I recently lead one of Howard Partridge’s Inner Circle calls where we talked about how to get ideas for ads. At the end, we did a brainstorming exercise to come up with an idea for a tile cleaning ad.
Here’s a simple brainstorming technique anyone can use. You can use it even if you don’t consider yourself creative. All you have to do is spend a few minutes associating your “key point” with different words. Then, BOOM! You have a creative idea.
First, come up with your key point. This is the ONE thing you want your prospect to know after they’ve read your ad. Your key point could be your offer, something particular about your service, your unique selling point, or any benefit you want the prospect to know. Your entire ad is centered on the key point.
Start by writing down everything that comes to mind about your key point. Don’t leave any ideas out. The more off the wall, the better. Write down movies, songs, TV shows, cars, food, and products that associate with your key point. Write down some stories your clients have told you about the topic. Then, think of the biggest benefit your client could possibly get from your key point. Write every idea you can think of. There are no bad ideas at this point.
When you can’t think of any more ideas, look over your list. Now it’s time to enhance your ideas. Make them even more outrageous. You can always tone them down later. But for now, you’re coming up with stuff that’s bizarre.
Lastly, look over the list again. Take your ideas to the opposite end of the spectrum. Pick some ideas to make extremely conservative. Tone them down. This helps balance out your crazy ideas.
When you’ve exhausted all your ideas, pick your top two or three. The top ideas we came up with were “Mop and Glow-Dull” and the story of how a homeowner will spend an hour cleaning a small 10 square foot area of tile. Then, we had to adjust these ideas to turn them into an ad concept.
The “Mop and Dull” concept included explaining to homeowners how mopping alone can’t keep their floors clean. Of course, our professional service is the answer to their problem.
The small area cleaned story starts with the homeowner purchasing the best grout cleaners, brushes, and even knee pads to clean their tile. Then, she spends an hour cleaning only to get a very small area cleaned. She realizes it will take four days to clean her kitchen. So, the answer is to call us so we can solve her problem.
The more you practice it, the better you’ll get. Try it the next time you create an ad. You’ll get some great ideas.