Creativity Without Losing Sight of the Brief – How to Evaluate Creative Ideas

Customers get bombarded with ads every day, so standing out has become the number one priority for many brands. A creative, break-the-mould campaign could be the answer. Agile content creation is often the best way to arrive at a mind-blowing innovative solution.

Why? Agile content creation encourages everyone to brainstorm ideas and consider different perspectives. As a result, the team can be as creative as they can be. Thanks to this methodology, you’re almost sure to find a diamond somewhere amongst the coals. But this is where a first challenge arises.

How do you objectively evaluate a creative idea to find that needle in the haystack? How do you weed out the peas from the ashes? 

Check Back Against the Brief

When you brainstorm far and wide, it can be easy to lose sight of your initial task and get off track. So the first thing to do when evaluating a creative idea is to bring it all back to the brief.

Ask yourself if the idea directly relates to the message your brand is trying to send. One way to do this is to let anyone who hasn’t worked on the concept read through the idea and report what emotions and impressions it evoked. Are they what you were aiming for? Then you might be good to go.

Keeping It Simple

The next question is if your creative idea is communicating simply and efficiently. Your ads shouldn’t be fine art – your target audience should be able to understand it straight away and walk away with a clear message. If your idea needs explaining, it has probably failed this criterion.

Does the Idea Inform Your Brand?

Standing out is excellent. Standing out with no relation to your brand? Not so much. Make sure your creative idea aligns with the values and emotions on-brand for you. Does your creative idea inspire a positive reaction towards your brand? Does it reflect your tone of voice? Each campaign should authentically represent your brand, so your creative briefs must communicate your culture.

Does Your Idea Offer Something New?

The goal with creativity is to create something that stands out from the masses. This is where market research is vital. Ensure you know what has already been done before and what is currently traditional for your market. 

That way, you can evaluate whether a creative idea falls right in line with other brands’ work or whether you have found something distinct and new. Don’t presume an idea is fresh because it appeared that way just to you. Instead, make doubly sure that your concept can grab attention in an oversaturated media world.

Is It Doable?

And finally, your creative ambitions should fall within your budget and capabilities. As lovely as it might be to shoot an ad on the moon, it will probably not happen.

Evaluate your creative idea against the equipment you have available. Quickly count up what would be required to make your idea work and how much it would cost. It’s better to leave a great, ambitious idea for later when you have the means of production than to drag it down with limited resources now.

Check-in With Your Agency

If your agency has supplied you with creative ideas, it’s worth asking them for a bit of background. Where did the idea come from, and how did it first arise? Why do they think it will be successful?

An agile, creative agency will communicate its vision and align it with your brand. Highstakes film is an agile content creation agency in London that works with unique brands to produce creative ideas just as special as they are. So get in touch today to start working on your following creative brief.

Published by High Stakes Films

High Stakes Film is a Production House in London delivering concept-to-edit brand experiences through photography and film. We bring the creative talent to get the job done when the pressure is on, from talent features and product shots to brand storytelling and POS. High Stakes Films draws on ZAK’s next-generation insights and strategies to inspire ground-breaking creative productions. Whatever you need - we’re here. https://www.highstakesfilms.com/

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