Take the brief and make it as short as physically possible
First, get the entire brief down to maybe 16 words. Or 8 or 6 or even 2 if possible. Do you think those are the most important words of the challenge?
For example, a page-long brief about a brand of almonds that make your skin look younger, might become just: “Skin nuts.“ Good. Now you’ve whittled down the challenge to something manageable. Attack this new brief for a while. Now fill a page re-writing these new words better as lines of copy.

The Shower Mindset

Wake up early before you’ve gotten a full night’s sleep and start writing and ideating before you shower, when you’re still half asleep, while your mind is still partly in the dream world. Your subconscious mind is more interesting than your conscious mind. This can help you mimic the much-treasured relaxed creative state that your mind is in while you are in the shower or on the toilet.
[Emma Barnett, Wieden + Kennedy veteran, on ‘Bagley Talks to an Important Person’ advertising podcast]

Look the wrong way

Start with out-researching everybody else for insights. Do your ethnography - the scientific studying of the customs of individual cultures and groups. Call stores, interview customers, read online reviews, even read their terms & conditions searching for an interesting nugget that no one has brought up. Speak with a salesperson and pretend to be an inquisitive potential customer of your Product and ask them hard questions. They say Strategy is an outdoor sport. If insights were animals you were hunting, they’d hide in the research. Try to find something that the Strategy team missed or didn’t see its importance. Look the wrong way. This can be the most fun part. Uncover undiscussed patterns of the people that your brief is targeting.

Research around the brief. Google why customer behavior is the way the brief says it is. Uncover why people aren’t and are buying the product. Research. Research. Research. Research. Research. Research. Research. Research. Research. Research.

Bad Ideas Only
Make only bad ideas/solutions to the problem. Start with 10. Afterward, see if any of these “bad ideas” have a nugget that can be turned into a viable idea. Bad ideas aren’t shit, they’re fertilizer for good ideas.
[Learned directly from Mo Osunbor, Creative Director at TBWA\Chiat\Day || Ex-TikTok, Meta]

On this topic, Sir John Hegarty says:
Are you staring at a blank page wondering if you will ever be able to come up with an idea to crack the brief?
If this is you, I have a technique that might help: “Start stupid”
Years ago, my team and I were trying to drum up some creative for a new colour TV. We couldn’t get off the ground with an idea. We needed something (anything) to get the thoughts flowing.
 
So, I had a stupid idea. “Let’s get an actor dressed as King Henry VIII to introduce the new TV. He can talk about how great the new TV is.” I knew it would never run. But it gave us lift off for a better idea.
 
Here are three things to remember… 
1. Stupid ideas are still good ideas. 
2. And if they’re not good, they can be useful.  
3. Being sensible kills creativity. 

All the Industries
What are all the industries the brand is "in"? For example, a dog adoption brand might also be considered to be in the therapy industry because the dogs they give away provide "therapy" to some of their customers. The same dog adoption brand might also be technically in the home security industry because the dogs act as security, or the healthcare industry because the dog can help sick people get better. Your brand is rarely in just one industry or field. So take time to list every possible industry that your brand is in besides the obvious one. Then, think about any of these industries changing the style of your ads or the benefit, message, culture, community, etc.
Example: Capri Sun Juice realized they’re also in the tech business of giving parents a break from their loud kids

Idea Buckets
One of your first step to writing one hundreds-plus headlines and platform lines is coming up with all the various “buckets” or areas that you and your creative team partner can brainstorm under. You’ll find your Buckets by simply listing the: benefits, benefits of the benefits, features & attributes, pain points, truths, insights, etc for the brand/product you’re working on. You can get more Buckets by writing down everything you can say about the brand that is true. So you and your partner are actually thinking about categories of ideas before you get to the writing. This exercise goes hand in hand with the philosophy Think First, Write Second.
[HANDBOOK FOR HACKS][A Self-Help Guide for Copywriters]

Time Travel with your Product
How would the past or future be different/better/worse if your brand’s product was around or wasn’t around at that time?
Example: If Cleopatra had Amazon Prime

Research jokes on the category
Jokes often rely on and reveal tensions. Then re-tell the germ of the joke in a new, brand-friendly way.

Say it straight then say it great
When filling pages with ideas or copy or lines, just get the idea down and don’t worry about wordsmithing it or coming up with the perfect name until after.

100 MPH Thinking
Write lines or ideas as fast as you can get them down. Come up with lots of ideas in a short amount of time. Don’t pause to even judge the quality of each. Do some speed-writing for an hour or three. Speed is your friend because you won’t have time to gauge the quality. In other words: write hot and fast, edit cold at a later time.
[Learned from Tom Monahan in his book The Do-It-Yourself Lobotamy]

180º Thinking
Identify some of the directions of thought that are typically used by your peers in your industry when thinking on the situation or industry that you are thinking on. For example, if you’re working on a cell phone carrier brief, 99% of creatives working on a cell phone carrier brief, think about “faster.” You can write down some of these attributes. Push your thinking in the polar opposite direction. If you’re working on a brand of beds or linen, most creatives will think about ideas about “soft.” So you should think about “hard.” Or “uncomfortable.” Now follow the flow of these new possibilities. They will be very different than the low-hanging fruit that your peers around the world are coming up with at that very same moment. 180º Thinking is simply the opposite of traditional thinking, the way that almost everyone else is thinking about your type of brief. Doing the 180º exact opposite of direction of where conventional wisdom suggests you think is an exercise worth trying. At best, it can be brilliant and even revolutionary. Think small.
[Learned from Tom Monahan in his book]

Intergalactic Thinking
Leave the known and go to some galaxy of thought that has nothing to do with your brand’s category. Think outside the galaxy of your brand’s industry. First, imagine all of the knowledge, data and theories that have ever been entertained by the human mind, in topics outside of your topic at hand. For example, banking, golf, music, stocks, medicine, etc. Then, look into these galaxies of thought and ideas for ways to improve your brand or solve your brand’s advertising challenges or business challenges. This is how truly fresh ideas are often found. By going to seemingly unrelated galaxies that have nothing to do with your box, opens your imagination up to whole new galaxies and universes of possibilities, instead of just searching in your solar system.
[Learned from Tom Monahan in his book]

Concept Solitaire
Step 1, choose a topic to brainstorm solo.
Step 2, write out your problem or question on the top of a document. Preferably in 8 to 12 words or less.
Step 3, on the next line, write a 2nd sentence that incorporates a key word or phrase from your 1st sentence.
Step 4, continue to rephrase the statement on each successive line, incorporating a new key word or phrase from each proceeding line into the next line.
On and on. This can help you make progress or solve the problem or discover the real problem or realize the problem isn’t a problem. At the very least, this gets you working on the problem because the worst thing you can do is just sit with a problem.
[Learned from Tom Monahan in his book]

Idea Cloud Technique
Write a main word from your brief or Product or brand on a white board, draw it inside a cloud, and have the creative team call out any word of phrase that comes to mind related to the word on the board or that they associate with the word. Don’t stop before 45 minutes or longer. Definitely don’t stop once you’ve hit on something you think is brilliant.
Another version of this is to put any word or phrase in the world, in the cloud and do the same exercise. Try to pick a word or phrase that can be fruitful and engaging and fun, such as “13” or “Things a porn star says during a porno.” Then, see if connecting any of the team’s answers, to your brand/brief to make an interesting new idea.
[Credit: Larry Gordon, GCD at Laundry Service]

Collab with Geniuses
What would ____ make? Pick a favorite creative or artists of yours. What would Bernbach/Bogusky/Droga/Kling/Jobs/da Vinci/your favorite creator write or do or make if given this challenge?
[Learned from Tom Monahan in his book]

Quantity Writing [OR “The Sally Hogshead Approach”]
Begin by generating way more ideas than feels natural. For quantity to soar, you must relax expectations around quality. For every 100 lines/ideas you capture, approximately one will have merit. Don’t stop or pause until you’ve got 150 lines or ideas. If you’re normal, most of these will be bad and embarrassing but a couple of them just might be gold. Don’t think. Don’t stop when you’ve hit a good idea. Because you might very well hit on a way better idea shortly thereafter that makes your previous good idea laughable. Move the pen. Fix it later.
[Sally Hogshead; Mike Rover and Micheal Stoopack]

*CLICK HERE to read Sally Hogshead’s now-famous 100 rough headlines for BMW Motorcycles that led to the few that ran

Write a letter to a loved one (or a diary entry) about the product
If you were working on the Olay skincare brand, you might write a fake letter or email to your sibling about how amazing the new Olay lotion is and why she needs to get it. Another version of this, is writing emails to an individual person in your target group. Try this every morning, changing up the recipient. See if the letter or diary entry inspires any new idea or angle.
[Taught at Miami Ad School New York]

The James Webb Young idea generation process:
1. Gather as much info on the problem as you can. You read, you underline stuff, you ask questions, you pry, you visit where it gets made and sold.
2. You sit down and actively attack the problem. (Other techniques on this site will help with this step)
3. You drop the whole thing and go do something else physically or creatively challenging while your subconscious mind works on the problem.
4. Eureka!
5. Figure out how to implement your idea.

Your brand is so X that __________. (x100 reps)
An example is: Reebok is so cool that it took the homecoming queen to prom. Now, where can that image lead your mind? Do a hundred of these and then explore whether any of them lead you to an idea.
[Credit: Larry Gordon, GCD at Laundry Service]

What would a 7 year old make? Or what would 7 year old YOU think about your idea?

Look at or even lay out every ad in the category, and make something very different, something standout.
Or how can your brand change the conversation or the stance that your competitors are taking in their advertising?
[Credit: David Ogilvy in his book]

What’s the category tension?
What is the big hairy thorny cultural conflict related to the category/company/brand?
An example is: Ubers vs Taxis, or Reading books vs Reading on tablets, Cell Phones vs Being Present
Example and the best piece of advertising Colleen DeCourcy’s has seen: Playstation: Double Life

Who’s the enemy?
Who really is your brand’s antagonist? Declare all-out war on that thing, brand, force, group or person?
[From AdHouse’s ADHOUSE OF CARDS - A DECK FOR ADNERDS by Tom Christmann]

Exaggerate the problem
Someone is in disarray and pain because of the lack of the Product. You can take this to the extreme by imagining the worst case possible scenario or series of events that can happen if someone doesn’t have your Product.
Example: directv "Get rid of cable"

Exaggerate the benefit
Go overboard.
*Pro-tip: Many lazy ad concepts simply take the benefit or problem and make it bigger. The difference between a good and a bad version of this is a bad one exaggerates a product feature while a good one exaggerates and captures the feeling of the benefit or problem in a surprising, memorable way.

Ask: What happens if you were to exaggerate the features or benefits of the product by 10 times? 100 times?

Dramatize the benefit
Script an exciting, emotional, or unexpected series of events or set of circumstances in which your Product benefit is the central crux or the knight in shining armor savior. This is one of the most common formulas used in ads. For an overexaggerated version of this, think about late night TV infomercials where the host or actors are being so extra about, say, how hard it is to clean windows or how much of a hassle it is to cook a meal in a regular oven.

The Absurd Alternative
What’s the absurd solution that people would have to do to get your Benefit if they don’t own your product?
Example: Pete & Gerry's: Almost the wildest eggs you can get

The Paradox Ad
A paradox is a seemingly absurd or self-contradictory statement or proposition that when investigated or explained may prove to be well founded or true. It is a classic headline technique to use a headline that seems wrong, untrue or self-contradictory, for the purpose of shock value mixed with getting you to investigate the ad further. You can often do this by taking a benefit or RTB (reason to believe / a feature) and twist it in a way or phrase it in a way that it sounds like it can’t be true or right.
Example: ARE YOU MAKING PLANS FOR YOUR WIFE'S DEATH?

The Opposite Ad
Say that last thing a brand in your category would say, but upon further reading or experiencing the ad, it turns out to make sense for your brand to say - which pays off the headline.
Example from SIXT rental cars: HERE

In this example, the brand SIXT rental cars strongly wants people to rent more cars. The above headline is the last thing you expect a rental car business to advertise. But when you read the body copy or tagline of this billboard, they are saying, Don’t rent a car, rent THE car. Because SIXT whole concept is that they have more interesting and unique cars that you can rent, not just another basic rental car like the other guys have.

PROMPT: Ask yourself: What’s the very last thing your brand wants to say in this ad to accomplish their ad’s goal?
Start with that as a headline and workshop it from there.

Tap into your personal experiences with the category
Rack your brain and lean into for personal connections with the product, brand, issue or cultural conflict. The ideas that come from this are usually stories, original and true.
[Credit: Copywriter Nicolas Perez-Molina]

Analogy & Metaphor
What’s it “like” to use the product?: Using your Product/Brand is like _____
Can any of those analogies or metaphors be made into an ad? For example, is taking your multivitamin pill that contains 30 protective vitamins like having 30 moms? Imagine waking up to 30 moms! Or inviting your 30 moms over for dinner! Or think of metaphors for the problem that the Product is solving, like AllState’s long-running Mayhem campaign in which the recurring character comedically represents different forms of mayhem that you can get insured for.

Write 50 iterations of: Brand/product X is so _____ that _____. OR: Using brand/product X is like _____.

Larry David Your Idea
Put your hero or product through hell; through their personal hell for a day because only conflict reveals character and truth.
[Learned from ‘Bagley Talks to an Important Person’ advertising podcast]

Do the Rong Thing
Go so far over the line that you can’t even get the line on the phone anymore. So wrong that it becomes right. Being disobedient at every stage of the way. Good work rides into town like outlaws and splashes mud over decent citizens. In order to get something that’s OMG. if you don’t do “rong” right, it looks like a mistake or a miscalculation. if you do rong perfectly right, theres no doubt that’s what you meant to do. Make it broken in exactly the right places to be broken. Every category establishes its own brand of boring. Don’t use any of that category iconography. Do the opposite of what your common sense tells you. Answer the brief, then roll a grenade into it all. If your product is beautiful, show something ugly. If you’re a food brand that sells chicken, let real chickens run your social media feed. Circle your bank logo in hotdogs. There is a strategic invincibility to doing an idea that is Stupid.
2 Signs You’re Idea is Rong and Stupid:
1. Will people talk about this idea?
2. Someone asks: Are you sure they’ll let us do this?
[Luke Sullivan]
Example: Diesel: BE STUPID
Example: Skittles: Touch the Rainbow

Twist a Saying
Pick famous sayings, idioms phrases, and change it to make it something ownable by the brand.
[Junior, book by Thomas Kemeny]

Example: “A dating app picture is worth a thousand swipes”

Ari Halper, Global ECD & Head of Creative Excellence at R/GA, says one of his go-to techniques is finding a turn of phrase that connects to the brief, and then from that, finding what the idea would be under that title or come from that title.

The 3 Doors
The 3 doors you always find ideas behind. Every brand or product has ideas behind:

-Door #1 - Functional
Let your brand make something easier, faster, no effort, saves money, makes money, less risky, or helps fight the good
fight. Start with any of those. Maybe “easier,” and brainstorm all the ways your brand/product makes something easier.
then add a creative twist to turn those into a campaign. For example, say your’e working for a theater. You realize
they make it easier to see good theater. You can extend that to a brand activation deploying a fleet of cabs that will drive
anyone for free to the steps of your theater, and has a live violinist playing in the cab and a trivia game show where
passengers can win tickets, and it’s streamed on their social accounts. Continue down the line of other functional
benefits.

-Door #2 - Emotional
Find brand ideas that are emotional by letting your brand offer less stress, less fear, more hope, more self-development,
more joy, more nostalgia, more health, etc.

-Door #3 - Social
Find brand ideas that are social by letting your brand offer or make more bonding, affiliation, status, belonging, reward,
attractiveness, love.
[Jona Bronkhorst]

Pick a new audience
Choose any audience other than the one in the brief and see if that sparks anything that could work for the correct audience. If your product is a life alert for very elderly people, what happens if teenagers used them?

Break the Product into its parts to highlight a benefit or message

All the feels - Use a new sense to experience your product
How might the benefits of using your Product smell, taste, sound, feel to the touch? Feel free to bring the weirdness, just don’t get it on your coworkers.
How do the lobbies of your bank brand sound or smell differently than the others, and why? What does that say?

Pick a new medium than the one in the brief and create against that for an hour
Take an hour to write an audio spot or a taxi top, for example. Then see if any of your new ads spark something that is on-brief.

*Forced Relationships
Combine two things that have never been combined before. Usually, I’d start with your brand Product as one of those two things. Join two totally different ideas to come up with a fresh idea. Most good creative ideas have one foot in the familiar and one foot in the new/novel.

“Creativity is just connecting things.” - Steve Jobs

What is the truest thing one can say about the brand? Product?
A line of Truth is way more powerful than a line of good wordplay. Or find a piece of “Unknown Real News.” Tell the truth & run.
ex. If you were working on Crocs, one of the truest things you could say is that Crocs are ugly and they hurt your chances of getting laid. If you’re working on Popeye’s, maybe this truth is that this food is terrible for you?
Some provocative questions to spark ideas that get to the truth are:
What is the worst possible thing we could say about the brand? What should we never admit? What could we say about the brand but aren’t allowed to? See if there may be a way to use this brand truth that’s been hidden away up till now?
Any work derived from this exercise will definitely stand out from the vast majority of advertising.
[Credit: Mike Rovner, CD & AdHouse teacher]

”I go straight into what are the truths and what are the lies. Write down all the things that are true, then all the lies about this category or thing. Then, put them besides each other and map out how you can put a truth and a lie together in a way that makes the hair on my arms stand up that opens a door in your brain where the air is different.” - Colleen DeCourcy, Wieden + Kennedy, SNAP 

Use your ad to thank someone or the customer or a well known person
Could be comedic use of a public figure who has nothing to do with your brand, to make your point.

Conduct an experiment (social media experiment?) that proves your message
Like a Tinder experiment that proves that having your brand of cologne in the photo background gets people more dating matches.
Example: Dove Real Beauty Sketches

Break a brand rule in a way that proves a message
What message would it send if your logo was upside down? Or if you used your competitor’s colors? Or if your mascot got a new hairdo? Etc.

Imagine and showcase the ultimate perfect day in the life of the Product

Play around with scale and the size of your Product
Example: https://www.amusingplanet.com/2011/11/creative-sculptures-promoting-london.html

Extreme consequence to the point that the benefit becomes a burden
Too much of a good thing.
Example: Take 5 Oil Changes

Who is your product not for? Show what happens if they use it.
Selling accounting software to mid level managers who make $150,000? What happens when you give that software to broke punk rockers? K-pop star? Aristocrats? Kids? The wealthiest person in the world?

If I Ruled the World
Imagine a world where your brand rules the world. What’s different? What’s fun?

Treasure it
Imagine the Product becomes extremely valuable, scarce and sought after. Imagine there was only one left on Earth.
Example: Cooper Mini Counterfeit

Use the product in a whole new way for something very different to make some point

Be an art thief
Can you use a famous artist’s signature style or a time period’s art style to make a point or say something about your brand? Find an art style or artist’s style that connects to the Benefit and make ads in that style. Steal like an artist.

FOMO
Show what could happen if you don’t use/have your product.
Example: GOT MILK? Aaron Burr

Invent a new process of how the Product is made that brings the message to life
Examples: Starburst: How do they make them so juicy?;
Left Twix vs Right Twix

Come up with Visual Solves. Maybe try Symbol Combo.
Example: Chupa Chups sugar-free lollipops

Example: French Open

Compare multiple copies of the product or customer to highlight a message
See: Classic Volkswagen print ads.

Tell the real Product origin story. (if it’s captivating and grows brand love.)
Real or made up by you. A story usually needs an (1) imperfect character who (2) ventures to acquire a (3) difficult external goal but a (4) formidable antagonist and (5) obstacles stand in the way, forcing the character to grow and return home a (6) changed person.

Get corporate
Tell the company story(ies). Whether real or made up, it’s fine.

Cherrypick a great, real customer story and tell it

Take a controversial stand on an argument in your brand’s space
Example: Nike “Dream Crazy” starring Colin Kapernick

Whats the benefit of the benefit? Or the benefit of the benefit of the benefit?

[Learned from Paul Fix in his AdHouse class]

If you had to pick one, which trend or cultural conversation is the most appropriate for your brand or product to participate in?

Divergent Thinking first, then Convergent Thinking 

With divergent thinking you use tools of imagination such as brainstorming to generate many ideas and develop multiple solutions to a problem.
Convergent thinking on the other hand uses logic and focuses on reaching one best, well-defined solution to a problem.
Broadly speaking, the first half of your ideation process is about using your imaginations to come up with a huge range and swath of varied ideas without killing any ideas for logical reasons. And the second half is about using logic to choose a smaller number of ideas that can work for all your goals.
[Learned from Tanner Christensen in his book The Creativity Challenge]

Write Hot, Edit Cold (Or, Write Inebriated, Edit Sober)

Gather, Solo, Gather, Solo, Gather.
This applies to you and your creative partner. If you usually meet together and come up with ideas together, consider trying this: Gather to read the brief together, then go off solo to think on ideas and lines alone, then gather together again to discuss all of your ideas and think together, then both of you go off solo to think on it some more, then gather together again to discuss and think on your ideas, repeat for as long as you have.

Spend time outside of your comfort zone
Go to museums. Weird small museums, maybe a museum related to the topic but maybe not. Science centers, walks in new neighborhoods, purposely get lost, drop in on a library, visit your local book store. [Credit: Barry McLaughlin; and Nick Lipton]
Put new in. Get new out. Your output can only be as good as your input. [Credit: John Hegarty]
For me, mornings are for using your mind, afternoons are for filling your mind, evenings are for emptying your mind.

The Don Draper
Just think about it, deeply, and then forget it. Go for a long walk. Do anything besides work on the brief during this phase. An idea will jump up in your face.
[Credit: Don Draper in Mad Men]

Add real value
List the difficult or annoying things in the world of your Product Category and have your brand help make your target’s lives or days better.
Think on the Who, With Whom, What, Where, When, How and Why of your target’s experiencing your brand/product/category. Think on their motivations, their habits & routines, the tensions, disruptions, and their goals.
Find an entry point where your brand can help your target in a way that makes sense for the brand. Add real value for them by helping solve that issue for them, even by just 1%.

Read the online reviews about your Product
This might be your brand’s truth. But confirm by other means that any insight you glean from online reviews like Amazon are really a truth and not just one person’s comment, anecdote or opinion.

Recurring Character
A great character or mascot needs to be memorable and unique in its look, personality, mannerism and behavior. It should be one-of-a-kind and preferably share a quality with the brand.
Example: Allstate “Mayhem”

Create a new word that embodies the feeling of using the product
Example: Usedphoria

Give your brief more barriers/restrictions
For example, if you’re working on a dog food brand, try challenging yourself to not have any dogs in the work. Or car ads without any cars in it. Or if you’re writing lines, maybe only allow yourself to write 2 word headlines.

Look at old ads and let them direct you
How would you make a classic or long form ad for your brand? Now update those into modern ads.

Not what, but where?
Think about how you can create or manipulate the context surrounding your ad media to highlights a benefit or message.
Think not what the message should say, but where would be the best location or touchpoint to say it to really drive the message home.
Example: The Economist OOH billboard
Example: The Economist - bus top

Consistency: Same coffee shop, same table, same pen, same notebook, same time every day (early before work if possible).
And then just write anything that pops into your head until it starts organizing itself into ideas.
[Jerry Hoak]

The Soapbox Approach
What would you scream across the street to get someone to pay attention to your brand? Start your headline there.
*For maximum effect, combine or stack this approach with #15 The Sally Hogshead Approach.

Write at the bar
Or at the beach. Or on the train. Changing up the location of where you’re jamming or writing changes more in your head than you might think. I know of a writer to takes one day every month to check into a motel just to write. Many successful authors find that they do their most interesting writing while flying on a plane because they are in this liminal no-man’s land grey area of a space where you might not be sure what state or country you are in. But if you don’t have any upcoming plane trips, then go cozy up at a bar stool.

Go to the club
Have you ever been watching a movie and a scene comes on, maybe it’s in a night club or a honky tonk or somewhere else, and it just feels so off, so false, so fake? That’s probably because that writer or director hadn’t been to a club or one of those places in years or decades. Don’t be that type of creator. Now, connecting this to you: you might be working late one night with your team and your CD might ask you to change the script from an office setting to a club, and you have 30 minutes to write a scene that takes places in a club and it better feel true and right and like it’s coming from someone who has been to one recently. Balance your staying in & consuming media with going out & consuming the world. If not for your soul, then for your career.

What’s the Press headline?
What’s the PR headline about your idea? If your idea can’t fit into a short news headline then it’s probably not clear or provocative enough.

This one short question, made famous by Alex Bogusky while at Crispn, Porter + Bogusky, changed how creative advertising is created.

If I told you a brand was doing something extremely wild in a hotel just outside of town, something never done before, something more fun to participate in than what you did on Saturday night, would you drive out to participate in it?

“What if we came up with an idea so cool, people would actually seek it out and watch it on-demand?” - P. J. Pereira

Radically change the location
If you’ve got an idea for a commercial or any ad that takes place in a specific setting, but you feel like the ad is missing something or feels a little lackluster or forgettable, try drastically changing up the location it’s set in. If you set your cell phone ad in a cell phone store, try instead setting it: on a small boat, in a mansion, in bed, on a plane, underwater, etc, and see if that improves the spot or ad.

Free Association
See what happens when you collide outside stimuli with all the new knowledge bouncing around your head after being briefed and doing your research. Start by writing down every random thought or association you have about the category, product, brand, problem or benefit. Ask yourself lots of questions including, What are all the benefits or feelings this product provides, or problems it solves, or people it could help, and how can they be presented in a surprising way?
Is there any form of art or culture that you can present them in a new way?

Free association depends on a mental stream of consciousness and network of associations. There are two types: Centered association prompts you to generate multiple associations to the original trigger so that you delve into a particular area of associations. And there is serial association: start with a trigger, and record the flow of ideas that come to mind, each idea triggering the next, ultimately reaching a potentially useful one.

Break Your Spot
Continually break the working formula of your spot in the spot, so that it keeps surprising the audience.
Example: Samsung Galaxy 7 Edge

Make anything but an ad
Example: Skittles Commercial: The Musical

FOR ACTIVATIONS:
Category’s biggest problems
List out the 10 biggest problems related to the category. Then think on how your brand would help solve those in a way that’s on-brand. The biggest problems lead to the best solutions.