IMM09: A periodic table of creative ideas

Of the talks at IMM09 a standout for me was Nick Vale from Mediaedge CIA. Nick provided a really useful framework for understanding the potential of ideas. I won’t do it justice here – but that won’t stop me trying;
Nick explained the 5 basic types of creative ideas – using the metaphor of the periodic table – It’s his work and I hope he’ll post it up pubically somewhere soon but I hope he wont mind a ham-fisted summary as its a lovely way of looking at ideas and helps to understand their interrelationship and value.

The five main categories of the table are

1. Content ideas that are defined by their format type (such as a the energiser bunny TVC)
2. Context ideas that are defined by their their media environment – they can only happen in that specific media
3. Tactical ideas that are just straight up executional (such as The Economist outdoor ads)
4. Strategic ideas – Nick used the term platforms which really made sense to me – and gave the example of Dove’s ‘Real Beauty‘ and Landrover’s ‘Go Beyond’ campaigns which were strategic platforms that allowed for all kinds of ideas and activities in a variety of media, locations and formats.
5. Activation ideas; ideas that are an invitation to participate with the brand and work through the line in all environments and media channels – he used the example of Mars’ ‘Believe’ campaign for the World Cup challenge.

Now clearly I’m a fool for a framework – but this really helped me to understand some significant differences between tactical and strategic ideas – are we creating either platforms or activation ideas (preferably) or are we creating tactics (less preferably)? And if its such a lovely tactic – then dig back and see what the nascent platform or activation idea was that formed it in your subconscious. More on Jung and advertsing some other time.