Great Ideas Come In The Shower

I am one of those people who likes to take long hot scaulding showers. I often use this time to think about the day ahead, what I have and haven’t done, about life and on the odd occasion, about clients.

Being naked and thinking about clients probably doesn’t put a good image in one’s mind, but if you forget the fact that I am naked which isn’t a great site I might add, and focus on free flowing thoughts, quite often a pearler does comes to mind.

I am a strong believer that when you are relaxed and least expect it, you can come up with some of the most brilliant ideas.

I once listened to Bryce Courteney talk at an event and he told the story of how he came up with one of the most famous television commercials in history.

50 years ago Bryce Courtenay was desperately trying to avoid the sack, actor Ross Higgins was battling to earn a quid and the boss of Mortein, was ready to dump his ad agency because his fly spray wasn’t selling.

After hopping into a cab to attend an urgent meeting, Courtenay was told to arrive with an idea. In the short ride to the ad agency he composed a rough jingle to be sung by an animated fly named after the cab driver Louie.

The boss of Mortein, Graham, bought it and Louie the Fly was born, going “straight from rubbish tip” to become possibly the longest continuously running television advertising campaign.

This morning, an idea for a client that sells a craft beer in Victoria was born. They have a brilliant, character brand name that takes away from the new metro male versions that are now flooding the market. It has attitude, charisma and above all, an ability to bring the brand name alive in the mindset of the target audience, like no other brand I have seen in years.

I must admit, I have always been in love with the old VB commercials from 1984 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wfgi9hGx1) “a hard earned thirst, needs a big cold beer, and the best cold beer is Vic, Vic Bitter….” so I would say it’s hard to beat… but there is one that everyone needs to watch.

Great marketing ideas don’t need to be forced. The best ideas come from free flowing thoughts and occasion from people you least expect.

Getting hung up on trying to come up with a great idea and ending up with something ‘that will do’ isn’t a good option.