Creative meetings that kick ass, part 1
The most certain path to a “Big Idea” is by way of the creative meeting–that conference-room campout where so many great advertising concepts are born. Yes, you can achieve greatness alone, but who’d want to? A kick-ass creative meeting (KACM) is more fun than a flyswatter on a cattle ranch.
It recently came to my attention that not everyone in the business has attended a truly “KA” example of a “CM,” so in this first article, we’ll look at basic meeting structure. Part 2 will cover the fun stuff at a later date.
First, in order to be KA, a CM has to meet two conditions:
1. Attendees should come from both the copywriting and graphic design arenas. Ordinary mortals are also allowed to attend, as long as they’re fluent with the basic formula of advertising.
2. All ideas are fair game, no matter how weird, off-beat or, yes, stupid, at first glance.
Start the KACM with a creative briefing. Summarize the assignment, the message delivery medium, the characteristics of the target audience and the single, main product benefit. If any of these components is imprecise, clarify it before wasting everyone’s time on a meeting you’re not ready for.
Talk through the message delivery medium and the manner in which it will engage the target audience. Will they be clicking through random e-mails or surfing a website that’s strongly related to your product? Escaping to the kitchen during a television station break or stepping out of an elevator in a crowded airport? Discuss the specifics of the engagement and clearly visualize what you’re trying to distract them from. Nobody reads advertising on purpose, so you’ll have to anticipate their situation and state of mind with diabolical finesse.
Hash out the basic statement your concept needs to make. In other words, what would it say if it didn’t have to be pretty, poetic, emotionally appealing and brief? (Which it does.) Here are some examples:
“If you’re a serious hiker, you wouldn’t wear any other brand of shoes.”
“Your auto parts counter will make more money if you buy this DVD and show it to your employees.”
“Our banking services do a better job of meshing with farmers’ financial cycles because our policymakers come from farming families.”
And don’t limit your ideas to words; think in images. What visual metaphors will stop the audience and cause them to read the words? –not only stop them, but move them down a mental path that softens their resistance to the message?
Now you’re ready to creatively condense the message. Let the ideas fly, and have fun–lots of fun. Be silly. Be obtuse. Be wrong. Any idea is fair game, as long as it doesn’t move the group too far off-concept. The meeting should start to feel like a psychotherapist’s free-association session, but with more than one crazy person.
Use a dry-erase board or a big paper pad on an easel, and put an experienced person in charge of writing down ideas as the group calls them out. If anyone is shy, coerce them into participating. If anyone is not fully fluent with the basic formula of advertising or repeatedly pulls the group off task (this isn’t the time to discuss media placement, client headaches, reasons this is a difficult assignment or basketball scores), politely end the meeting and reconvene later without that person. Overanalyzing, sniping of other people’s ideas and basically not “getting it” will also poison the process.
Frightened yet? You should be. It’s not easy to speak up among a group of really smart people, knowing that most of what you say will be stupid and wrong. But that’s what everyone at the meeting has to do–open the flood gates and let the subconsciousness flow until the right idea takes shape. Right brainers welcome. Long live the right side of the brain.
Stay tuned: in Part 2, we’ll map the controlled insanity of the KACM in greater detail.
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Q: How many surrealists does it take to change a light bulb?
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