Big Idea

What’s ‘The Big Idea’?

The big idea is a basic concept I try to work into as many projects as I can. It’s the idea, or element of your project, that has the ‘wow’ factor. In college we have regular presentations in front of fellow students, lecturers and business owners. It’s important to stand out and differentiate your work, especially when it comes to getting graded.

The ideas have ranged from the elaborate to the simple. One such elaborate idea was to write a script from available historical information on Henry Ford and his car company. Then we recorded the interview with an actor giving Henry Ford’s answers direct to camera. Most of our peer’s were using Powerpoint slides to illustrate the history of the company they had to solve a marketing problem for. Instead we played the interview, with some clever editing, leaving long enough gaps between the answers to ask the questions ‘live’ in class. Giving the impression of a live ‘news’ interview.

One of the more simple ideas was this; a pitch for a fictonal company in the Marketplace Simulation game. The pitch was to several lecturers and banking officials from AIB for 4 Million Euros for our PC manufacturing company ‘Adept Technologies’. We could use any props but no Powerpoint. Many of the competing companies opted to design ad’s for their brands, as did we. What set us apart was how we executed it, most went for A3 poster style to display their ad.

We took ours and inserted it into a magazine as if it were a real full page advertisement. A simple idea, no one else had thought of it and it went down really well with the panel. This is the ad, I’m no designer and I can see flaws in the design. But it achieved what we set out to do.

Its this ‘big idea’ when added to a strong project can be enough to push your grades up just that bit further and to demonstrate that your thinking different. Which is what Marketing is about, connecting with your audience in new, interesting and relevant ways.

Related posts:

1. Digital Music Event Marketing (1)
2. 15 IKEA Marketing Examples
3. Marketing Ideas: A 3 Step Formula

© 2009 LAB: Luke Abbotts Blog.