PHILOSOPHY OF GREAT CREATIVE: It’s a Great Time To Be a Big Idea

The More Things Change, the More We Need To Focus on the One Thing that Shouldn’t

BY BRUCE ROOKE

MY CO-WORKER, JOE, REMARKED THE OTHER DAY, “THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO BE A BIG idea.” He was, of course, referring to the ever-growing list of diverse communication channels and media possibilities where a message can now show up: Facebook, YouTube, integrated prod­uct placement, MySpace, LinkedIn, blogs, Sermo, rich media banners, augmented reality, Google­search this, Yahoo-search that, podcasts, wearable video, black ops marketing, e-mail marketing, mobile platforms, iPhone apps, Windowfx & Wallfx advertising, and, yes, Twitter. Truly, we are living in the 21st century where our imaginations can run wild.

Lead with The Big Idea
Are we taking full advantage of these amazing breakthroughs? Look at much of the content filling these marvelous new oracles: It’s the same, one-way, passive monologue that has filled traditional journal ads and Web sites since, heck, the 20th century. YouTube: “Hey, we can run our TV ad there.” MySpace: “Hey, we’ll create a page for our drug and run testi­monial videos there.” For many of us, these new media channels have simply become more outlets for the same ol’ approach. “Interactive” is really not all that interactive and “untradi­tional” is actually fairly traditional. Still, the client call resounds through industry and agency halls alike: “We have to be on Twitter!” And so we tweet. But, to quote Thomas Dolby, we’ve perhaps become a bit too “blinded by science.” We’ve allowed all the “wow” technol­ogy to lead versus being led by the thing that has made the difference since, well, DDB was known as Ned, Mack, and Bill: The Big Idea.

When you let The Big Idea drive, it’s like Daniel Day-Lewis wielding the divining rod in There Will Be Blood. You will strike oil. Find The Big Idea that brings your strategy alive, and it will naturally find the perfect media channels for it. Think of the shared postcards in Merck and Anderson DDB’s memorable, behavior ­changing “One Less” Gardasil campaign. Find The Big Idea, and your customers will want to engage, they won’t forget your message after it’s over, and, most important, they’ll want to share it with everyone they know. Think Eli Lilly and Company’s Zyprexa “Why I Fight” campaign that ended up taped on mental health clinic walls all over the country. Find The Big Idea, and you can be confident in sub­merging your brand into the social media hot tub. You can invite true dialogue around The Big Idea, and allow customers, both profession­al and patient, to weigh in, add, and get involved. We (and the FDA) get understand­ably nervous having customers comment about product attributes. But by putting The Big Idea out there instead, you can get rewarded in big­ger ways than ever. But remember: Twitter or Facebook or “mobisodes” can never turn a small idea into The Big Idea. That’s the fallacy of the funhouse mirror. The client call that should be resounding through the halls is, “Don’t give me Twitter yet. I want The Big Idea first!”

So, how do we get there?
Start there. Demand a simple, provocative, life-relevant big idea that is inspired by your message. (Even a lousy idea can deliver a message. That’s not enough. It needs to be driven by it.) Marcee Nelson, founder and president of Pink Tank, a women and health strategic and creative consultancy, uses the dis­cipline of the 3x5 card to get to The Big Idea. Her creative teams have to present the succinct Big Idea on the card before they present their executions. This forces them to think big before they think ads. Or YouTube. And don’t discount The Higher Cause. Customers want to believe your product was created to do some­thing more than simply grab market share. What was the goal behind developing the product in the first place? Let them know that, and let them know they can be a part of the mission with you, and market share will follow.

Make The Idea Grow.
“What If?” is the Miracle-Gro of ideas. And everyone, from account people to clients to communication planners to medical insight to strategic planners to creatives, should feel the fun responsibility of concepting where and how The Big Idea could run and play and connect. “Hey, maybe we could create a live network of flu lookouts using Twitter who report real-time on what they’ve seen and heard about flu outbreaks in their school, town, and neighbor­hood to alert viewers…” (Now you’re using Twitter versus it using you.)

Imagine Multi-Channel Planning Is Like Creating a Multi-Country Global Brand.
Yes, Facebook and iPhone and Black Ops are new, but somehow we’ve done this before. When you set out to develop a global brand, the goal is to find that single, dynamic idea that will transcend borders and cultures, and connect with the needs and desires of every HCP or patient. Cialis is about re-energizing relationships the world over. And then that one idea gets translated through the different voices of the different countries to optimize relevance and meaning. Same with the different media voices. Find The Big Idea, then let that story be told through the unique ways these new channels speak.

Rethink How We Do Scopes-Of-Work.
I know this is going to be controversial, but a multi-year survey revealed that, for the most part, this year’s scope-of-work always looks a lot like last year’s scope-of-work. The same familiar tactics populate the to-do list and off we go. The Big Idea becomes a line item (if it happens at all) rather than the catalyst for everything we do. What If (there’s that magic phrase again) we developed The Big Idea first, and then developed the scope-of-work off of the relevant and electrifying tactics generated by that Big Idea? We may just find our marketing spend becomes more transparent, more efficient, and more effective.

Joe was right. It most certainly is a great time to be a big idea. As long as we don’t solely get dazzled and dazed by all the possibilities, and we focus first on that one thing that will make all those possibilities possible. ❍

How can you tell The Big Idea from a Good Enough Idea?

It aims high, but stays close.
The Big Idea builds that 18-inch bridge between the head and the heart through that crazy mix of information and aspiration. It doesn’t just raise awareness for a product to be a part of the world as it is now, it actually inspires people to see the product as the way to get to the world they want.

It creates a sense of something happening.
The Big Idea delivers a sense of news. There is something fresh going on here. Something different from what was here yesterday.

It exudes confidence.
By being bold and yet grounded, The Big Idea tells the world you believe in something. You stand for something. And people believe in believers.

It invites you in.
The Big Idea involves and gets involved. It knows it grows by making people’s lives a part of it. So it creates opportunities for people to do more than simply evaluate the product.

It makes you want to share it.
The Big Idea does more than effectively disseminate information, it adds value. It creates rewarding experiences that people want to pass on to reward others. And guess who gets rewarded in the end?

And it can make the comfortable uncomfortable.
While The Big Idea always answers the needs and desires of the customer, it leads. It doesn’t follow. Happy patients walking on the beach with arms upraised still exist because of the comfort of the familiar. And yet that same familiar becomes forgettable in the real world. The Big Idea refuses to be invisible.

Bruce Rooke is Chief Creative Officer at GSW Worldwide.

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