By Lauren Peters

 

The Ideas Bit

D&AD seems as good a time as any to condense and share all of the practical learnings I have amassed over the past 6 months as a reminder to myself and anyone else reading this (SCA or otherwise) of how to tackle ‘the ideas bit’, unarguably the most important bit.

The Brief

Market share or growth?

Trialists or existing customers?

Product or brand?

Personas

Habits and interests?

Fears and desires?

Values?

Who are they?

What do they think about the brand?

What is their frame of mind before receiving the message?

What do you want them to feel after receiving the message?

What do you want them to do?

What promise are you making?

How will you back this promise?

What other problems will you solve for them?

The Proposition

Get – who?

To – what?

By – how?

Don’t abstract. Be precise.

Say one thing, coherently.

Is it a deep-seated value that is true across culture or is it trivial?

Does it give the client a competitive advantage?

Does it reveal the person to themselves?

The Idea

12 Techniques

1. Logical conclusion
2. Illogical conclusion
3. Beat up the enemy
4. Use the medium
5. Remove all the words
6. Remove all the pictures
7. Play with scale
8. Create a skewed world
9. What`s it like?
10. Tell the trutH
11. Put the audience in the idea
12. Celebrate the problem

Stu’s Techniques

Make a big promise

Make a big claim

Be really honest in a really arresting way

Make your greatest weakness your greatest strength

Take on your direct enemy

Find a more interesting enemy

Make enemies

Find another category

Set out to save the world

Tinker’s Techniques (via Beth)

Get out there

Get everything down on paper and see what sticks

Think into the future

The 4 R’s

1. Random
2. Re-expression
3. Revolution
4. Related worlds

Look elsewhere

Up

Down

Inside out

Back to front

All around

Libraries

Supermarkets

Galleries

Pinterest

Google alerts

Tweet deck

Forums

Call centres

Ask ‘why’ five times

Testing

7 Hat Thinking

Blue (plan/manage – should start and end the process)

White (data)

Yellow (optimism)

Black (critical thinking/doubt)

Red (gut)

Green (creativity/new routes)

Brown (is it shit?)

S.U.C.C.E.S

Simple?

Unexpected?

Concrete?

Credible?

Emotional?

Contain story?

Is it/does it?

Is it memorable?

Does it get your creative juices flowing?

Does it speak to your target market?

Does it solve a problem?

Is it effective? (Clients don’t want creative they want a solution).

Is it persuasive?

Does it make them…

Laugh?

Cry?

Think?

Submit your idea to the critiques of others

Create a feedback spreadsheet

Create iterations in Illustrator

Line ideas up on the floor

Relevant abruption?

Emotional connection?