Make Your Ideas Cool, Custom, & Effective

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It is unfortunate that the word “idea” has been so overused in our culture that it has come to mean pretty much anything. Because, in the business of marketing communications, ideas have to work much harder. The job of a marketing idea is to persuade.

We think of a marketing idea as persuasive communication. More specifically, a persuasive campaign that uses your tools to establish an authentic, intimate conversation with your audience on behalf of your client.

Now, there are certain ideas that are so powerful that they create results for your clients and revenue for you. And our research shows that those ideas are special in that they meet three separate standards: They are cool and custom and effective.

Ideas need to be cool to the target consumer. Only cool ideas have the power to break through the noise and engage the audience. The target consumers quite literally say to themselves, “they are talking to me!”

Ideas have to be custom to the client's brand. Your clients should see their brands in your campaigns. Your ideas should help the client get credit for the campaign and reinforce their valuable point of difference.

Ideas need to be effective in accomplishing the client’s marketing objective. All your assets and your tools increase in value when you successfully integrate them into a persuasive campaign that accomplishes the client’s marketing objective. The client wins because the campaign works and you win because you sell more of your tools at a higher price.

When you make your ideas cool and custom and effective, your audience, your client, and your company win.