About this Process

The “Steps” are built around James WebbYoung’s classic book, A Technique for Producing Ideas, written by an “ad man” in 1939. Young set out to debunk the “myth” that creative people are just “born talented” and get “struck by sudden ideas.” He observed creative folks in action and recognized that although their processes differed (on the surface) the structure of the work they did could be codified into certain steps. Of course - everyone does these steps in their own way. Some may do research by talking to hundreds of customers or friends, pestering them incessantly with prying questions. Some may read voraciously. Others may hoard large files of seemingly random information, eticulously compiled and cross-referenced. Webb argues that aquiring information and then combining it in constructive ways formed the heart of the creative process - be it musical composition, poetry writing, technology or advertising.

Perhaps you have heard the phrase “trust the process.” This is a process you can trust. I promise, if you fill up your entire book and do all these annoying things - you will have a halfway decent idea.

For a window into the minds of a LOT of different legendary creative folk, I reccommend Griffin and Morrison’s The Creative Process Illustrated. It asks people to subjectively describe their own methods. I think if you compare their specifics to Webb’s outlined generalities, you will recognize the plodding, maddening, simple steps everyone goes through to come up with “spontaneously brilliant” ideas.

Step 1: Gathering Raw Material (pages 1-3)

“The amount of ideas you can generate is dependent on the number of marbles you have in your jar. Research means adding more marbles to your jar.”

Research is just curiosity at work. Start asking the largest number of questions you can. Don’t assume anything. Don’t judge anything. Just collect information.

Useful Sources

Asks you to find at least five places (ridiculously low number) to look for information regarding your assignment. The Art of the Keyword Search comes into play here. Don’t settle for the most obvious answers. Look for credible, credentialed sources (your high school teacher taught you the difference between Wikipedia and a “real” source, right?) Primary sources are always the best - not an excerpt of the newspaper article, but the article itself. Not a repeated saying, but the original speech. In fact, get out there and conduct your OWN surveys or interviews if at all possible.

Audience Research

There are some great sites out there that provide demographic research to advertisers - many bogus ones, too. Use your University library or sources like the AAAA, or online surveys, to find and analyze your customers. Ask yourself “Who else might need this?” Dove recently launched a new line for Men. Is there an overlooked audience for your product?

Product Benefits

Just answer the questions. Try to make the answers as different as possible from each other. You are just looking for the “Unique Selling Proposition” for this product. What does it have that no one else does?

Step 2: Digesting the Material (pages 4-17)

This is probably the step people think of when they think of “concepting” or “ideating” What you are trying to do here is come at the problem from as many angles of attack as possible. Analyzing the information you have so far, and recombining it. Beginning to play with language, visuals, and selling propositions. Say it one way, then say it another. Don’t get caught up in making stuff cute, clever, or ad-like at this stage. Just generate. Don’t edit. Vomit on the page as much stuff, as many different ways as you can. Use all your resources; find some other people and brainstorm as a group. Trade one-liners with someone. Free associate based on found images or words. Turn your brain upside down and inside out.

The “Truth triangle” is an attempt to put together the needs or interests of the customer, the benefits of the product, and something else –something relevant or important in the “world at large.” One example: Nike made shoes for runners. Their built-in audience was people on track teams; nothing new there, and a pretty small market. The “Just Do It” line came from realizing you could market these good running shoes to people who were looking for running shoes BECAUSE JOGGING (and fitness in general) WAS BECOMING A MASS MOVEMENT. Without that third innovative cultural angle, you are just bragging about your product to people who probably already want it.

The press release (p.5) is another idea-starter. How could you get your product INTO THE NEWS? What could you invent or create that you could write a press release about? Some recent examples are “Whopper Freakout” and the “Subservient Chicken” from Burger King. Neither were ads. Both were news. Watch some terrible local news and you’ll see what a void there is to fill.

Strategies (p. 6) These are your top 3 working ideas. The main arguments you have formed - reasons someone would be interested in your ad / product / thing. Can be as simple as “smooth” or something short like “Stays open later than everyone else” or something inventive like “the only tooth whitener safe for teenagers”.

100 headlines (p. 8-11)– please, please don’t try to make these cute or clever or rhymey. Think of them as benefits, arguments or angles. They might not even be headlines – maybe something like “create a reality show to prove that eating breakfast can help you lose weight” or “online contest for people who can jump off car roofs” or some other wacky actionable idea. You can turn the ideas into ads later.

100 thumbnails (p. 12-17) are where you start thinking visually. Look at the problem visually from lots of different ways. Try to convert the headlines or argument ideas into visual symbols. If your benefit is “smoothness” – what’s a symbol for smooth? What kinds of things are smooth? How could you marry a smooth symbol with your product?

Step 3: Unconscious Processing (pages 18-20 and a bulletin board, bookmarks or scrap file)

No, that does not mean time to go to the bar. It just means stop thinking DIRECTLY about the project and sort of let your mind wander. Your conscious mind knows everything it can about this problem now – give it the night off and just use your feeling, instinctive, emotional self. Build in this time (you didn’t procrastinate all those other steps did you?) or use this time to work on something else – but make sure you allow yourself “gathering time” to start accumulating a nice little hoard of visual inspiration.

Step 4: The Aha! Moment (pages 20-29)

Hang on here, you’re thinking – I thought I already HAD the idea. Well, maybe as you were working along you did come across something you got so excited about, you wanted to bail on headline #47 and just start making an ad. By forcing you to do all those other headlines, we made you KEEP THINKING. After all that thinking – you have a better shot at KNOWING. You can usually FEEL when the idea is awesome. If not – use that feedback group you have and get someone wise to look them over.

Sometimes right here you get a WHOLE NEW ANGLE and that’s ok too.

So, draw all the REALLY GOOD STUFF here at a slightly bigger size. Best ideas, best visuals, best headlines, all together. Make sense?

Also, start figuring out some of the design hierarchies. Whether you are using web, banners, balloons, whatever, start designing the message to fit the space. Use the type design pages too for the typographic part of your message (if there is one). If you are itching to start realizing your ads in bigger form, you have permission ☺ to abandon the little book now. Go bigger. Start finalizing so that people can envision what you are thinking in terms of execution. But don’t go all the way to finish yet, in case you’re on the wrong track.

Use pages 28-29 to collect feedback.

Step 5: Idea Meets Reality (pages 30-34)

You’ve though t it up, tested it, revised it, refined it, now you can make it real. It should be a pretty good idea, after all that. Don’t forget–there may be several different ways to execute it. Try more than one.

Whatever form your final pieces take, grad a screenshot of ‘em and print them out to keep in your book, to complete your process. And then evaluate how you think you did You are your own most important critic. Make notes here too about how to present your idea, or how to explain it–your “elevator speech”.

On to the next one.