5 Reasons Your Creative Might Not Be Innovative

+ Innovative advertising takes much more than just a spectacular creative idea. The philosophy of creating communications that wow has to be a group decision, whether that decision is a conscious one as an extension of the brand itself, or something that takes much debate to make a reality.

1) From the start, the strategy has to support a creative and innovative approach or idea. This helps insure that the client is open to the way of thinking and that come time to present the ideas - they are not completely shocked with anger or disappointed. (NOTE: Making the client uncomfortable is not a bad thing, my point is that it's not good to go in with something so unexpected that they get pissy).
2) The creative team has to look at unusual and unorthodox ideas that reach the target in an authentic and unique way. It's helpful to have the creative team work with media at this point as well to discuss the media vehicles to best distribute the messaging/creative.
3) The account team has to back the idea and see the value in it. The creative team needs the support of the account team, especially if the client is not on-board from the start. Starting with a strategy that supports this way of thinking from the beginning is a sign that this way of thinking is understood throughout the members of the team across disciplines.
4) The client needs to understand the value of doing something ground-breaking, innovative, etc. This is another reason why starting with the strategy is so important. As the brief for the project should reflect this thinking, and the client must sign off on it prior to starting the project, it means they know what they are getting into and their expectations are set for something incredible and non-vanilla.
5) The media team has to have a solid understanding of how to best execute this thinking and extend the innovation, as necessary, to the type of media buy. Again, this is why having the media team and the creative teams meet up during the brainstorming or at some point while coming up with ideas is key.

If there's one thing to take away from this, it's to make sure everyone is looking to do great work. It only takes one piece of the entire puzzle to be missing and you end up with the mediocre work that is 99% of what we see in advertising, be it traditional, digital, etc.