Big award-winning creative briefs don’t turn up everyday. Don’t sit waiting for them.
You’ll not get many great ideas out if you do.
Agencies and creatives shouldn’t go brief by brief.
You have to be on the lookout constantly.
A lot of creatives keep notebooks to jot down ideas as they pop up.
Some keep one eye on the news for tactical opportunities.
Others look for little side ideas off the back of existing briefs.
Do all of that.
But agencies can also put in place something that helps these ideas come up more often. It also helps shape accounts onto a more creative future path.
‘Rally Cries’.
They’re mini always-on briefs. The thing the brand, client and agency can ‘rally’ behind. Short statements of just a few words that define what the creative work is all about.
With that as a springboard the goal is to create ideas, at any touchpoint, that brings them to life.
Create one for each client. Share them round the whole agency. Even pin them on the wall.
They’ll act like a trigger for the creative subconscious. Keeping it switched on and regularly firing out ideas.
A lot of the best work I’ve been part of was based on ideas made months even a year ahead of a brief. In fact some of these thoughts would actually end up shaping the briefs, making creative a fundamental part of client conversations.
It’s an approach that lets you find and make great more often.
Like having a whole year to work on a brief, without the thousands of non-billable hours that would normally cause, saving the CFO from having a meltdown.
