Buying the Great Idea

David Ogilvy had lots to say, much of it wise. For example, he noted how difficult it is to recognise a great idea. It is indeed difficult to recognise a great idea, and it is made even more difficult when those ideas are being sold with great fervour by their champions. It's harder still when the people selling you the idea are talented and experienced persuaders - yes, the kind of people you'll find working in marketing and advertising. Yet everyone wants - needs - the next great idea for their business. So what do you do?

You look to your brand strategy. When evaluating marketing ideas you will really value a properly prepared brand strategy, because it provides a way to measure a truly Great Idea. And it works both ways - a clear brand strategy also provides the means to sell a great idea because it introduces logic into an area where logic is often difficult to discern.

Another Ogilvy luminary, a worldwide creative director called Norman Berry, exasperated by the mediocrity he was being served by his strategists, said: “Give me the freedom of a tight brief.” This call for help - or for order - from on high is the closest solution to successfully identifying a great idea. It's a short sentence loaded with meaning.

Great freedom

By tight brief he was saying, “Tell me what to do.” Tell me what the communicator is capable of, and what the audience thinks. Tell me how the space shared by these two insights is different to the competition, and if there is no difference, tell me what space is unclaimed in which we can build differentiation. Knowing this creates freedom, because effort is directed instead of wasted, you are not trapped in circular arguments.

But with great freedom comes great responsibility. A tight brief allows you to quickly and effectively come up with an idea, create a dazzling campaign, and get cracking on finely-honed tactics. But what if the tight brief is sending you up the wrong creek, with or without paddle?

That's why it is absolutely critical to have a brand strategy agreed before you give the brief, and well ahead of the development of tactics. In the same way that business strategy leads the way on how an enterprise is organised, the brand strategy must lead to the brand expression, and it has to be agreed by all concerned or otherwise freedom will be exercised without responsibility.

The Brand Strategy

Whatever the Great Idea, whatever the tactics it's based on, whether good, old fashioned advertising or the latest digital, connected social media ‘thingum', it has to be developed focused by the brand strategy, because then it can be evaluated, using the brand strategy as the measure. If the brand strategy is not agreed prior to the development of the tactic, the risk becomes very real that the Great Idea, rather than the needs of the enterprise, will drive both the tactical ideas and the evaluation of those ideas. Once ‘great ideas' that are unfettered by brand strategy become the currency of a campaign, drifting rapidly off-brand becomes very likely. Cool, fun ideas develop a life of their own, because those responsible for the development of creative marketing tactics can be very, very persuasive; after all persuasion is at the core of their business.

Bear in mind that if the recognition of a Great Idea is difficult, then the actual creation of that idea is even more difficult. In the challenging quest to come up with a big idea, it is all too easy for frustration to lead to the disciplines that are established by a robust brand strategy (read tight brief) being questioned. Often an inability to find creative solutions results in the thwarted tacticians pushing back against the strategy. But if they have already bought into the brand strategy then that's tough. They need to try harder. Nobody said that the creation of communication tactics was easy; hence the well deserved recognition for those who are capable.

Even with a robust brand strategy in place that is based on rigorous process, the recognition of a great idea is a challenge. But at the very least a brand strategy provides a point at which to begin. A big idea that is supported by a creative rationale that honestly develops the logic of the brand strategy is a persuasive argument in favour of the idea. It makes evaluation a whole lot easier.

Tactics

It is exasperating how often tactics are presented without a creative rationale that clearly demonstrates how the tactics tie back to the strategy. And the creative rationale must not simply claim relevance to the strategy; it must demonstrate its relevance unquestionably.

Great ideas demonstrate this. Allan Gray's advertising is an example: it consistently demonstrates the value of patience, brought to life by big ideas; contrasting it to the transience of other things, to the silly myths of instant wealth, or to the patient fascination of a girl becoming a woman.

Coke's brrriliant big idea is another example. Absolutely true to the brand, including intrinsic benefit of the product, it has created a property that seems simply obvious in retrospect, but in all probability was sweated in creation. It is a strong enough idea to make even banal slice of life advertising special (and that takes some doing), and is versatile across cultures and mediums.

A creative rationale that leads off from the brand strategy bridges the gap between the all-important market insight and the ultimate creative execution.

Obviously the brand strategy has to be good to start with. But it is a bit easier to evaluate a good brand strategy because it is (or certainly should be) disciplined by a logical process and informed by insight gained through rigorous consultation. It should also include guidelines on brand expression as a start towards closing the gap between what the Red & Yellow School refers to as ‘logic and magic'.

Marty Neumeier, President of Neutron, a brand strategy firm in San Francisco, published a book called The Brand Gap that, in his words, addresses “how to bridge the gap between logic and magic to build a sustainable competitive advantage ”. It's a great book not only because it addresses this challenge brilliantly, but also because it is succinct. Quoting Marty again: “Your time is valuable, so my first goal is to give you a book you can finish in a short plane ride…”

The bottom-line is: get a good brand strategy in place and insist it is applied to the development and assessment of ideas. Then you will be in a position to evaluate whether these ideas are little or big. And when you find your Great Idea, you'll know it's the right one for your business.