The big idea is not determined by big money, according to the ad executives that I spoke with at the Caples Creative Jam round table sessions today. No, a big idea can come from anywhere. For Spanish agency Shackleton Madrid, when an RFP comes in, people from each dicipline get involved in the brainstorming sessions before applying an idea to their specific area of expertise. For Dialogue Marketing Communications in Dublin, the big idea can come in 10 minutes or it can take 10 days. Ideas can come from anyone and from anywhere. Insipration is as likely to come from an art show that a creative director attended to a hike that an account planner took.
Good ideas are hard to come by, but once they are dreamt up, the challenge does involve money. As many creatives expressed today, a good idea needs resources to be able to be executed to its fullest potential. Not great news, as marketing budgets continue to be cut every day. But the opportunity to be creative is making its way out of the design house and into the media planning. In fact, tight contraints can present advertisers with a challenge and force them to be innovative in new ways that they may not have tired before. If they had the money to produce a TV ad, they may not have focused their effort on creating a viral video campaign for online, which could in fact creative a broadcast like effect, if done right. It seems that the tight economy could be an opportunity for creatives to experiment.
