Rigorous Magic: Communication Ideas and their Application

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The heart of the matter

It means I′m dreaming, like when I′m dreaming of horses. - Sarah, aged 4

It means you thought of something that looks in your head and you can try it and it might look good. - Noah, aged 6

It′s something like a brainwave that you come up with, that′s normally pretty good, but it can be pretty bad, that normally leads to a plan. - Oliver, aged 7

FROM THE EARLIEST AGE, WE ALL HAVE A NOTION OF what an idea is, whether we′re able to express it clearly or not. We all see ideas as inherently powerful things that can galvanise and drive us towards action. But when we embarked on our quest to explore the nature of ideas, it seemed at first that we were paddling upstream. We spoke to lots of different agencies right across the board and, without a shadow of a doubt, they all pay homage to the importance of ideas as a driving force behind their work - be it a 30 second TVC, a promotion, a sponsorship property or an event. Yet there seemed to be a lot of confusion surrounding ideas. What exactly is an idea? Are there different types of idea? If so, what are they? And perhaps above all else - what the hell is a ′Big Idea′? It seems as if everyone has to have a ′Big Idea′ these days - but how do you know if you′ve got one?

So on the one hand, there is unanimous acceptance of the importance of ideas, but on the other, there are different interpretations as to what actually constitutes an idea. But gradually, we began to see the wood for the trees. Slowly but surely, like sunbeams piercing the fog, we were able to place these interpretations and points of view into a hierarchy of sorts - a hierarchy that we believe for the first time introduces a level of simplicity into the seemingly complex and mysterious world of ideas, as well as answering many of those thorny questions.

Selling ideas

Ideas are at the very heart of marketing and communications. This may sound obvious, but there are many people in our industry who have only just woken up to the fact. And for some, it still doesn′t seem quite right to be earning a living from something as ethereal, weightless and intangible as an idea. They′d much rather sell something that you can drop on your foot, like a reel of film or a poster or a point of sale display unit. Indeed, there was considerable consternation and debate when M.T. Rainey (of Rainey Kelly Campbell Roalfe) first championed the notion that agencies should be paid for ideas and intellectual property, rather than charging commission income. The debate still rumbles on to this day.

Although, when it comes to the communications industry, it has to be said that selling ideas is nothing new. The legendary JWT copywriter, James Webb Young, told this story in his book A Technique for Producing Ideas, published back in 1965. It′s about a salesman friend who visits him in his office one day, in a state of high excitement. ′We are having a meeting today′, says the salesman, ′of our entire western sales staff. Its purpose is to discuss how we can improve our selling. In our discussions we′ve tried analyzing the sales methods of other successful businessmen and among them we′ve been particularly impressed by the success of Mr Kobler in his selling of The American Weekly. After studying why he is so successful we have come to the conclusion that it all rests on just one thing - he doesn′t sell space, he sells ideas! And we have decided that is just what we′re going to do. From here on, we are not going to sell space. Starting tomorrow morning, every single one of us is going to sell ideas′.

And although that was only published in 1965, James Webb Young had actually been telling that story to students as long ago as 1939!

Skip forward to today and it seems that anyone and everyone is in the ideas game. Research companies, brand consultants, PR agencies, promotional agencies, communication specialists, direct marketing agencies, media agencies, brand owners and even media owners are competing at a commercial level and battling head-on in an effort to win over the consumer through ideas-driven communications. But what exactly do they - and we - mean by a ′communication idea′? It is time to start working towards a definition of this key term.

What are communication ideas and what do they do?

′Communication idea′ is a term that most people are comfortable with and it′s broad enough to act as an umbrella for the many different kinds of concepts that we′ll encounter in this book - from the so-called ′Big Idea′ to the short term executional ′whizz-bang′. But what exactly do we mean by the term? There are as many definitions of ′communication idea′ as there are organisations competing in this space. And when we look at the definition of a communication idea, it′s important to try to differentiate (a little) between what they are and what they do.

So what are they?

Marc Earls, formerly of St Luke′s and Ogilvy, told us that ′A communication idea is a construct that lies behind not just the communications, the paid-for communications, but a construct that lies at the heart of the company′s explanation of who it is and what it does - to itself, if to nobody else′.

From our own side, here is our definition: ′Communication ideas are constructs that a brand uses as a foundation or ″stepping stone″ to help express itself′. Or, to put it another way, they are the bridge between the somewhat ethereal notion of a brand essence and what consumers see and experience in real life.

And this distinction between communication idea and brand essence is an important one, because the two are quite different. An essence is the brand′s still point in a turning world. Brand essences are as silent and unchanging as the ancient heads on Easter Island. Communications ideas, on the other hand, are alive and buzzing with energy; they are the USB ports that brands use to plug directly into the world around them in a meaningful and focused