How a Campaign Ideas Notebook Helps Creativity

Ideas come when they come, rarely precisely when you need them. One easy way to make sure that you have ideas when you need them is to write them down as they come.

This is the simplest approach for coming up with any ideas but it is specially useful for a digital marketing campaign. Most of the time ideas for new campaigns are not entirely original. They are just ideas that have worked elsewhere, variants of existing ideas or the combination of two or more ideas in one campaign.

You could rely on your memory to come up with a campaign idea every time that you need one, but you will find it much easier if you simply write down every campaign idea you hear about over the years. Then when you need to come up with an idea you just leaf through the book and refresh your memory. Your campaign ideas "notebook" can be a physical notebook, a box full of loose papers or a file in the cloud that you can easily access when you need it. The form doesn't matter so much except that an electronic version is easier to search.

In your notebook you can have essential basics like the classic Instagram hashtag photo competitions where consumers post photos with the campaign hashtag and receive some reward,. Write down also interesting twists on old ideas and new thoughts you might have, especially for new channels. You can also add the more ambitious campaigns that might be useful one day when there is a big budget available. Make a note of all the great campaigns because memory is not terribly reliable . Even ambitiously creative campaigns like the Tippex "A Hunter Shoots a Bear" Experience, Walker's Crisps "Do us a Flavour" and the British Airways "Look Up" are soon forgotten.

But it's the little ideas that will fill most pages of your book and hardly a day goes by where you won't add another page. Collecting the ideas a little at a time means that the effort is minimal, but the day that the boss demands a new campaign idea by the end of the day you can pull out a few appropriate ideas and you will be glad that you saved them all.


Lectures, Workshops, Coaching and Writing

 If you would like Andrew Hennigan to do any lectures, workshops, one-to-one coaching or writing for you about professional communications you can call 0046 730 894 475 or email speaker@andrewhennigan.com

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Dear Best Regards: How to Start and End Your Emails

Image
Last year I wrote that to make your email more effective you should put meaningful content into the subject line, keep your messages short and consider other channels (see Three Timesaving Tips for Email ). I also wrote some guidelines about common culture problems when email crosses borders (see Three Non-Obvious Ways Culture Affects Email ). But there is one other question about international email that comes up regularly in workshops: how should you start and finish? Do I use "Dear", "Hi",or "Hello" to start with? What do I do if I don't know if the person I am writing to is a man or a woman? "What is the difference between "Best regards  and "Warm regards"? This is a question that puzzles many people and a while ago it stressed me, too. But the answers to these questions are perhaps easier than you imagine. DEAR MR/MRS WHATEVER . First of all, at the start of a mail you probably have some sort of salutation. How do you kn
Read more

Reverting to Emails: Confusion and the Indian English Language

Image
In workshops about global email many people focus on their issues communicating with colleagues in India. Partly this is related to some deeper cultural differences that lead to misunderstandings. But many problems are also caused by the different ways in which Indian people use English. There are some "English" words that you will probably only hear in India, like " stepney ", their word for a spare wheel. A hundred years ago this term was coined in the UK and was exported to India where it survived. Back home only a few antique vehicle enthusiasts have any idea what it means. There are also many English expressions that are peculiar to India, like "What is your good name?". But in both cases an English speaker from elsewhere would just see an unfamiliar expression and either ask what it means or google it. Most problems are caused by another kind of difference: where a standard US or UK English word is used but with a different meaning. Recently s
Read more

TED’s Magical Red Carpet

Image
Watch any TED(x) video or, better still, attend a live event, and you will probably notice that speakers stand in the middle of a circular red carpet. This choice is not just a question of aesthetics. That red carpet actually plays a key role in the success of the TED format. Having the speaker stand in the middle of a red carpet has several important consequences, leading the speaker to follow best practices that they might not be aware of. No script or notes . Since there is no table, lectern or other furniture within reach, the speaker cannot easily read from a script. This forces them to deliver their talk from memory, which is much more compelling because few people can read from a script and make it sound natural. And no matter how good you are at reading, the audience can see that your eyes are scanning the text and this breaks the magical connection with their minds. Encouraging people to speak from memory pushes them to make a much better talk than they might ot
Read more