Coming up with great creative ideas shouldn’t be very complicated.
The process is pretty simple.
But it can be made incredibly convoluted.
Endless pontificating about the brief. Going back and forth with question after question. Worrying about timings, budgets and channels.
I’ve actually seen briefs that have been worked on, discussed and kicked back and forth between the client, strategy, account team and creative for weeks, even months on end. And the outcome has always ultimately been the same, that the creatives working on it end up with less time than they need to create something great.
You can spend so long dotting every ‘i’ and crossing every ’t’ that it doesn’t matter how tight the brief is there’s no time left to do the work.
I’ve regularly found myself saying…
‘Let’s get it into creative’.
Even if everything’s not been quite ironed out because I know creatives naturally simplify everything down. They’ll get to the real nub of it all.
Meaning problems can be found and sorted quicker.
Occasionally it means you have to stop work on the brief and relook at the strategy or channels. But it’s better to discover that earlier then to realise you’ve got a problem when it’s too late to get the work done.
There’s always a point when you’ve got to start doing ideas anyway.
And it’s better to do that sooner rather than later.
Get the pens out.
Write things down.
Kick ideas around.
And you’ll see if what you’ve got’s any good quickly.
