Australian creatives have their own individual hacks, sprinkling fairy dust, stealing from cultural insights, finding a deep truth or painfully stretching that wearing brain, to come up with that pure gem that links consumers to brand.
So, where do the great ideas for campaigns come from?
Australian creatives weighed in on what is effective and whether that’s really changed in the digital age.
Ben Lilley, chairman at HERO, said creatives need to aim for a level of world-class creativity and effectiveness that will elevate customers, culture and commercial outcomes alike.
“Having just returned from judging at the London International Awards, I was struck by how the best ideas are not about a big TVC or even what you'd call a mass-media campaign, they're what I call culture hacks: ideas that borrow from or even break into culture in completely unexpected but deeply relevant ways for a brand,” he said.
“A TVC may be part of the idea. And social and PR amplification are of course now critical to every campaign's success. But they're just media channels. And they're nothing without an outstanding creative idea to ignite them.
“So I'd have to say the very best ideas today are ideas that somehow hack culture in completely new ways. Then turn those hacks into inspired creative campaigns. You could call them disrupting the status quo. I just call them hacks.”
Lilley said he saw “ingenious” hacks for everything from product names and packaging to pubs, politics, land-mines, sports and sex at the LIA's.
“A prime example, which we awarded a Gold LIA, is Xbox's 'Everyday Tactician' for their new Football Manager 2024 game. This campaign is a brilliant hack of the UK football league, which saw an Xbox gamer appointed as a real-life tactician for Bromley Football Club,” he said.
“The only way to apply was through the Xbox. The winning gamer, Nathan Owolabi, was a Football Manager fanatic who then applied his in-game skills and experience to the team’s match play. His journey was filmed in a documentary on TNT Sports and Bromley FC went on to achieve its best season ever and promotion to the English Football League, for the first time in its 132-year history.
“So my advice to creatives and marketers alike is: to crack those truly great ideas, be a hacker.”
Jane Burhop, creative director and co-founder at Common Ventures, said Australia has always felt like it's half an hour behind the rest of the world when it comes to the adoption of tech and digital trends.
“For an industry whose ideas borrow, beg and steal from cultural truths and insights, we're struggling to keep up as these trends emerge quickly, spread rapidly, and fade just as fast,” she told AdNews.
“Today, social trends shift faster than you can say TikTok, and your brat summer is already over before summer begins. This combination of delayed tech adoption and missed flash trends leaves our creative thinking feeling a bit outdated and worn when judged on the global stage.
“At the same time, we’re all starved of real human interactions and connection. We’re stuck in a doom scroll, only looking up to scowl at strangers, whose necks are permanently craned towards their own cracked, glowing screen.”
Burhop said the most powerful ideas are the ones that elicit a strong, positive emotion.
“Whether it’s hedonistic happiness, frantic freedom and that old faithful - nostalgia, bold and brave concepts that make you feel good are what the world is craving,” she said.
“Take the Grimace ‘Birthday Shake’ for example. It taps into the core memory of an iconic 80s Macca’s party, transforming the beloved birthday cake into a modern, slurp-able form.
“It’s a perfect blend of nostalgia and innovation - a reminder that creativity, when grounded in emotion, can still captivate even in a rapidly changing world.”
Psembi Kinstan, ECD at DDB Melbourne, believes creatives are flushing their clients’ money down the drain if they’re not building campaigns for where the eyeballs are.
“As Scott Galloway says, if you’re building an agency for cinema and TV, your business is f***ed, if you’re building it for online video, you might survive, but if you’re building it for phone screens, then it’s champagne and cocaine,” he said.
“So what makes for great brand ideas in today’s media landscape? What has always made for great brand ideas; simplicity, emotion, distinctiveness. Make it simple, make it move me, make it look and feel like no other brand in your category or in the country.
“The platforms all agree. YouTube will now tell you that long form content will work more effectively, providing it’s captivating and not boring brand shite. Meta will tell you that the creative is the most important factor when it comes to winning at auction and cost per conversion. TikTok will tell you that it’s all about storytelling.
“So don’t think for a second that the basics of great ideas have changed or that craft isn’t important. We just have more formats and tools to apply that craft to.”
Kinstan said digital channels have long overtaken TV, so the content needs to be in more lengths and built for more formats.
“Plenty of agency folk bemoan the fractured media market and how everything was simpler back in the day,” he said.
“Yes, media plans were simpler, but reaching large audiences has never been easier or more cost effective, and creativity has never been more important.”
Ant Phillips, ECD at Clemenger BBDO, said the best ideas are the ones that resonate with people.
“A lot of people confuse executions with ideas,” he said.
“I think what makes a great idea today is the same as it’s ever been – stretch.
“It could be a TikTok, could be a content series, could be a piece of fashion, could be anything.
“All that really matters is that people talk about it. And that requires a human truth that people can relate to.”
Kat Alvarez-Jarratt, ECD at TBWA, said a great idea has and always will be something that is interesting, clear and connects emotionally with a viewer.
“Given the very fractured media landscape we operate in; it’s never been more important to make something that looks and feels different,” she said.
“We’ve never been more goldfishy in our watching habits, which is why it needs to be truly disruptive by finding a strong convention to push away from.
“Because of that, I’m a big fan of ideas that can live anywhere. TBWA Sydney and Fabric recently made a campaign for Modibodi Swimwear dubbed ‘Shark Week’ which had a beautiful film component, but also created a conversation that popped in earned and generated social and still assets.
“I think that’s the power of a truly great idea – if you do it right it should be truly media agnostic.”
Jack Close, senior art director at Howatson + Co., said it wasn’t long ago you could book an ad during the six o’clock news and millions of people would watch it at the same time.
“Good ads became a kind of shared cultural experience that everyone was in on. This was rocket fuel for any brand who liked to grow,” he said.
“The good news is that despite all the fragmentation and personalisation, this fairy dust is still possible. Sometimes it will be a TV ad, a billboard or a social post. But whatever the shape of the brief, our biggest job as creatives is to have ideas that put brands at the heart of a shared cultural experience.
“If people aren’t talking about brands around the dinner table or on smoko then we probably aren’t doing enough for them.”
Zak Hawkins, senior copywriter at Howatson + Co., said a TV idea has to work a lot harder than before.
“Great ideas can't only entertain, they also need to spread, and traditional TV programming isn’t the cultural centrepiece it once was,” he said.
“People are programmed not to give a toss about ads, so great TV ideas have to interrupt what you’re watching in an unexpected way.
“TV also doesn’t have the social currency that lets it be rewatched, shared, or talked about on demand, so unless the execution is a worldie, marrying a good TV idea with a clever media integration could make it great by helping it travel and putting it back in cultural conversations.”
Leisa Ilander, associate creative director at Dentsu Creative said a great idea evokes emotions and makes you feel warm and fuzzy, no matter if it’s a print ad, tvc or tiktok.
“Which doesn’t mean a great idea has to be emotive and touchy feely. Take Brat. It transcended an album and became a state of being. An aspiration. An endorsement,” she said.
“Or last year’s My Japan Railway from Dentsu Japan, which turned commuting into stamp collecting and made commuters feel excited about *checks notes* train travel. And that’s something I’ve definitely never felt anywhere between Wynard and Hornsby.
“Or go back a little further – 121 years to the first Tour de France. Created to sell newspapers, but it captured something much larger – the imagination of the nation and the world.
“Which means whether it’s 2024 or 1903, the definition of a great idea hasn’t really changed. Just the way we share it with the world.”
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