The following is my opinion and doesn’t necessarily reflect the opinion of my agency, my partner, my clients or anyone else I know or have ever worked with. It’s just one of my working theories on producing great creative.
Most people don’t like “out of the box.” They may say they want it. They may demand to see it. But in the end, they rarely buy it. In fact, they usually kill, kill, kill the most out-of-the-box things. This does not make them bad people or stupid or shortsighted or anything at all. This makes them human. We all have our boxes and we love them. They’re warm, comfy and safe. Outside the box is strange and scary. Think about it, you have things you’re perfectly comfortable doing, but if someone pushed you beyond your safe area you’d reject the idea. I love the thrill of roller coasters, but there’s no way in hell anyone will ever get me to bungee jump or skydive. The thrill may be better, bigger, cooler, grander, whatever. Still, ain’t no way in hell I’m jumping off a bridge with a rubber band around my ankles. So why do we expect our clients to be any different? After all, they’re people, too. More than that, they’re brands and institutions with a lot riding on their decisions. Their boxes protect them from doing stupid things like jumping out of airplanes or changing their secret formula (usually). Having said all this, let me make one thing very, very clear, I am in no way advocating mediocrity or mundane creative. I am firmly committed to creating, producing, and pushing outstanding ideas. My point is that we need to respect the box and use the box to our advantage. Use the box? Yes, use the box. Our job as creatives is to find out the size of the box, and learn everything we can about it. How, when and why was it built? What keeps the box where it is? Who owns and controls the box? Then, once we know all that, we can use that knowledge to guide us as we fill the box. I mean really fill it. Find every corner, every seam, every little nook and cranny, and put as much stuff (ideas) in that box as you can. Everything in the box is in the comfort zone. Some stuff will be right in the center while some will be out in the corners, but it will all be in the box. Once the box is full, we start pushing on the sides. We have to push as hard as we can and make that damn box bigger. The bigger the box, the more it can hold and the further out the corners get. Eventually, things that used to fall outside the box suddenly begin to fit. Ideas that previously made the client blanch are now considered real possibilities. They’ll still have their no-go zones, but their comfort zone will be larger, giving us more flexibility and freedom to do more creative work. Who knows, maybe you can get the box big enough that the occasional out-of- the-box idea won’t die a fiery death on take-off. It might actually make it to round two reviews.
Most people don’t like “out of the box.” They may say they want it. They may demand to see it. But in the end, they rarely buy it. In fact, they usually kill, kill, kill the most out-of-the-box things. This does not make them bad people or stupid or shortsighted or anything at all. This makes them human. We all have our boxes and we love them. They’re warm, comfy and safe. Outside the box is strange and scary. Think about it, you have things you’re perfectly comfortable doing, but if someone pushed you beyond your safe area you’d reject the idea. I love the thrill of roller coasters, but there’s no way in hell anyone will ever get me to bungee jump or skydive. The thrill may be better, bigger, cooler, grander, whatever. Still, ain’t no way in hell I’m jumping off a bridge with a rubber band around my ankles. So why do we expect our clients to be any different? After all, they’re people, too. More than that, they’re brands and institutions with a lot riding on their decisions. Their boxes protect them from doing stupid things like jumping out of airplanes or changing their secret formula (usually). Having said all this, let me make one thing very, very clear, I am in no way advocating mediocrity or mundane creative. I am firmly committed to creating, producing, and pushing outstanding ideas. My point is that we need to respect the box and use the box to our advantage. Use the box? Yes, use the box. Our job as creatives is to find out the size of the box, and learn everything we can about it. How, when and why was it built? What keeps the box where it is? Who owns and controls the box? Then, once we know all that, we can use that knowledge to guide us as we fill the box. I mean really fill it. Find every corner, every seam, every little nook and cranny, and put as much stuff (ideas) in that box as you can. Everything in the box is in the comfort zone. Some stuff will be right in the center while some will be out in the corners, but it will all be in the box. Once the box is full, we start pushing on the sides. We have to push as hard as we can and make that damn box bigger. The bigger the box, the more it can hold and the further out the corners get. Eventually, things that used to fall outside the box suddenly begin to fit. Ideas that previously made the client blanch are now considered real possibilities. They’ll still have their no-go zones, but their comfort zone will be larger, giving us more flexibility and freedom to do more creative work. Who knows, maybe you can get the box big enough that the occasional out-of- the-box idea won’t die a fiery death on take-off. It might actually make it to round two reviews.
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