Creative Thinkers

The Big Idea in Advertising Isn't Dead. It's Just Better Informed

Agency creatives and executives discuss the importance of the big idea in modern campaigns

a brain hooked up to wires inside a glass dome with a lit-up lightbulb on top — The Big Idea is still important in creating cohesiveness across multiple platforms.Kacy Burdette

By Kyle O’Brien

Lemon. The Uncola. The Man in the Hathaway Shirt. You Deserve a Break Today. Just Do It. Got Milk?

Those are just some of the big ideas that have inspired consumers over the last 80 years. Without them, modern advertisers wouldn’t have a compass for their own journeys.

In a 1972 article called How to Create Advertising That Sells, ad icon David Ogilvy stated: “Unless your advertising is built on a big idea, it will pass like a ship in the night.”

Industry leaders give a budding coalition some ideas to chew on.

Talking Tofurky: Plant-Based Food Marketers Imagine Their ‘Got Milk?’

Ogilvy was one of the original big idea guys, and his work for Schweppes, Hathaway, Rolls-Royce and other brands helped him and his fellow Mad Men transform the global advertising industry by putting forth smart ideas that spoke to human truths.

With

Kyle O’Brien

Kyle O’Brien is a staff reporter for Adweek and editor of AgencySpy.

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