A few weeks ago, after a panel discussion I was part of, a member of the audience came up to me and asked me how to influence upwards and get her great ideas out into the real world.
It got me thinking.
I’ve spent a long time in the industry doing just that. Convincing people why a great idea is, well, great.
But breaking through the layers of bureaucracy to find advocates for your ideas, as any creative will testify, is not easy, particularly in the world of big brands and bigger budgets, where the stakes are high.
Selling the idea
Indeed, selling an idea means taking something incomplete, but full of potential, and getting other people to see what you see. It’s hard, but you could also say it’s part of the creative process too. If we want that idea to make it into the big bad world, we have to sell it and compel people to see what you see.
Why push for brave ideas? Because breaking the mould is what drives remarkable results. The easy path – the one paved with safety and sameness – only leads to mediocrity. It’s tempting to settle there, to nod along with the comfortable and expected, but that’s exactly where innovation goes to die.
True creativity happens when we challenge, agitate, and pull people out of their comfort zones. It’s about showing clients that risk is the currency of reward, and that the real danger lies in playing it safe. So, let’s not just nudge brands toward bravery—let’s shake up the boardroom. Let’s disrupt the sameness and replace it with ideas that dare to be different.
For me, it’s a two- pronged attack –
The bored and the board
First up, we have to change the mindset of our clients. We need to let them know that they “don’t have the budgets to be boring” as Greg Hahn at Mischief would say. Anything they do has to be interesting, emotionally driven, have stand out, be different.
In other words–get shared, get talked about, get people to help do some of the heavy lifting for the brand. This is selling to the bored. As Dan Murphy from Liquid Death phrases it, “You have to be the most interesting thing on someone’s feed that day.”
But that’s just half of the (more exciting) story. It’s also important to be commercially clear. Otherwise the energy put behind developing brave new creative will quickly turn to mass frustration and apathy when it’s not cleared by the business.
When selling your ideas to the board, you need to make the emotional make sense. When presenting an idea, remember—an idea has to come from someone and lead to somewhere. You can’t expect people to buy your idea without any back story, or without tantalising them into what’s possible with it.
Three buckets
Anyone presenting an idea to me, must do so in three buckets: Insight, Idea, Execution. What is the human truth, or interesting ‘thing’ you’ve found out about our audience? What is the idea that addresses or solves this business problem? How do you propose to execute it; OOH, Digital, Experiential, and what’s the expected result?
It’s important not to mix the execution with the idea, and it’s important not to confuse an idea with an insight.
Taking the board (or anyone who needs to buy your idea, including a CD!) on this journey, explaining it to them in language they understand, making the emotional, make sense, will make it easier to sell your ‘brave’ idea.
So here’s to the brave. The ones willing to disrupt the sameness, to fight for the ideas that make waves. Because in a sea of safety, only the brave breakthrough.
Originally published on Prolific North.
