How do you get creative ad ideas?
Do you have a pattern of behavior that works reliably - such as immersing yourself in info, thumbing through awards annuals, then brainstorming with a partner?
Or do you find your best ideas come unexpectedly? Like when you are alone - in the shower, driving or about to fall asleep? Or something else?
I've invited the best creative minds on AdGabber to share how they create ad, design or campaign concepts.
Or do you find your best ideas come unexpectedly? Like when you are alone - in the shower, driving or about to fall asleep? Or something else?
I've invited the best creative minds on AdGabber to share how they create ad, design or campaign concepts.
Tags: advertising, brainstorming, concepts, creativity, psychology
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Paul Zink on -
Drinking heavily while watching any movie that stars Monica Vitti usually works for me.
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Permalink Reply by Morgan Mann on
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My best ideas usually come when I've already come up with the idea I think is the best, then I sleep on it and realize that the first "best idea" was not really a good solution, and start again. It's usually my "second best idea" that's really the best. Sounds odd, I know, but following your first instinct isn't always your best idea, at least not at first glance. (Hmm, that sounds like a good book title!)
I usually get ideas when I'm out for a walk or sitting in a restaurant listening to conversations around me. Also bouncing ideas off others always leads to interesting things that I might not have otherwise thought about - and not always "creative" people. In the middle of the night in my dreams things pop up too.
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Permalink Reply by Susanna K. Hutcheson on
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Getting ideas is probably the hardest part of starting a campaign. What I generally do is to read cartoons that I especially enjoy. In my case, I have many books of cartoons from The New Yorker. I'm not sure what this does for me but I think it helps me to open up my imagination. I try and begin to think from a totally different perspective than my own.
I also find that putting on some rather loud music (I like Latin music in this case) helps me to get ideas. In most cases, one idea will quickly lead to another and, before you know it, the concept begins to develop.
Of course, this sounds easier than it actually is. But it generally works for me.
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Permalink Reply by Allison Winfield on
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Someone long ago expressed it to me as the three "i's" -- 1) information; 2)incubation; 3) inspiration. It's a pretty simple way to think about it: do an exhaustive download of everything you can about the subject; organize it, process it, leave it alone; go for the great idea.
Great creative ideas may strike like a lightning bolt, but they rarely (if ever) occur without a colliding current of information that sparks the imagination.
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Permalink Reply by Gernot Lauboeck on
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There so many ways, I cant say how I really get my ideas. Definitly helpful is talking to others.
I try to get rid of the brief for about two days or so (luckily, when the termination allows it). It makes the head free from the clients suggestions or anxiousnesses. (But keep them noted with the briefing)
Then I get into "matters": what's the product? What's its use? What's its problem? Who does it use? etc. … the classical approach. No idea yet? Then play wih the product or "bridle that horse backward (the other way round)" as we say in german. No idea? Do something else, get rid of it, be on the run … the idea will corner you on the loo, the shower or at your boat, just that moment the wind gets your hat or you loose one of your golden inlays with your chewing gum …
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Permalink Reply by Chris Rogers on
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Immersion, exercise, fuggedaboutit!
Like Steve Mac, I too like to immerse myself in the details, as much as I can get, from the client. Then it's off for a long run. Others may meditate, practice yoga, play racquetball, etc. It's the endorphins I'm after. Occasionally I'll actually have an idea while running. Usually, though, it's the hot shower afterwards, when I've forgotten what I was working so hard on, when my brain offers up an idea.
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I know that troubling thing … that for I've always got my "weapon" – a little moleskin-sketchbook and a pen - with me. Of course not when running or in the shower, but ever elsewhere.
Try to grab an significant word, thought or view connected with the idea you had and try to memorize it. Later it will help find the idea again.
My problem often is following: I get a good feeling to do creative work, painting, etching or whatever (sometimes even with an idea), when I am downtown and when I come back home to start that work, that impulse is totally gone. But this is a problem due to my own artistic work.
I agree with you, that the details from the client are useful, he is the first one embedded in "talking to others" above ... It is very helpful to sell my stuff later to the clients, who often are keen on knowing "their" ideas in the campaigns.
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Permalink Reply by jef loeb on
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As so many of the interesting insights on this topic suggest, ideation is a bit like sex. Just when you think "birds do it, bees do it" along comes the Kama Sutra and you find out there are 70 or 150 other interesting ways to approach the business at hand. That said, throwing ideas at the wall - what an art director I once worked with called "the spaghetti toss" -isn't hard and chances are, if you're sufficiently persistent, something will stick (the amazing creatives I've known who had the privilege of learning from Tom McElligott back in the great days at Fallon all practice this practice).
Of course, that’s only the beginning of what my grandmother might have referred to as the “ineluctable tsurris of advertising creativity": actually being able to tell when one of the pasta strands is, in fact, an “idea”; deciding whether said idea is a “big” brand mover or just a small execution; torturously determining whether it’s sufficiently original to past muster in an echo-chamber, if-its-been-done-it’s-on-line, world; all while taking the necessary steps to ensure that whatever it is, it’s got the legs to work for both the media at hand and, if fate is in a kindly mood, across the entire integrated panoply.
After which, if all the stars have aligned just so, there’s the equally rugged and no less creatively challenging problem of selling the damned thing up slippery slopes, rickety ladders and bureaucratic org charts - a task made no easier by the morning-after truth that you’ve now been living with the idea so long, all you can see are the warts and hairy moles. So - coming up with advertising ideas? Piece of cake.
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Permalink Reply by Sunny Cervantes on -
I have to eat potato chips, drink lots of Coke Light and smoke like a fiend to think well. :)
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Permalink Reply by El Tincho on
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I usually "cook" the ideas for 24 -48 h or so, but there are always some culture bits that help. For instance, If I recently watched a movie or have read a book, I have those elements fresh in mind, so I see if they fit in the idea.
As a Copywriter, I use to write a lot, but I know most people don't read as much as they just see graphics. I like comics a lot and I think the inferential way of reading has always been helpful to project ideas, specially graphic ads.
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Permalink Reply by Sunil Shibad on
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I gather as much information as I can.
Then mull over it, let my subconscious take over.
The best ideas occur in the shower.
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Permalink Reply by Gilbert Semillano on -
Eat, Drink and Sleep with the infos you got.. then forget all about it for a while:-) Just remember to have a pencil and a piece of paper with you (wherever you go).. There's also the 3 B's : Bathroom, Bedroom & Bus.
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