Brainstorming was born in the late 1940s, when Alex Osborn of Madison Avenue agency BBDO formalized a process for group idea generation. He later wrote a best-seller, Your Creative Power, detailing the brainstorming process. Businesses adopted the process for many applications, none more so than BBDO’s rivals in the ad industry, where brainstorming gained a near-religious following. Today, agencies have a love-hate relationship with brainstorming. It either works for you, or you join the growing number of people who believe it is less effective than having a creative person work alone to generate ideas.
Pass It Along
In my days as an art director, I had the great fortune to work with several crazily creative gentlemen. One of their favorite tactics for brainstorming ad ideas, product names and taglines was the “pass it along” technique. One person would take the assignment and make a list of ideas. When he felt he had contributed all he could, he would pass the list to the next person. That person added his or her ideas to the list, and passed it on to the next person, and so on. By the end of a few hours, we would have a great fund of ideas to play with. Some of those were silly, stupid or just too weird to present to the client. But many were great options for fulfilling the assignment.
This serial brainstorming was fun as well as effective. Sharing ideas often spurred each designer to try to “top” the ideas of other ADs. Or, the ideas already on the list would start a train of thought an individual art director might not have pursued working solo. We could add related ideas, spin off on new trails, or suggest alternatives to ideas already listed. Each project’s list could start with a different AD, so no single person dominated idea generation. The end result was always better than one designer working in a vacuum.
Creative Management
While serial brainstorming combines solo effort with group collaboration, sometimes working solo generates the strongest concepts. Learning which projects fit which style of brainstorming is a job for the creative director, who needs to know team members’ strengths and weaknesses to appropriately match the project, brainstorming style and art director.
Group Or Individual?
“We haven’t had great luck with group brainstorming,” you may say. “Certain people dominate the discussion and others don’t contribute at all. Even when things go well in-session, the ideas aren’t always that great.” The trick to getting everyone to chip in ideas is to set up the session as a “volumizer”—you want any and every idea thrown on the table. No comments or editorializing, just lots of ideas. Ideally, everyone can play off the ideas of others, build on them, twist them into new shapes, and keep adding to the list of ideas.
The session moderator has one primary job—to encourage everyone to churn out ideas, quickly and positively. Prompts like “Good one! Give me more!” and “That’s great, keep ’em coming!” can keep up the necessary head of steam. Set a time limit for the session, and when it’s over, tell everyone thanks, and you’ll compile a list and circulate it for comments, additions and even more ideas. Once they get started, creative people keep thinking up concepts that could prove better than those from the session. Don’t shut those down—enable them. Allow time between brainstorming and comping an assignment to discuss, critique, refine and select the best.
If group brainstorming truly isn’t a reliable process for your team, encourage each creative to test personal brainstorming methods. There are so many different, clever ways to stir idea generation, surely each creative person in your agency can find a few that work for him or her.
Not Just for Ads
Ultimately, brainstorming is one way out of many to generate great creative ideas. Mix it up by changing how you brainstorm from project to project. Ask participants to think of ideas before a session, and share them in-session. Hold random brainstorming sessions to spur creative thinking around a particular client or account. Brainstorm how to pitch a new business prospect, develop new business mail pieces, or reach out to prospects you’ve had trouble contacting through regular channels. Use brainstorming to gather ideas for improving processes and procedures, or to develop proposals. In short, brainstorming can help many aspects of your business, not just the latest ad design.
Remember that the best ideas are born of the right mix of people and insights. Make sure your agency encourages serendipity. Have spaces where people can meet by chance and interact casually, or discuss what each is working on. The friction and debate that surround human interaction are the true key to great ideas.
