Dreaming up ideas

Has anyone ever had a great planning / creative idea in their sleep?  Surely this must happen more often than not!

Last night I had an advertising idea in my sleep for something we're pitching on and in this dream I kept shouting to myself 'Wake up! Wake up! Write this down, this is genius!'.  I woke up this morning having remembered it and burst out laughing.  It was not genius at all.  It was very random, I'll give it that.  

So, I got into work and showed the Head of Advertising my nocturnal creative thought, to which he shook his head and laughed as I'd expected.  My planning colleague wasn't so critical and said it was interesting, so it's not all bad, there may be something in my REM-based thinking after all!

I am now thinking of creating an ideas bank for all of our creative and planning thinking that we have when we're asleep, just as an interesting record.  I know my planning colleague once rebranded Stockholm in a dream.  After all, you never know when genius will strike!

Sliding doors and brands

On Sunday, I made one of those 'sliding doors' decisions.  I could either have gone to Get Loaded In The Park, run the risk of bumping into my ex and starting a whole new *** storm of madness, tears, anger, maybe even reconciliation if he'd gained a brain since the last time we spoke.  This option did run the risk of me having a totally *** time though, being more upset than ever and not enjoying any of the bands, rendering £40 worthless.  The alternative was selling the ticket and using the money to buy dresses.  No bumping into him, ever again, no chance of upset, but also no chance of any positive engagement.  After half an hour of deliberating, I chose the dress option.

But if we apply this thinking to brands, exactly the same principles apply.  Brands have a lifespan and it's up to strategists and marketers to decide on the strategic future of the brand - which direction it should take in its life.  Like when Pot Noodle went a bit healthy and quickly realised its roots were in being the quintessential 'slag food'.  Or  when Tesco moved from 'Pile 'em high, sell 'em cheap' to a customer service ethic sort of positioning.  They could have stuck with value, but it wouldn't have helped them move on and achieve market leadership.  With Pot Noodle sticking to its guns was the best option, for Tesco it was a fresh approach.  One is about capitalising on strengths, the other about moving on to something new.    

I could have made the best of the situation, but where there wasn't much relative strengths to be gained from it, moving on was the best option.  I definitely made the right decision.