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Sometimes it’s easy to get so busy doing, that there is not a lot of time left for thinking. In marketing departments, this can lead to habitual, year-over-year marketing plans with very similar campaigns from one season to the next. Well executed plans can lead to incremental growth, but secretly (or perhaps not so secretly) we all wish and hope that one of our campaigns will create a monumental shift. As we head into budget season, make room to achieve big success with your 2025 planning.
Shaking up your business requires new thinking. Specifically, it requires new thinking that leads to big ideas. But that is much easier said than done. Sadly, just sitting down and saying, “I’m going to have a big idea now” does not work. As an agency that specializes in solving some of our client’s biggest problems with creativity and big ideas, we’ve put together some insights to help you get there.
Get Crystal Clear on Goals
Setting goals to grow revenue by X%, or to increase clicks by Y% is important, but it’s also tactical. To set yourself up for a big idea that can actually drive real business results, you need to pull back from these lower-level goals and think at a more macro level. What do you really want to accomplish from a big-picture perspective?
Do you hear crickets when you ask that question out loud? Your brand mission statement and brand values may be able to serve as a guide to help you get started. For example, does your brand stand for embracing the differences that make the world fun and interesting, or making it easy for people to experience joy? Though it may sound lofty, this is where you should start when creating your goals.
Then, rather than a goal to increase revenue by X%, you can layer in your brand’s mission, vision and values to create a bigger picture goal like spreading joy to a new generation of Americans. This now gives you an authentic direction to create the big ideas which can drive the X% revenue growth you are after.
Identify the Problems and Opportunities
Once you have a lofty goal, you may see an exciting, untapped opportunity. It’s also likely that you’ll quickly start to see problems with achieving it. That’s not just okay, it’s great! Giving yourself problems to solve can help lead you down a path toward a big idea.
Mind you, the path to a big idea is rarely straight and is more like a maze.. As you start to define how you will move forward, you’ll find that the idea doesn’t work for some reason or other. In a maze, you don’t quit, you back up and try a new route. As long as you trust that the goal can be achieved, you can do this as many times as is needed to get there.
Get Outsiders’ Perspectives
This is important, because working with a lack of diverse input is one of the biggest barriers to creativity. Often, especially if you’ve done the same thing in the same place for so long, finding a new route seems impossible. This is where it helps to get an outsider’s perspective. There are many ways to do this.
At Gigasavvy, we often talk directly with customers to understand what is resonating, and also talk with a wide range of internal stakeholders to uncover challenges and insights from other departments. Since we are industry agnostic, we also are fortunate to have firsthand knowledge about what is resonating with similar audiences in other industries.
With these additional insights and perspectives, we can approach problems and opportunities from different angles. And that’s when big ideas are ripe for the picking.
Identify Roadblocks
When the big idea hits, you want to get started on it right away. Here, as you begin to assess your internal resources and compare it against all that is needed to make your idea a reality, you may start to run into more roadblocks. That’s okay too! Look for ways to solve the problems, rather than compromise on a solution, and you may find that your roadblocks can make the big idea even better.
If, with all of the internal resources you have at your disposal, you cannot bring your idea to fruition, begin to think outside of your four walls. Do you need more expertise, more capacity, more collaboration? The help of an agency? All of those things can be had.
Make Sure You Have the Money
It’s easy to fall into a trap of allocating every bit of budget to routine marketing campaigns and tasks. Unfortunately, this does not leave room to bring big ideas to life. Of course you can pitch the big idea to executive team members and ask for incremental funds. And if the idea is strong enough, this may work. It may also end up with you delaying your big idea a full year until the next budget comes around.
The easier way to combat a lack of funds is to earmark money at the beginning of your budget planning session. Set aside funds that will be deployed in campaign development in support of your big idea. That may seem risky during budget season, in Q3 or Q4 of this year, in the absence of next year’s idea. But, don’t set yourself up to settle. You cannot be successful if you don’t set yourself up for success.
Gigasavvy is a forward-looking creative agency partner that believes in the power of big ideas. We believe every brand has a compelling story to tell. Contact us to help you tell yours.
