When he worked for a WPP agency, Neil French was the Worldwide Creative Director, and would have biannual creative reviews with agencies region by region and would select the best work for the agency portfolio. When the Mexican team presented their work, Neil picked one of their campaigns and commented on another. Then teams from other Latin American countries presented, and Neil would also choose one or two ideas. But when the Brazilians presented their ideas, he picked almost everything they had.
After the meeting, all the teams wanted to know how the Brazilians came up with so much great work. They said it was the way they concepted.
The Brazilians said they started off internally with a round of blue-skying the idea. Several teams came up with as many ideas in as many areas as they could. But then they narrowed that field down to their four best ideas, and set every team to work on those four. No team was coming up with new areas; they were mining what they had, even if it wasn't their idea to begin with. After that round, they narrowed it down again, picking their best four, and setting all teams on those. So what Neil French chose was a bunch of ultra-refined gems, not lucky strikes.
I think a lot of times when we concept, we start off just like the Brazilians, trying to come up with as many fresh ideas as we can. But I think that's where we tend to part ways. In rounds two, three and four, my experiences is we're all still trying to cast our idea seeds broadly, hoping we come up with some news ideas that will be even bigger and brighter than the first ones.
Most creative departments in most agencies aren't going to revamp how they review work. But what would happen if you, as an individual CW or AR went Brazilian. What if you and your partner took the three or four most fertile ideas you had and then said, "Okay, what else can we do with these stories? How can we reach the same conclusion in a different framework? How else can this story be told?" Rather than coming up with a bunch of new ideas that may or may not fly, you could be refining and exploring areas you already know have merit.
Give it a try on your next few rounds. We'd be interest to know how it works for you.
And check out this older post from Jim. There's some interesting overlap with what he learned at SxSW and what the Brazilians are already doing.
