh out loud. As often as I can I try to write down the scenario that got me to laugh out loud. This happened last night when a contestant on Last Comic Standing made a joke that she and her husband didn't get along becuase of different religious beliefs. He wouldn't worship her. Whcih in my mind translated into some guy having this huge alter of worship to some very humble little product. Ithink it would translate well for a little Youtube type video or t.v. spot.

2. The other thing is that when I get ideas, I go after them and I don't stop. Sometimes I can sit for 10 minutes and write and other times 8 hours. With the exception of the ocassional bathroom break and the call for food delivery, I keep going. I've even cancelled the odd appointement or two becuase I was on a roll.

Those are probably my two biggest driving forces. For those who have trouble getting creative or feelin through the process, I would recommend the book "Whipple, Squeeze This." It has a lot of really good ideas and helps us remember the basics sometimes when we get caught in a funk. Of course there's always AdCracker, which will get your creative juices flowing.

Permalink Reply by oi on July 30, 2007 at 12:24pm

I look for simple human insights. To do that I try to think like my target audience and sometimes behave like them.
I usually work alone in the beginning for a few hours to digest the brief and meet up later with my art partner to throw some ideas. Usually the simplest ideas come to me within the first one hour, but they aren't always the best. When I'm totally stuck, I listen to some hard rock or classical, loud. I go for a run in the park. If that doesn't work, I start writing headlines, lots of them. It works most of the time when I relook at the lines and find little gems in them.
Sometimes, working with a good planner works beautifully too.

Permalink Reply by Zurab Dzhidzhilava on August 3, 2007 at 8:13am

it depends

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