hop. skip. giant leap

A few years ago I asked the creative director of a large cosmetics firm what he thought of the new make-up brand that was cleverly launched by a group of savvy women with a whole new angle on beauty and beauty products, he smiled out of the corner of his mouth and said “they’ve got a great concept and fabulous products, if they had an advertising budget I would be worried.”

I bet he would be worried now – it isn’t big budgets he should be scared of; it’s big ideas.

A big idea inspires, excites and challenges, in a world where there are more and more opportunities for the smaller players to break into market space, there are acres and acres of consumers mind space to be tapped.

In the old days it was believed that the only way to promote a product or service was to throw millions of dollars at the media, The head of Unilever, Lord Leverhulm was famously quoted as saying “I know half the money I spend on advertising is wasted, but I can never find out which half” and to this day the large multinationals throw far more than they should to the media and what’s worst they now spend millions more on research. And they still don’t know which half works.

But smaller players don’t have to do that, they have the ability to know what works because they can feel it in their heart, they are closer to their consumers, their products and their vision, they can follow their guts.

And they certainly don’t need an advertising agency.

So how can you get the bang the big boys get, with the buck you’ve got?

The first thing you need is a great creative person, and they’re not easy to find, they rarely self promote; the best ones are busy making everyone else and their product’s famous. Sometimes they have a little agency, sometimes they work alone, but the truth of the matter is the best creatives have the best networks, so ask around, find people who have great advertising campaigns or successful products and ask them who they use. Have a look at the Australian Writers and Art Directors annual, ask people in the ad industry, meet lots of people, ask lots of questions, but in the end find a creative person with passion, excitement, a strong track record and the ability, to not only come up with big ideas, but to execute them too.

Pick two or three and make sure you’ve got a lunch budget. Creatives are good “lunchers” you’ll find out where they’ve been and what they’ve done, they’ll let you know what they believe. You’ll see far more of their passion (and wit) between the hours of 12 and 3 than you ever will in a boardroom, and if you’re really lucky, you may get a freebie drawn on the table cloth.

When you’ve found your creative, it’s best to take at least a day, off site, to get to the guts of what you need and for your creative to meet your team and become part of your business. A strategic planner is very useful at this stage (your creative will have one), if a planner is outside your budget then go buy some books and learn how to create your own strategies. (Adam Morgan in his book “Eating the big fish” has a fabulous two-day program for the self-help budget.)

The first thing you need to do is work out who you are, what you stand for, how you’re perceived, how you feel, but most importantly, what you want.

Next you need to know you customers intimately, who are you talking to? What do they need? How do they feel? What do they want to hear from you? Don’t define your target market by demographics, turn them into one living, breathing human being and talk to them one to one. No matter how many people tuned in, Philip Adams in his late night show was only talking to Gladys, Jimmy Durant had Mrs Calabash, and the James Squire brand talks exclusively to Doug, a 35 plumber from Rozelle. Find out who you are talking to and forget about everyone else (especially yourself).

Next you need to find out what you want to say, there are many ways to get to this and it can be an exiting, thought provoking and emotional experience. But no matter how you get there, there are only three things a creative person needs to create your big idea:

1. A communication brief that is exactly that, brief.
2. A team who agrees with and are passionate about the message.
3. A clear idea of budget and a timeline.

Then all you have to do is wait, big ideas don’t come overnight, and if your creative is good you won’t be their only client, give them the time to dedicate to you and let them do their magic.

Then sit back and be ready to be amazed, intrigued or scared to death because a big idea will hit you somewhere. When you hear the idea for the first time, register how it makes you feel, then react immediately, your creative person wants to see your initial emotional response. I once presented a TV commercial to a client who’s response was “My heart tells me it’s right, but my head says it’s wrong” we persuaded him to always listen to his heart and the commercial was so successful it went on to be aired in almost every world market (his career didn’t do too badly either).

Next get your creative to present the idea again, this time become the person you decided was the real target of the message, how does that feel?

Finally, hear the idea and this time you can intellectualise it (if required), talk about the idea and the impact it will have, discuss the merits of the idea, where did it come from? What reaction does the creative believe it will have?

Then be bold, be brave, be noticed, but most of all be on budget.