The Power of the First Idea
Recently I took a “creative sabbatical” to visit my son at the University of Chicago. The purpose: to help his dorm win an annual U of C competition called “Scav Hunt.”
Scav is not so much a scavenger hunt as a state of mind. Held over four (sleep- deprived) days, teams compete on tasks, which include performances, construction, arts and crafts, research, travel and finding obscure objects. My son’s dorm, Snell-Hitchcock, had won this competition for the last two years. He and his dorm were determined that this year’s outcome would be the same (they won with a 600-point lead).
It was delightful and refreshing to observe a group of (really brainy) students conceive and create 268 items with speed that would give a typical agency person and her clients a heart attack.
Here’s a sample task.
“They say the Scavhunt brand is growing stale and they need a swell new ad campaign to really push the product. Get the boys down in Creative on this, pronto!”
And here’s how much time it took the team to develop the winning campaign: 10 minutes
It was the best campaign on campus. (Fair balance: I’m slightly biased). It was fresh and aspirational with that quintessential U of C sarcasm. A series of four ads asked, “What Do You Scav For?” with droll responses and illustrations relevant to previous Scav events. (“I Scav for The Animals” referred to last year’s Scav where they used chicken carcasses laced with razor blades to conduct “chicken fights.”)
The team did not invest in research, hire experienced consultants, orchestrate big brainstorms or deliberate in exhausting creative sessions. They relied on intuition for insights and developed the creative within an hour of conceiving the idea.
There’s a lesson here for us experienced professionals. Especially those like me who love nothing more than pouring through a pile of data to find that one big “aha”: sometimes that first spark of an idea really is the best. Some of the best programs I’ve ever seen have been conceived before the client has finished presenting the brief. Of course, in the “real world” we need to do a little more work to substantiate it, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t explore those early ideas. Some of them might be winners!
