1. When you don’t have talent you should at least have great equipment. If you are a writer/art director/planner, get yourself a funky fountain pen (note: a rollerball is a not a tool, it’s an embarrassment), next up is Apple’s MacBook Pro laptop. If you are short, get the 17inch model.
2. Stop trying to gaze into the future. It just makes you look like you have a squint. Nobody can tell you how an advertising campaign will evolve two years from now, let alone five. You live in a time when your consumers and your marketing challenges evolve quickly. Solve today’s problems brilliantly and you will be in better shape to deal with tomorrow’s opportunities.
3. The BIG IDEA is not where you think it is. It’s not in a script, a print ad, or an activation concept. It should be in the much-abused scrap of paper called The Brief. If your communication strategy doesn’t have a leap, your campaign won’t either. Oh, the ads might still be great, but what the brand stands for won’t be enduring. Like my friend Vivek Sharma reminded me one day, the Cadbury’s ad featuring the girl dancing on the cricket field wouldn’t have existed if someone hadn’t cracked a killer strategic thought that Cadbury’s satisfies the glorious childlike impulses that we all have.
4. Anyway, what’s with this obsession with BIG IDEAS? Does anyone have a scale that can accurately measure the size of an idea? I checked my pockets. Guess what, I found a half eaten candy bar. No idea ruler, or weighing scale. No siree, it warn’t there. I tell you what. Let’s just see if the ad/campaign/thought/whatever moves us, emotionally or intellectually. Does it feel fresh? Does it scare you, just a little? Does it solve your problem? Does it make you think ‘damn I didn’t think about it like that’? Well, if it does, does, does and does, you might have something going on. After it runs in the media and people love it and your competition is worrying about how to counter it, that’s when you tell people you always knew this was a BIG IDEA, till then leave it the heck alone.
5. This point is just for the ‘creative’ folks. I know there are many of you who believe that creativity can’t be put in a box, or forced to do the timesheets. Luke Sullivan, winner of a mountain of gold gongs, builder of famous brands and former Fallon McElligot bad boy, now advises that you be organized and disciplined in your daily life, so your work can be crazy and out there. On a personal note, I have never seen, or even heard of, Steve Hayden being late for work or a meeting. And that’s the man who wrote the ad that was voted ‘The commercial of the 20th century’.
6. All of the above are not points; they are points of view. Hey, if I wanted to write the six commandments, I’d have gone into the religion business. Actually, if enough of your peoples sign up to be franchisees I just might. But attempts at humour apart, the thing I’d like to leave you with is that, at all times have your own code. It may not sound as slick as those marketing/advertising pundits hand out, but if you are honest to yourself it will work. Hallelujah!
(The author is Chief Creative Officer at DDB Mudra)