How to differentiate between a good idea and a “fake” idea?
A step-by-step guide to creating effective marketing ideas.
Throughout our work at the agency, I always “hunt” for good marketing ideas with my team. Working ideas. During my time as the Head of a creative agency, I applied a lot of experiments and techniques to understand and answer the main question:
“What is a working idea?”
I decided to share this with you.
Ideas rule the world
When people say that “money rules the world,” they forget one thing: money was not created out of thin air. It arose from an idea, a concept. So, whether you are in marketing, business, or design, the ability to come up with ideas is what matters most in the world.
Idea vs fantasy
Here is the thing I want to begin with. It is worth understanding the differences between imagination, fantasy, and a working idea. The main distinguishing factor between a creative idea and fantasy is the potential to turn the idea into reality and gain tangible benefits from it. It is this measurable benefit and affordable implementation of an idea that signifies creative thinking and a viable idea.
What does a working idea look like?
Before you understand how to come up with good ideas, you should understand what they can be. Let’s look at some examples.
The LEGO brand
In 1916, Ole Kirk Christiansen opened a carpentry workshop. However, a few years later, he was unable to cope with the economic crisis and had to close the business. For the next two decades, things were rather unremarkable. The workshops changed, as did the products. One thing did not change, however — success was never achieved. Things changed in 1934 when it is considered to be the official founding date of LEGO.
Since the very beginning, LEGO has been dedicated to family values. At the same time, the company set itself a challenging goal — to create unique toys that would encourage children’s creativity. And at the same time, their main objective was maintaining high quality. This message could not fail to resonate with parents. Within just two years of its inception, the brand produced more than 42 different types of children’s toys.
Moral: the idea of combining the same values with high quality is simple and relevant even after 90 years, around which the whole brand was built.
Netflix
Not so long ago, the giant in the market for the film industry and streaming services faced a serious problem. Despite its leadership position, the company’s share of the growing market began to decline significantly. And for such a long time, the audience has not built a full understanding of Netflix and what it offers.
So, a rebranding took place, an idea being laid in the foundation of the updated brand, which began to reflect the essence of the service. To the audience, their content was not simply entertainment, but stories that changed people’s lives. In this way, a new positioning emerged: “Just one story separates you from emotion, understanding yourself and the world.”
This formed the basis not only of the essence but of brand communication, it began to be used everywhere: on the website in the UX/UI format, where films are now collected according to stories, in outdoor advertising, in movie posters, as well as in videos.
Moral: A good idea is multi-faceted and easily scalable. It contains a deep understanding that can be developed in various ways, while at the same time appearing holistic.
Just do it — a famous slogan invented in 20 minutes.
In 1980, Nike needed a slogan to rebuild its brand in an advertising campaign. However, the only condition was that the new slogan should be durable and not disposable with a specific piece of information.
At the Wieden+Kennedy agency, which was working with the Nike brand at the time, ideas were always approached with a certain simplicity.
How did those three words come into being that changed the era and the perception of the brand as a whole?
“It was a simple thing,” said Dan Wieden, author of the tagline, in a 2009 Adweek video interview that described the campaign’s conception. Surprisingly, he attributed the origin of the slogan to murderer Gary Gilmore, who famously exclaimed “Let’s do it!” before facing the firing squad. This spark of inspiration sparked the creativity needed to create the phrase in just 20 minutes.
Moral: a good idea is simple, and it can come quite quickly, suddenly, at the very beginning. It is important to distinguish it from other ideas, and also remember that a working idea is often “timeless”.
Distinguish between a good and a bad idea
When you have a great idea, you have something with enormous potential. Like an asteroid crashing into the ocean, it can cause a massive initial impact and a tsunami of consequences over vast distances over a very long period.
Bad ideas can spread faster than good ideas. Their effects on people can spread even faster in the highly competitive corporate world.
Like the timing of implementing a great idea or a bad one, although it only requires relatively little thought and effort to think about and implement, could have consequences that last for many years, (alas, often much longer than the good idea).
Why is it not always possible to come up with ideas
Several barriers can prevent us from finding a worthwhile and interesting solution. They were also described in Tom Monahan’s book The Do-It-Yourself Lobotomy:
– Fear of the unknown
– Fear of looking stupid
– Attempts to evaluate ideas ahead of time
– Devotion
– Attachment to old ideas
– Attachment to past successes
– Resistance to change
– Unwillingness to explore other methods
– The tendency to stop at the first good idea
It is important to be able to distinguish between these barriers and avoid falling into these “traps” — this will help you to try and find a stronger idea.
How to create working ideas?
I consider it worth noting that there is no single answer or clear guidelines on how to generate ideas that will be successful.
But it’s too early to despair!
After many years of work and experiments, I have collected several tools and techniques that can be useful “help sticks” along the way to creating ideas that work.
The idea is more important than the design. The essence is more important than style.
In the 1950s and 1960s, so-called “conceptual advertising” began to gain popularity actively. This term was used to show that there is always an idea behind visualizations, advertisements, and other aspects. Therefore, it is important to focus on the concept first and then everything else.
Without a good concept, you won’t get anything more than a “fake rabbit.” Even if you use the font, color scheme, or photos flawlessly, a bad idea will not save anything. A concept in marketing is like the little black dress in fashion — there will always be a demand for it.
Great ideas are timeless
This principle is very clearly seen in all the successful examples of companies that we know. When creating an idea, it is worth relying on the fact that in 20 years it will still be relevant. As in 30, 40 years. Often, such ideas touch on the underlying values or foundations of the audience, which practically do not change over time. Also, a durable idea is often quite simple, it is easy to understand, count, and see in different attributes. These two aspects should be considered when creating your solution.
Learn to draw
If you are working in the creative industry and have not yet picked up a pencil or a pen to visualize your ideas, then I strongly recommend that you start!
Here is an explanation from the famous art director Ron Brown:
“The ability to draw gives an advantage because it helps to express an idea on paper. If you know what perspective is, how light behaves, how anatomy works and how to use empty space, then you can find a good artistic solution. I make sketches manually, and then create the final version on the computer.”
It is important to truly create solutions on paper even though the digital world and its possibilities are present today. Therefore, we can activate our brain’s neural connections when we pick up a pen or touch paper. This awakens our consciousness and allows us to come up with ideas!
Partly logic, partly creativity — lateral thinking
The concept of lateral thinking was developed by Edward de Bono, a popularizer of non-conventional ways of solving problems. According to his definition, lateral thinking (from the Latin. lateralis — lateral) is a way of thinking that seeks solutions to problems that are different from conventional ones. Lateral thinking should lead to the creation of something new by combining known elements while making a lateral shift.
To practice lateral thinking, you can use a tool such as the 6 hats method.
6 hats symbolize 6 directions of thinking.
White — a discussion of the problem with an emphasis on facts and figures.
Red — intuitive thinking, focusing on feelings and emotions that arise when discussing a problem.
Yellow — positive expectations from the idea, and its positive significance for your project.
Black — critical thinking, identifying all the risks and difficulties in implementing an idea.
Green — creativity and imagination, the search for unexpected and provocative solutions.
Blue — the development of specific stages for the implementation of this goal.
How to work: Depending on the task, you can try on hats in a convenient sequence. This technique can also be used in a collective assault, for example, by dividing the participants into six teams, fixing their ideas, and then changing the hats for the teams until all participants speak out on each topic.
So, for example, we created an idea for a brand supplier of solar panels Sun Source — it became the basis for the entire visual concept of the brand:
The creator: “We wanted to convey the importance of using environmentally friendly electricity through the logo and identity.”
Designer: “We had a lot of statistics on the dynamics of solar activity in each state.”
The creator: “Really impressive data that everyone should see!
The designer: “Yes, the only question was how to do it the easiest way.”
The creator: “We found the answer right away. It was like this: let’s… cram the American sun into one logo. Literally!”
Designer: “The sun… Precisely! Let’s twist all the data into the sun!”
So, as a result of a seemingly short dialogue, a simple but interesting idea was born: identity is based on data while conveying the message of the brand.
Kill your “children”
“Children” are those brilliant ideas that we like, even though everyone around us says they don’t work. The “one in ten rule” helps me with my team to avoid irrational attachments. Why? Because the more ideas we have, the easier it is to let go of them. (It is much harder to “kill” an idea if there are none).
When working with the 3D School in developing a strategy and corporate identity, we came up with … 27 logo ideas. From this huge number, it was necessary to choose only 2 main concepts that would be presented to the client. Choosing the right ideas and differentiating them from the others is half the work in creating good ones!
“Sleep with” the idea
Have you ever completed crossword puzzles? Have you been unable to recall a word? Have you tried your best, only to eventually give up, abandon this idea, and then suddenly remember that word later?
When creating ideas, images, or text, you can employ the same approach. Allow yourself to ‘sleep on’ the idea (though sometimes ten minutes might be enough). Upon returning to the task, you will find that you are thinking more clearly and it is easier for you to assess ideas.
In our work, I try to actively adhere to these principles, especially when creating large projects, such as a strategy or brand identity.
Finally: a good idea evokes emotions
The best idea catches your eye and “attracts” you. (And, as it looks, artistic appeal is just one of its many advantages). Creativity attracts attention, which triggers one of several reactions in us:
– A smile — it disarms.
– Laughter — disarms even more
– Information — tells us what we didn’t know
– Provocation — causes a reaction, an emotional response
– Engagement — creates a connection, interaction
It is very important to create an idea that will evoke an emotion (even negative) — this will allow you to be remembered and stand out as people remember first and foremost what caused emotions.
Finally, it’s important to remember that a working idea is a type of formula that provides an answer to solutions to the “equation” that defines a brand for itself. Set a goal, create your own “formula” for an idea — and I am pretty sure that working ideas will certainly come!
