What’s the big idea?
Introduction
To make a big impact, we need a big idea.
In brand communications, coveting the ‘big idea’ is commonplace. We look for them. Long for them. Laud them and lionise them.
Our deliverables boxes demand them. Our creative directors seek and solicit them. Our judges and juries acknowledge and award them. And they have done for decades.
The term can be traced back to David Ogilvy. In his 1948 book, Ogilvy on Advertising, the archetypal ad-man pushed the importance of the “big idea” to its poetic extreme:
“It takes a big idea to attract the attention of consumers and get them to buy your product. Unless your advertising contains a big idea, it will pass like a ship in the night. I doubt if more than one campaign in a hundred contains a big idea.”
In the seventy something years since the piece’s publication, use of the term has increased 1,300%. Books have been written, and TED Talks given, on the subject. You can find podcasts which help you ponder them and courses which help you create them.
Big ideas, it seems, are big business.
And yet, despite its ubiquitous use, the ‘big idea’ remains incredibly ill-defined.
Faizan Ali, an Account Director at VMLY&R, took to Twitter in November 2021 to ask a seemingly simple question:
“How the hell do you define a ‘big idea’?”
Some of the best and brightest marketing minds responded. Replies included “you know one when you see one”, “a big idea is one that is so simple you get angry” and “a big idea is one that has never been done before”.
But whilst almost all of the responses were interesting, almost none of them were in agreement.
This article is an attempt to change that. It is an attempt to bring unity where there are disparate definitions. It is an attempt to bring clarity where there is confusion. It is an attempt to bring continuity where there is nothing but dissonance and discord.
It argues that ‘big ideas’ are ‘big’ because they spread in three directions. They go long, spreading across campaigns. They go wide, spreading across channels. And they go far, spreading across countries.
Let’s explore each of these in turn.
Big ideas spread across campaigns
Back in 1948, Ogilvy didn’t stop at making the case for the “big idea”. He also provided a five point checklist to help us mere mortals identify them:
“Did it make me gasp when I first saw it? Do I wish I had thought of it myself? Is it unique? Does it fit the strategy to perfection? Could it be used for 30 years?”
For me, it’s the last question that strikes most strongly.
Big ideas last. They have longevity. Legs. They stand the test of time and have the power to persist.
Ogilvy knew this intuitively. But we now have the evidence to support his experience.
In The Long and the Short of It, Les Binet and Peter Field analysed 996 campaigns, from 700 brands, in over 80 categories that were entered into the IPA Effectiveness Awards across a 30 year period.
When it comes to campaign duration, the study’s finding was crystal clear:
“The total number of business effects rises steadily as the campaign length increases.”
And later:
“The longer a campaign runs, the more investment has been put behind it and the more time it has to generate effects.”
The duo’s data bore this out.
36% of campaigns with a duration of three years or more reported very large sales growth compared to just 23% of those that lasted three months. What’s more 15% of long-term campaigns reported very large profit growth in comparison to just 4% of those in the short-term set.
But big ideas are not simply a single campaign that plays on repeat. To endure for decades a big idea must be a platform upon which multiple campaigns can be built.
Guinness’ big idea, for example, is “Made of More” and Compton Cowboys, Gareth’s Story and Wheelchair Basketball are campaigns which have flowed from it.
To paraphrase the legendary Luke Sullivan, a big idea is one that creates more ideas.
Richard Huntington, CSO at Saatchi & Saatchi, takes this definition one step further. He argues that truly great ideas are generous. Yes, they inspire multiple campaigns. But they also inspire those that create them.
I’ll quote Huntington at length:
“I think that there is one thing that is absolutely true of great brand ideas - they are generous. I don't mean generous to their customers […] but generous to the other organisations collaborating on the project. […] When you brief your partners (whether creative, media, digital, PR, instore or anyone else) if you can see them literally salivate at the thought of the work that they are going to be able to produce. If the moment they understand the idea, they can already see that it will show off their prowess, allow them to meet the expectations the client has of them, give them a great case study and make working on the project enjoyable. And if what you have is a proper 24 carat brand idea not just an advertising conceit or an executional flourish then you are probably onto a winner.”
Big ideas are platforms upon which multiple campaigns can be built. This ensures the idea remains relevant. The familiar is kept fresh. The same idea is pushed in different directions. The old story told in new ways.
Over time the big idea becomes more impactful. Each new iteration builds on the same base. Each execution strengthens what exists. Each campaign compounds what has come before.
As Jon Lombardo, of LinkedIn’s B2B Institute, says:
“Unlike humans, ideas tend to age in reverse, [they] grow more robust as the decades pass.”
And so, this is my first criteria for a big idea. They spread across campaigns.
But this is only the first of three.
Let’s look at criteria number two.
Big ideas spread across channels
In a 2015 interview with Luerzer’s Archive Nils Leonard, then CCO of Grey London, spoke of his frustration with the industry’s obsession with big ideas:
“Most people still talk about “big ideas.” But what do they really mean when they say that? Someone might say it’s cultural, someone might say it sells a lot. Everyone has a different opinion. Really, what most people mean – and, I would argue, probably still mean – is a television commercial. And it just pissed us off.”
Leonard and his team didn’t equate big ideas to 30 second spots. Instead they went wider. To promote Lucozade during the 2014 World Cup, they recreated the Brazilian climate inside a branded building. For the British Heart Foundation they created Angina Monologues, a stage show that ran at the Haymarket Theatre. And for Volvo they created LifePaint, a safety spray for cyclists that glows brightly in the direct glare of car headlights.
These examples all challenge the TV-centric world of big ideas. They illustrate that big ideas cannot be defined by any single medium. That they flourish when they are free. That when they are let loose they become charged with possibility and potential.
But a big idea is not simply one that can be activated in an alternative channel. It is an idea that can be activated on any channel.
In an introduction to Stephen King’s book A Masterclass In Brand Planning, Rosemarie Ryan and Ty Montague make this precise point:
“Big ideas don’t fit neatly into any individual medium. In fact, they want to burst out of any single medium you try to jam them into. Big ideas sprawl.”
Big ideas are media neutral. They can be activated on any medium. From press to PR and cinema to social, they spread across channels and sprawl across touchpoints.
And this is no longer a hunch or hypothesis. We now have evidence to suggest that the more channels an idea is activated across, the more effective it will be.
In 2019, Effie Worldwide partnered with Professor Mark Ritson to analyse the more than 6,000 case studies that had won an Effie since 1969.
Again, the finding was clear cut. When a campaign used only one channel the average award score was 0.21. By three channels the score had risen to 0.33. And by ten channels the score increased to 0.41.
As Ritson put it in a Marketing Week column:
“All the evidence [shows] that, rather than investing heavily in a few ‘superior’ channels, the prudent approach is to invest across as many channels as your budget will allow.”
Ritson’s finding is corroborated by research conducted by Analytic Partners, who analysed 3,200 campaigns between 2010 and 2015.
The study found that campaigns that used two channels delivered an ROI that was 19% higher than those that used one. What’s more, the incremental ROI rose to 23% for three channels, 31% for four channels and 35% for five.
Put simply, the more channels a big idea can be activated across the more effective it is likely to be.
And so this is my second criteria of big ideas. They spread across channels.
But this is only the second of three.
Let’s look at the third.
Big ideas spread across countries
In 2017, researchers at Nielsen surveyed almost 32,000 consumers across 63 countries in order to measure consumer preference for local and global brands in 34 different categories.
In only one category, dairy products, did a majority of consumers prefer local brands (54%). In all other cases, from baby wipes to biscuits and hot drinks to hair care, consumer preference leant heavily towards global brands. The skew was so strong, in fact, that less than a third of respondents displayed a preference for local brands in 33 of the 34 categories.
What’s more, the preference for global brands appears to be increasing over time. Since 2015, preference for global brands in the bottled water category has increased 22%, in instant noodles it has grown 21%, in oral care 15%, laundry products 13% and pet foods 13%.
Regan Leggett, Head of Foresight at Nielsen commented:
“Consumers […] have greater access to global brands than they have in the past, thanks to factors such as expanding distribution, e-commerce offerings, and modern trade retail channels. As a result, we’re seeing a swing in preference toward the big multinationals.”
As this preference has proliferated, an increasing number of companies have attempted to build brands that span countries and cultures.
And it’s clear to see why. In an article for the Harvard Business Review, Professor David Aaker makes the case that it is the brands that go global that reap all the rewards:
“As more and more companies come to view the entire world as their market, brand builders look with envy upon those that appear to have created global brands—brands whose positioning, advertising strategy, personality, look, and feel are in most respects the same from one country to another. It’s easy to understand why. […] Companies whose brands have become more global reap some clear benefits.”
As a result of the growing taste for global brands, big ideas cannot simply spread across campaigns and channels. They also have to spread across countries. To do so, big ideas cannot be built on a shallow truth from a single market. They must instead be built on something deeper. Something more substantial. They must be built on a truth that spreads as far as the idea intends to.
Again, back to Rosemarie Ryan and Ty Montague:
“Big ideas appeal to the things that we all share as human beings - to universal truths. If you look around the globe and seek to identify the differences between people, you will find them. But you will also find things that make us all the same. Big ideas travel well.”
The idea of building big ideas on universal truths is not necessarily new. Bill Bernbach, the legendary co-founder of DDB, spoke about the importance of “simple, timeless, human truths”.
More recently, in his book How Brands Grow, Professor Byron Sharp analysed decades of data before coming to the conclusion that brands primarily grow by increasing their penetration. To do so, Sharp argues, brands must maximise their mental availability by appealing to all buyers within a category and resonating with people across borders and boundaries:
“This is what great advertising does, it resonates with a broad cross section of people, it taps into our commonality as human beings. Disney is a fabulous example of this, it has crafted stories that appeal to people of different age, culture, race, religion and so on.”
And so this is my third, and final, criteria for big ideas. They spread across countries.
Conclusion
So, there you have it.
Big ideas are ‘big’ because they spread in three directions. They go long, they go wide and they go far.
Firstly, big ideas are ones that stand the test of time. They are platforms upon which multiple campaigns can be built. They are ideas that create more ideas, ageing in reverse and becoming more robust as the decades pass. They are ideas that last.
Secondly, big ideas are ones that are media neutral. They are ideas that cannot be activated on a single channel, but on any channel. They burst out of individual mediums and flow across them. They are ideas that sprawl.
Finally, big ideas are ones that go global. They are ideas that view the entire world as their market. They tap into simple, timeless human truths and resonate not with that which divides us, but with that which unites us. They are ideas that travel.
In short, big ideas are ideas that spread across campaigns, channels and countries.
So let’s stop debating definitions. Let’s stop using language so loosely. Let’s stop relying on precise phrases with such imprecise interpretations.
Instead let’s commit to clarity and avidly avoid ambiguity.
We claim to be experts in communication. So let’s start acting like it.
Now that’s an idea I can get behind.
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Notes
This article was featured in the May 10th 2022 edition of the Strands of Genius newsletter. Big thanks to Faris and Rosie.