Creative Director’s need to be great at making the work better, but that needs to go beyond just pushing the creative ideas. You need to be able to see, and help others to see, the big picture.

Swinton Insurance’s ‘Turn Nagging Doubt into nothing-to-worry about’ was a campaign the public grabbed hold of. We made some deliberate creative and production decisions to help it happen.

The third batch of tips for students, grads and juniors. From finding the right agency for you to making your book appeal to that agency as much as possible.

The most important thing for an ad to do is to engage. For the public to like and love it. The people at home are your audience, appeal to them.

It’s fine to say an ad is ‘great’ or ‘rubbish’ as long as you then go on to say why you think that. Then to go further, looking at what you can learn from it to improve your own work.

It’s easy as a creative to think your job is just about coming up with great ideas. But you’ll get more ideas out into the world if you spend time getting the process right too.

The creative industry is full of energetic and eccentric characters, it has to be. Just be careful you don’t become one of the worst stereotypes, see if you have…

The same basic skills come into play no matter what channel you’re working in. The more ways you can find to practise them, the better your creative work will become.

Another five tips for students, grads and juniors. From improving your book to learning what advice you should take to heart.

It’s easy to get carried away when you’re coming up with ideas. If you’re not careful then you can end up spreading yourself, and the budget, too thinly.

Put yourself into the shoes of creatives who’ve made great work. Try to ask yourself the questions they asked themselves. The answers will give you more ways to make great work yourself.

You have to target your awards entries, just like you target your ads. You’ll have more chance of winning if you research the awards events, and what each is looking for in a winner.

It’s easy to overthink a creative idea to the point that it doesn’t make sense anymore. We’ve all been there. It’s important to trust your gut reaction, and understand why you reacted that way.

Sometimes it can feel like you’re not getting anywhere fast. That you’ll never get the great big idea out the door. It’s important to have some little, and fun, wins you can make happen while you’re waiting.

The day-to-day often gets in the way of your long-term goal. You can help avoid that by breaking down those big targets into a series of smaller, more achievable tasks.

Here’s five tips for grads, students or juniors looking to get in to the industry or move on in their careers.

There’s no magic bullet when it comes to concepting. In fact the opposite is true, the more tools and approaches you have at your disposal the less chance you’ll ever get stuck.

If you spend your career only working on the briefs you get then you’ll be missing out on loads of chances to make great creative. ‘Rally Cries’ are mini always-on briefs that help you keep your eyes open.

Creative Scoring Sessions bring the subject of ‘creative’ to the fore. Aside from being pretty good fun they’ll help you get to great more often.

Everyone can have great ideas, but a lot fail to see the light of day and end up filed away in the bottom drawer. Unless you find ways to make sure they get out there into the world.