Is the “big idea” over?

The notion of The Big Idea may have provided the dramatic fuel for the TV series Mad Men, but it is potentially harmful to the collaborative process. With the Big Idea, expectations are high, people invest a huge amount of time and energy into coming up with it, and as a result, are very protective of it, even if it’s not the right answer for every medium. Maybe it’s time to move on.

Instead of coming up with a fully formed idea designed for a single medium, maybe it makes more sense to start with a ‘seed of an idea’ that can be developed more collaboratively and deployed across a greater number of channels over a longer period of time, adapting and adjusting to different platforms, messages and audiences along the way. This would require a more open, co-creative approach to be successful.

Instead of assigning different components of a campaign to separate creatives, it may be wiser to break down the silos and get all your agencies around the table at once, collaborating and working holistically towards a single goal. That way you win and lose together, not alone.

Co-creation is not about ‘I’, it’s about ‘we’, and it only works when you’re truly working as a team. When you have players working towards their own individual success, it threatens the success of the creative process and the brand it is trying to build.