the best creative ideas ever

Walk a mile in my shoes and you'll understand.

We love to put ourselves in the customer's shoes. Why? When making any decision regarding your customer's experience, set the scene as if you were a first-time consumer. Asking a few key questions. How would we have gotten there? What would be looking for? What are the fewest steps to any buying decision?

It's the start of the new year and everyone is talking a big game about the goals they want to achieve in 2019. The gyms are packed with new members. Scales are purchased. Whole30 is started. Motivational quotes fill Instagram feeds and seem like they'll never end. These people are really determined. 

You know what they say, a project without a plan is a wish. 

It happens to us all the time. A client asks us to design an ad, create a brochure or build a website. That's awesome - it's what we do, after all - but before we get started we need to know exactly what we're creating and why.

All of this information goes into a creative brief, which is the roadmap we use to determine the eventual creative output. What is a creative brief? It's a plan on what and how to deliver a project. Why is a creative brief important? As creatives, we're strategic partners. We don't just design for the sake of design. We want to ensure that what we create meets your business goals. A creative brief provides the foundation needed to make sure that we're delivering what you need. 

Millennials used to be the biggest buzzword in marketing. For years, brands were scrambling to find new ways to tailor their content to meet the younger demographic. Sometimes it worked (like with Spotify’s New Year’s campaign) and sometimes it didn’t (see: Pepsi’s disastrous Kendall Jenner commercial). However, as 2018 comes to a close, we’re faced with another grim reminder that we’re not only getting older, but Millennials are too. In fact, Generation Z is set to outnumber Millennials in 2019 and is set to become the next biggest target group.

In recent years the C-Suite has expanded to include innovators, designers, marketers and other creatives. The 90s saw the rise of the Chief Marketing Officer as a crucial team member (a role that tech companies can't get enough of today). More recently, designers are starting to rise to the executive level - see companies such as PepsiCo and Johnson & Johnson, both of which have set aside corner offices for Chief Design Officers.

So what's behind the rise of the creative executive, and why should your company take note?