DifFferent Inputs For Different Outputs

By Nigel Rahimpour

This may be the most challenging time for a planner. Compare today’s saturated audiences to those of the past. What will you construct that they haven’t seen before? Where will you find your truly original story?

In the ideas economy no planner has the luxury of behaving conventionally. Creativity is a matter of stimulus. What goes into the brain is ultimately responsible for what comes out of it; more and better stimuli make for more and better thoughts; the more original ideas we develop, the higher the chances to arrive at a truly big one. New ideas come from new perspectives, from combining different thoughts or materials to make new connections

For no matter how talented, the ignorant cannot produce the big idea. The quality of our imagination hinges on our pool of knowledge. Creativity is about choosing from 30 times more material than we can use. It is also about gaining insights from other worlds; analyzing conventions and disrupting the rules; finding new ways of expression; and keeping an open, playful mind in order to identify the big idea.

The big idea doesn’t care where it is coming from. We can borrow from the world around us. Why should commercials just be limited to TV, Internet and cinemas? Why can they not be acted out live, by a group of artists in theaters or musicals before the show begins? Could a soft drink bottle not be more engaging? How about a series of monthly short stories placed on the back of Coke cans using the “Make It Real” theme to tell real life stories by young writers? Or a follow-up contest encouraging the audience to vote for the best designs, thus turning the product into a collectible and making it part of a wider culture?

Some might argue that these are executional, not strategic ideas. However, planners are part of the same team and process, driving for the same results – the most original creative work. A planner’s imagination should be utilized in every step of the brand building process – upstream and downstream – adding value throughout the creative development. Their deployment in executional teams reduces the peril of conceiving non-implementable strategies.

Maybe planners and creatives ought to see themselves as one and the same pre-and-post-briefing-unit? Perhaps we should all focus on true interdisciplinary collaboration, and use our full potential to do what our clients pay us to do: Solve their problems. I bet the consumer doesn’t care who or what stimulated the big idea.

Nigel Rahimpour is a freelance advertising planner based out of New York City. You can reach him via email: nrahimpour@hotmail.com.