Lecture I am giving to an introductory creative class. I think it's a good thing to learn some history and have a frame of reference about how we got where we are today. This frames up the Big Idea from the days of Ogilvy and Lois to how creative ideas have and need to evolve.

1. CM417.19
The big idea.
Dead or alive?
Edward Boches, Professor of Advertising

2. What is a big idea?

3. "You will never win fame and fortune unless you invent big ideas.
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." David Ogilvy

4. A big idea can change popular culture.
It can transform our language.
It can launch a new business.
It can turn the world upside down.

15. What do you think? Are these big ideas? Are they still relevant?
Can these kinds of ideas live on?

16. Historically, there were different kinds of (big) ideas.

17. Ideas that were totally contrived.

19. Ideas that defined the essence of a product.

21. Ideas that created a persona for a brand.

24. Ideas that defined a vision.

26. Ideas that framed the competition.

28. Ideas that gave a brand its soul.

30. Ideas that made you pay attention to boring categories.

32. What did they have in common?

33. Part of cultural landscape
Everyone knows them
Endured the test of time
Traditional advertising content

34. But the Internet has changed everything.

35. Consumer is in control
New media landscape -- fragmented, real time,
mobile
Few collective experiences
Attention is the new scarcity

37. “The big idea is dead. There are no more big ideas. Creative
leaders should go for getting lots and lots of small ideas out there.
Stop beating yourself up searching for the one big idea. Get lots of
ideas out there and then let the people you interact with feed those
ideas and they will make it big.”

38. So what do we do?

39. Have lots of little ideas.

40. CRAIGSLIST
The first step will be a post on Craigslist of the White home. The post
will be packed with details fans of the show will recognize. Although
hashtags don’t work on Craigslist, we’ll include the phrase “Breaking
Bad” so the post will turn up in searches. The agent number is
connected to a Google Voice mailbox, where a recording reveals
who’s behind the post and invites people to leave messages.

42. Create products where the ideas are baked in.

45. Build utility and become a brand as service.

46. personal data, improved performance
uses foods you already have

47. Crowdsource participation.

50. Experiment all the time.

52. Do things that create and yield content.

54. But does that mean the big idea is actually dead?

55. IBM Smarter Planet
(a belief, a purpose, a behavior, advertising)

60. American Express Small Business Saturday
(a movement a program, incentive, annual event, content, utility,
social media, advertising)

63. Red Bull Stratos
(an event, a collective moment, social media
content, spread and shared, viewed after the fact)

65. John Lewis
(advertising, story telling, engagement, sharing, and
an event that can be used to build collective awareness)

71. Part of cultural landscape
Everyone (or the right people) knows them
Endure the test of time OR at least dominate the moment
Traditional advertising content plays a role

72. Messages
>
Experiences, content
Bought attention
>
Earned attention
Passive consumer
>
Involved consumer
Art and copy
>
Internet and technology

73. Maybe we should re-write the definition of a big idea.

74. Stop looking at the classic funnel from this angle.

75. Advertising

76. Look down from the top.
It’s a maze, with a very circuitous route to the bottom.

77. advertising
environmental
search
applications
experiential
mobile
social media
WoM

78. Let's for a moment argue that what made the Big Idea big was that it
became omnipresent. That it reached the masses.
That it was embodied in a single tagline (Just Do It) or image (Marlboro
man) that lived for many years across many media.
That it was primarily a message. Designed or conceived only to get you
to notice a brand or product, pay attention to it, perhaps like it and
hopefully buy it.
If everyone saw the ad at the same time you did, and approved of its
message or embraced the concept, you, as a consumer had permission
to buy that product.

79. Those days may be gone.
The Internet, technology and the proliferation of media may have
changed it.
The fact that our attention can rarely be bought, even if we watch a lot of
TV and video, that it has to be earned, that it turns to multiple screens
and platforms to focus and that it quickly moves on certainly suggests
we need new kinds of ideas.

80. No, we don't need digital ideas. (Watch out for that label.) What we need
are ideas for a digital world.
We need ideas that are....
interesting, shareable, usable, customizable.
Consumers, if not also producers, are at the least a powerful distribution
channel. The real challenge is that we need amazing ideas no matter
what size they are.

81. Which means we need our small ideas to be big -- if big means
something that catches your attention (even a utility has to be noticed
before it gets used), fills a genuine need; makes you feel great about
using (or reading or engaging); and whose brilliance inspires you to pass
it on.

82. Go forth and make
amazing shit.
And lots of it.