Seven Weeks Down – By @james_reyn
By James Reynolds
Seven Weeks Down
Seven weeks down and we are just starting to scratch the surface of this thing called advertising.
Briefs are starting to come our way a little quicker and a little more often. It’s time to put everything we have experienced and reflected on to the test (à la Kolb’s learning cycle).
So it’s probably a good time to re-visit my notes from our creative masterclass with Patrick Collister, Google’s head of design. For a sixty-plus-er he seemed much younger than his years, with an excitement and passion for the industry and technology.
He talked about the rise of wearable tech, and Virtual Reality & Augmented Reality being the future. The importance of testing & iterating and encouraged prototyping your ideas. To break patterns and compete with new tools within product/experience/
He talked us through the hierarchy of ideas which made complete sense when you actually stop to think about. Ideas are often considered to be flashes of magic or brilliance or luck, but like Marc tells us, everything is a process.
That also applies to writing (and successfully executing) a creative brief.
Patrick stressed the importance that briefs have to be concrete to get results, and shared his way of approaching a brief. I think this is probably one of the most valuable teachings at the school so far.
1. Background. Ask “why?” five times like a five year old would.
2. Advertising can only do five things. Which are you briefing for?
Familiarise
Reminds
Spreads news
Overcome inertia
Add value
3. Target Audience. Who? Exactly!
4. What is the problem? Look at different ways
5. Proposition. Say one thing only. Good proposition comes from real insights (human truth).
Testing your proposition.
Can it go on a poster?
Can you imagine saying it to a friend in the pub?
Does it stand the five “why?” test?
