Flashy vs Brilliant

When I was still in advertising, my former boss, Sarge Lacuesta, instilled in us the difference between being brilliant and being flashy. The former lasts long while the latter is fleeting. Being flashy is also way easier than being brilliant. You see this in Hollywood blockbuster films; big budget, large explosions, uber CG effect, but story and plot…? See. (Best example is The Last Airbender versus Inception…if you liked Airbender more, please send me a pm and enlighten me on this).

Going back, there really is no hard and fast rule in creativity hence most Creatives books consist of case studies than actual step-by-step processes. You can learn techniques to help you along, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that you are creative already. I remember a pitch material we presented to a client: Our whole creative team poured out a lot of man-hours adding special effects and creating an elaborate corporate brochure design. Then my then-boss, Sarge, drafted a study on his own….using PowerPoint. It was simple executionally, but heavy conceptually. Guess whose work got picked? Yup, it’s the one
with the spot-on concept. The super glossy, art-work-heavy material can be considered flashy, while the meek and humble PowerPoint one can be considered brilliant.

THERE IS NO SECRET INGREDIENT

Well to be more specific, there’s no magic-bullet in creative thinking, but there are tools to help you fine tune and hone your creativity. Like anything in life, practice makes perfect. So that’s one of the things you will have to remember. If you feel you stink with your ideas and creativity now, don’t worry, Leonardo Da Vinci was a noob once.

TOOL TIP #1: Start with a motherhood statement or the major idea.

• This is the end-all and be-all of creativity: that one simple and honest idea. Honest, because viewers can small pretentiousness. The more honest a communication material is, the more effective and this goes back to very honest insighting.
• Insigthing is the process of getting a truth (usually emotional) from the target consumer or viewer and using this as the central root of our whole communication material or campaign (or even product line).

TOOL TIP #2: Don’t be afraid of ideas – even the bad ones.

• Write them down. Every single idea no matter how stupid or funny or bizarre at the initial brainstorming piece is acceptable. As Seth Godin writes, if you tell me you can’t come up with Good ideas, can you come up with Bad ones? Point is you won’t know until you test them. So write, put them on paper and then weed them out later on.

TOOL TIP #3: Be relevant

• Writing honestly is making sure that the communication material is relevant to the perceived target audience. So this means you have to fully understand the target audience first, drawing relevant insight and then thinking what can be the best method for them to accept your information with the less amount of barrier.

TOOL TIP #4: Have fun, be crazy and don’t be afraid to break some rules.

• It’s important, especially in a creative work, to be comfortable with your environment since it is very difficult to be creative when you’re stressed out. So find a place/s where you can be creatively productive. Could be a mall, or the park, or the bathroom, or a quiet place, or a coffee shop, whatever it is, usually there is a place where people tend to be more creatively inspired. Also, don’t forget to have fun….seriously! I remember when me and my friends do brainstorming we end up talking about the silliest of things (probably after having a drink or two) and then the genius ideas flow out after.

TOOL TIP #5: Read, read, read or watch, watch, watch.

• Ultimately, getting more and more interested in the creative process and having an appreciation of the superb marketing communication campaigns will open you to do more research on what is considered as brilliant than flashy.

In line with this article, I’ll be posting a new entry this week which will share with everyone some of our favorite ads here at NMP.