Our Purpose In Life.

Today's Marketing Cookie calls for self-propelled excellence.

There is a moment when a creative idea crystallizes into a campaign. When the metamorphosis happens, it can be one of the most euphoric feelings a marketer can experience. I know because I've had the privilege of feeling it myself. So, how does it happen?

Well, I think creative ideas are like stalactites that drip down from the ceiling of your brain. The idea, in its purest form, is nothing more than a drip of a simple word or phrase scratched onto the back of a napkin. As the creative team attempts to find ways to expand the idea, the drip falls to the floor, and a stalagmite forms into the beginnings of a campaign. The creative will grow around the idea, but the original drip must be allowed to flow in order for the campaign concepts to support the idea. If you work hard enough, the tiny drip will flow until the campaign and idea mature to the point when they can meet perfectly in the middle.

I'm sure you've seen advertisements out there that are terrific ideas but are poorly executed—that was probably a stalactite where the drip wasn't allowed to hit the floor. You've also seen tremendous multi-million-dollar campaigns where there wasn't a memorable, clever, or smart idea whatsoever—that was probably a gigantic stalagmite on the floor trying to hold up a tiny idea. Or perhaps the two never met in the middle.

Don't force your ideas into campaigns. The best ideas and campaigns are the ones formed by the original drip itself. It may take time, sweat, and aggravation, but always remember that great ideas cannot be made better. If an idea is truly great, and if you keep working on it, you will eventually see a suitable campaign emerge from the floor to support it. Albert Einstein once said, "It's not that I'm so smart, it's just that I stay with problems longer."

You see, the careful evolution of clever ideas is where I see our purpose as marketers. Many people have terrific ideas, but only a few have mastered the process of preserving the simplicity of an idea while forming breakthrough campaigns. Great marketers do not try to get ahead of other people—but rather stay with problems longer to get ahead of ourselves.