We’re an advertising and marketing firm. Our core products are ideas. These ideas go by several names: marketing strategies, creative concepts, website architecture, positioning statements and a myriad of others. At the end of the day, they are all just intangible thoughts meant to sell your goods or services. Using that logic, every day at our shop, we manufacture dozens of products. A lot of people ask, “How do you come up with this creative stuff?” Truth be told, no one really knows how ideas manifest, but we’re going to try and figure it out. By looking at where our ideas come from, hopefully we can help our readers come up with some gangbuster creative concepts.
1. Analogies and Word Association
Most advertising creative comes from associating two seemingly unrelated things. Think about an ad for a moisturizer in which dry skin is compared to the scales of an alligator. Analogies are an excellent place to start coming up with a great idea. To stand out, however, your ideas need to go beyond the logical comparisons. The ad for moisturizer wouldn’t have been as memorable if it featured a picture of the desert. That simile is too easy. To help transcend the typical, I recommend word association. Start with a word and say the next word that comes to mind. Using the word you just said, say the very next thing that comes to mind. The longer your string of words, the more abstract your concept will be. Here’s word association in action:
nutrition -> apple -> red -> fire truck -> toy -> robot -> bad dancing -> groomsmen -> bachelor party -> Las Vegas -> poker chip.
Now we take the first and last word and see if they fit together. I think they can. Have an ad with a black jack table. There is an apple where the bet would go. The dealer has an ace up. The headline could read: “Nutrition is the Best Insurance.” If the idea is too abstract, go back down the association chain until you can find something more appropriate.
2. Research
This is one of the most basic ways to get an idea. Learning about something often leads to some trivia or helpful fact. That golden nugget of pertinent information can be the catalyst to great concepts. I use Wikipedia for the bulk of my product research, not because it’s always the best source, but because it links to other topics. In a matter of a few clicks, you create a word association chain. Whether it’s a valuable fact or a journey that connects two seemingly unrelated topics, research is a great way to explore your topic.
3. Heightening
Heightening is a trick that’s used a lot in storytelling, especially comedies. Things get crazier and more outlandish until the problem is resolved. The same approach can be used to come up with a good creative idea. Pretend your writing a TV script for a new type of car and you’ve been asked to promote its maneuverability. Start thinking about what the car could steer around. Construction cones are the obvious choice, so let’s find one thing that’s more ridiculous than construction cones. How about statues? What’s more ridiculous than statues? Mascots. Now you can find a reason to justify why a car would be dodging around mascots. Maybe the mascots aren’t really mascots, but stuffed animals on a kid’s bed and the car is just a toy. The voice over could then read: “Great handling that’s fun to drive.”
4. The Worst Idea
This concept is a little more advanced, but it does work. Instead of trying to come up with the best idea, try to come up with the worst. Not only does it shake the spider webs out of your psyche, but it also eases the pressure of having to come up with a gem on the first try. For example, pretend you’re trying to promote a new kind of hamburger. The worst idea, to promote a hamburger, would talk about how bad it tastes. You whip up an ad for a hamburger that tastes like garbage. Now flip it. What if the burger is so good that you’d eat it out of the garbage? That’s kinda gross, but I hope you can see the point of the exercise.
5. Use a Different Medium
I’m not referring to a different advertising medium. If you’re commissioned to develop a billboard, you have to develop a billboard. What I mean is if you’re a writer, draw pictures. If you’re a designer, close your design program and open your word pad. Working outside of your parameters can give you a different perspective. In addition to that, since you’re probably not proficient in a different program, you’ll have a higher threshold for unpolished work and be more able to focus on the idea, rather than polishing a rough idea.
There are countless books and techniques written on how to come up with a good idea. I hope this gives you a glimpse into how to begin the journey to ingenuity. A lot of the examples posted here are far out, maybe a little too far out. But the best piece of advice I ever got on creativity was this: You can always tone it down. In other words, go bold, take risks and think crazy thoughts. Then come back and edit.