Techniques for idea creation (how we come up with ideas)
Posted on
March 3, 2017
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by: Elizabeth one of our producers
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It was supercool to join Tom Breeze at his offices in London for an interview about my career path and the methods we use for ideation (idea creation). Be warned…at almost 2 hours long, this is a beast of a conversation, but it’s basically a crash course in the way creatives think, the methods we use and everything I believe about how people can achieve their career goals.
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Times you can skip ahead to for different topics are:
- 2:30 how I got into this field (musing on survivorship bias)
- 9:47 “it’s all who you know”
- 10:20 How I got my job at Global Fire
- 12:15 my advice to people who want to get into advertising/marketing
- 13:20 Tom asks me whether I believe in focusing on goals or just jumping off and “going for it”
- 15:34 Saying YES
- 17:30 the importance of connection. Winning friends and influencing people.
- 23:00 My favourite fun job we’re working on at the moment (how I pitched to a company who didn’t even know we exist)
- 28:54 Tom asks about my creative process and how to come up with ideas so I start with discussing the RFP/Brief process
- 36:25 How do we actually start to come up with ideas once we’re working on the project.
- 41:29 I believe anyone can learn how to come up with ideas if they learn to think in a certain way
- 44:00 How Tina Fey taught me how to lead a team in brain storming sessions
- 46:33 step by step description of an ideation session
- 49:26 Ideation technique “personification”
- 58:00 Ideation technique “worst and best”
- 1:00:00 An explanation of hierarchy in the marketing departments of large companies
- 1:02:00 Ideation technique “getting space”
- 1:06:00 Story of coming up with ideas for a TV company ad
- 1:11:25 Ideation technique “intentionally bad”
- 1:12:10 Brainstorming politics (working in a group)
- 1:15:30 How do we know when we’re done and have an idea ready to pitch? This comes up again at 1:42:17.
- 1:16:00 Getting into the head of the target viewer. Insights into who they are and what they believe.
- 1:19:25 The one thing that’s more important than creativity and spiffy ideas
- 1:20:08 Demographics vs. Psychographics
- 1:23:30 Why I drink smart water (story about user insights)
- 1:26:58 Ideation technique “assumptions”
- 1:31:45 What to do when a client wants to pack too much information into a video
- 1:33:07 About Amazon’s new series of 100 ten-second ads (love them!)
- 1:36:35 Advertising technique of brands being up front about their drawbacks
- 1:37:55 Value in allowing brainstorming sessions to go off topic (story about coming up with ideas for a global company’s new L&D programme. I talk about the other ideas we came up for this project at 1:45:55)
- 1:43:00 Right around this point I start unpacking the process of taking these ideas and starting the production process. This is where I take off my creative director hat and go into producer mode.
- 1:45:55 Sometimes an idea can be filmed in a really low-fi way. If the idea is strong enough, the filming doesn’t always have to be highest value.
- 1:50:49 Advice for smaller businesses who want to make creative videos themselves
- 1:53:09 Anyone can be creative
- 1:54:00 Ideation Technique “repurposing jokes”
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Some media we refer to:
- Say no to spec
- Audible print ads
- This Girl Can ft. Missy Elliot
- Mr. W
- Audible TV ads
- Amazon’s 10-second micromoment ads for echo
- Books: Lateral thinking. Presuasion. Ideation. How to win friends and influence people