USE THE POWER OF TRUST. Forget completely the idea that it is your turn to approve or reject, that this position is a big mistake. If you are going to value ideas, you have to be clear that all have potential, all can grow and evolve. No idea deserves more than its chance to reach the potential of the talent of the people around it.
Equally important is that you choose your moment for creativity very well. Don’t do it after an argument with your partner, within minutes of an outburst from the boss, don’t do it if you come from a long session of tedious work, spend the moment if you are on the run, out of time or under negative pressure. Your mood is absolutely crucial to see the positives in life, isn’t it? Likewise, it’s not smart to welcome your creatives to evaluate ideas if you’re not in the positive, open, happy and constructive mood that’s required.
It is also good practice to first see more creativity from other countries and other categories. It is necessary to widen limits, open perspectives and evaluate the possibility and all its scopes. The brand team should never enter creativity in the middle of a status, without first making a cut, marking the change of channel, propitiating the stage and the moment for the opening that is required.
Finally, and before some additional ideas, do not forget to establish a team of equals. If the agency proposes for the client to dispose, everything is wrong. Client and agency must move to a relationship of equal partners, so that nothing can be imposed, but everything can be built. It is a wonderful opportunity that cannot be missed without exploiting its full potential.
Here, some more ideas.
< TRUST YOUR FIRST REACTION. That’s it! That’s it! Don’t get complicated and don’t look for 7 legs to the cat. The only thing that counts is your first reaction, not the rational evaluation process that an idea undergoes later in the boardroom. When people read the newspaper, they never turn to discuss arguments and reasons, but inevitably turn the page and move on. All we want is for our ideas to hold him for another second, two or three. Then he will turn the page without thinking much more. We will have attracted him or not.
TRUST YOUR FEELING. Because people never submit a creative idea to the ¨commercial forum¨ to which we submit ideas in the client’s office or in the agency room. No one ever notices a 30-second ad like we do, because we watch TV to be entertained, not to be informed. Even the news is seen as a pastime, and that’s why even the newscasts are concerned with delivering the blissful information in an entertaining way.
TRUST YOUR EMOTION. It is inevitable that the Brand Manager then feels insecure with reason, even if he first laughs out loud or expresses his spontaneous emotion. It happens because he then has to go and present, explain and reason what should never be explained and reasoned, simply because people are not waiting for reasons, but for emotions that drive them to action. Calne and we have said it ad nauseam: reasons only lead to conclusions, while emotions lead to actions.
TRUST YOUR FIRST CLICK. Although disciplined we have to understand that most of us are NOT targets and we have already lost the ability to interpret the tastes and preferences of new people, the kids, the new generations. If something resonates with you, it’s because it works, and yes, I believe that things either click or they don’t click. We in the creative areas, therefore, have to remember that our ideas are not always the best, and of course, we are the first to fall in love with our own ideas.
TRUST YOUR FIRST IMPULSE. What you feel when you hear an idea or see a commercial should be sealed in a ziplock bag and not be contaminated by the opinion of the audience, family or your partner. We know that what we want is to provoke emotional connections and attract people to your brand, not fill it with information, data and features that make no difference. The competition will always be able to match or surpass your advantages, and because of this, they are simply fleeting. However, the personality of your brand, its appeal, its “I don’t know what”, its halo or its image, are your own conditions that are not related to conditions but to emotions.
TRUST YOUR GUT. If it made you smile, that’s it. If it made you smile in your heart, check. If it made you feel better, check. If it made you click, check. If it brought a tear to your eye, check. If it made you want to live, check. If it made you feel young, check. If it made you feel, check. That’s it. Leave the information to the salesperson, to the brochure at the checkout, to your website, to your own sales management.
TRUST YOUR PALPITATIONS. All you want is to seduce in the most powerful way and make people become your viral promoter. Forget about giving them information in the advertising creativity, leave that for the disclosure, the communication in the pamphlet, in what is referred to under the heading of Features or Specifications. It is what beats, what moves, what throbs that must be approved.
BE WARY OF FEAR AND REJECTION. No idea is so bad that it doesn’t have something good in it. That is why, if I were a client, I would never reject an idea, but I would try to find its potential, evolve it and make it grow.
BE WARY OF FOCUS GROUPS. They are useless in advertising creativity, and should never be used for what was called in the seventies: “pre-testing”. In reality, focus groups are CYAs (Cover your ass), and were invented for those who don’t have the guts to present or approve a great idea when they see it. In turn, research companies made the model a sales success that added a lot to their profits, partly because they didn’t have better research solutions, partly because they hadn’t appreciated the difference between knowledge and insight, and partly because, as their clients, we were satisfied with what we wrote down from behind the mirrored glass of the famous Gessel camera.
BE WARY OF AFTER THOUGHTS. Those thoughts that arrive at minute 3 or 4, should not be attended to. The consumer will have already turned the page or gone to another channel, moved to another site or left the magazine. Nobody goes through life rethinking an ad or an advertising idea, only us. That’s why what matters is the first impression, the initial impact, and the little information we look for in advertising.
BE WARY OF THE SURE THING. There is no greater risk than that which is not taken, and this is particularly true in advertising. Therefore, what is safe should be thrown away, what is seen should be redone, what is not risky should be thrown away. No effort will be well rewarded if the path taken is the safe one, because this safe path will become part of the everyday landscape.
BE WARY OF INFORMATION. Especially in retail, I still do not understand those brands that only publish pages full of rice cookers and blenders, with price and discount. How many people really detail in the information of all? The companies that only give us discounted items, never get any personality other than the discount, offer or prize. In a net impression, I guess these pieces are designed so that when we turn the page in a second, in our retina we get the idea that there are a lot of things in that establishment… yes, cheap. Otherwise, I bet that very few readers stop to compare or research the information. What matters is the first impact, the way a graphic can hold us for a few seconds longer, or capture our attention.
RELY ON THE SPEED OF TRUST.
______________________________________________
I’m sure there are many more ideas on how to improve the valuation of advertising creativity, and for this reason, I won’t add more. Do you want to add more? Click on “post comments” and give us your input, because, frankly, there is a lot to do to make breakthrough ideas get the greatest power they can receive, the power of TRUST.