By Miguel Reis, Creative Director at Shift Your Branding Agency
There is a romantic idea about creativity that is still difficult to let go of: that great ideas suddenly appear, almost through inspiration, in one of those moments when everything simply falls into place.
After 30 years working in branding and design, I believe in that less and less. A good idea starts much earlier, when we truly understand the business, the product, the people and what the company is trying to achieve. Before looking for an answer, we need to understand whether we are asking the right question.
Capturing attention is no longer enough
For a long time, a good idea in communication was often judged by its ability to surprise, generate awareness or capture attention. All of that still matters, but today it is no longer enough.
For me, a good idea is one that creates value by making a brand more relevant, a product more desirable, an experience simpler or a business stronger. That is also why I have never seen branding as a way of simply making a brand look better. Branding should help make a business stronger and more valuable.
When we change this perspective, creativity stops being merely a question of expression and becomes part of strategy.
Before the answer comes the question
Curiosity and the ability to observe are probably two of the most important tools in any creative process. Observing people, listening to clients, understanding behaviours, identifying motivations and questioning what seems obvious all help us uncover the real problem.
Often, when an idea does not come, the first reaction is to look for more references. I prefer to go back to the beginning and ask whether I have understood the challenge well enough. I believe much more in reframing a question than in insisting on an answer, because when we change the way we look at a problem, new paths often emerge that we simply could not see before.
Data, strategy and creativity need each other
I have never seen data, research, strategy and creativity as isolated disciplines. Each plays a different role within the same process.
Data helps us understand where we are, strategy decides where we want to go, and creativity finds a way to make people want to take that journey with us.
Problems arise when we expect data to produce ideas or creativity, on its own, to solve business problems. A good idea is not necessarily one that wins an award or generates the most attention either. It is one that continues to create value long after the campaign, launch or project has ended.
It has never been easier to produce
Today, we have more information, more references, more channels and Artificial Intelligence tools that allow us to experiment, test and visualise possibilities at extraordinary speed.
I see this as a huge opportunity. AI allows us to experiment faster and can free up time for what I consider truly important: thinking better.
But no tool can replace critical thinking, sensitivity, curiosity or the ability to understand people and businesses. Tools will continue to change and our capacity to produce will continue to grow. The real differentiator will be the judgement to decide what is actually worth creating.
It has never been easier to produce. Perhaps that is precisely why it has never been more important to know what is worth creating.
Because a good idea rarely happens by chance and almost never starts with the answer.
It starts with a good question.
Developed from the interview originally published in Marketeer's "Assim nasce uma ideia" series.