BIG IDEA RULES
Whether we learn the language of video, or any other format to get the message right people are still talking about the 'bid idea'. This was a phrase if not actually coined, then at least popularised, by David Ogilvy in 1960s. "If your campaign doesn't contain a big idea then it will pass like a ship in the night," or so he memorably claimed.
The persistence of the 'big idea' today isn't all that surprising. Although much has changed, since Ogilvy was around, the idea remains at the core of advertising communication. To all intents and purposes, it’s the approach that had been refined from 'the big idea', to 'just the big idea and nothing else'.
We all know the business of advertising is no longer just about creating an ad and buying the media space to run it. Now, agencies are being asked to engage consumers in new ways that are less intrusive than traditional advertising. In the melee of online noise and competing multichannel communications, ideas have never been more important. Ideas are great but great ideas are even greater. Work that is award-winning in my mind strikes a chord. It effortlessly oozes into your brain, heart and makes a mark. You feel something from it. You wish you had thought of it. Sometimes it seems so obvious; you think it’s easy, but it never is. Great award winning ideas take full advantage of the craft and make use of it…nothing is spared. You can see that every executional decision that was made was in service to the idea itself and was not gratuitous.
Communication agencies have to know how to make great ideas of all kinds, whether that means ads that work on social media, ads that are “native” and can look similar to editorial content or ads that are just plain innovative.
We’re at a point creatively that when we tell stories, they have to be great in their own right regardless of format, channel or even brands’ desire to sell. They need to be shareable and viewable, they need to be content that can compete with everything else we’re consuming. It demands more of us as an industry. Most of all, it demands of us to believe in the power of a big idea above everything else.