WRITERS ROOM: CONFIDENTIAL vol. 1
WHAT’S THE ONE THING WE COULD NEVER DO?”
Sometimes in advertising, we get too smart for our own good.
We have reams of research. We know the consumer inside and out. We know which product or brand features will resonate. We know what media to use, and how often to use it, and all we have to do is say the right thing in the right channel at the right time and we know we’ll be successful right?
Well, maybe.
If we don’t push ourselves to find an unexpected or entertaining way to do it, we will have left more than a few chips on the table.
Which is why, in our Writers Room development process, we often stop and ask, “What’s the one thing we could never do?”
It’s a great way to inspire counterintuitive thinking.
To get to big ideas that yield even bigger results.
And to get to the kind of work that everyone on the team is inspired to champion all the way from concept to production.
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One of our favorite examples is from our work for Veloz and their Electric For All campaign. If you have Arnold Schwarzenegger lined up to be your brand ambassador, ready to tell people all the great reasons why they should buy an EV, that’s a pretty great recipe for success right?
Yes, obviously.
But, what’s one thing you could never do?
One answer to that question is that you could never have him be anti-EV instead.
Once you create an unexpected conceit like that, all kinds of ideas begin to flow.
What if the whole thing is a prank video? What if he’s a used car salesman who refuses to sell EVs? What if he tries to sell a smog-spewing SUV? What if every reason he cites to sell a gas car is so insane that it’s actually a reason to choose an EV? What if we title it like it’s an action movie and make the whole digital campaign about promoting the action film?
When it works, it unlocks so many ideas.
You can see the full campaign and its outsized results here.
Another great example from our work with Veloz and Electric For All shows that this kind of thinking applies to media thinking as well as creative development.