Judging creative can be difficult. Personal preference can overrule audience insight. And agencies, dare I say it, can have their own agenda and want to produce the stuff that looks good for them.
Firstly, when judging ideas, it helps to know what one is. People talk about them a lot but when pressed might struggle to articulate what they mean by ‘an idea’. Here at Superdream an idea is something new that has been brought into existence that you can use to achieve a target or solve a business problem. Aimless creative is not an idea. Nor is simply ticking boxes on the brief.
With that in mind, the next time you find yourself in front of a raft of creative work and are unsure, remember our **D.R.E.A.M.** criteria.
**D:**
**Difficult to ignore.**
A lot of hard work goes into each brief, client and agency side. A target market has been studied and the most compelling message devised. So it’d be a disaster if that message got lost. Remember, you can’t outperform your market if you adhere to its conventions so, knowing how your competitors behave, check that the work makes your brand different for the right reasons and not just for different’s sake.
**R:**
**Resonate.**
Does the work approach your target audience on their level and empathise with them?
The part of the human brain that deals with emotion also deals with all decision making. You can’t separate them. You might have the most rational product in the world but the decision to choose yours over a competitor will always be an emotional one.
**E:**
**Educate.**
There’s nothing worse than a piece of communication or content that grabs you then leaves you hanging. Don’t expect anyone to be so intrigued by your campaign as to go digging around for meaning. If you have a point to make, make it loud and clear.
**A:**
**Ad Recall (we really wanted this to spell DREAM):**
David Ogilvy once said “Never use a man standing on his head to grab attention unless your product stops things from falling out of your pockets”. Or something very similar.
The thing that makes your comms so interesting has to be a direct dramatisation of the product benefit or a key piece of info to be remembered. Otherwise people will just remember the ad. Don’t get us wrong, remembering a great ad is fantastic because people will share great content but you need to make sure that when people do talk about it they can recall what the hell it’s for.
**M:**
**Motivate.**
You’ll want some kind of reaction. If you’ve given your audience enough of a reason to care about what you’re doing or saying you need to be sure they know what you want them to do – buy, click, share, comment, sign up or think or behave differently.
There are no hard and fast rules and each project should be judged differently by its objectives but, often, our DREAM criteria helps.
In the end it’s essential that everyone involved isn’t just full of fact from the brief, but has enough understanding of the target market and your business objectives that a level of gut feel can be applied to the decision. You may have several creative solutions that fit the brief, but which one will be most meaningful and compelling?
You can’t bore people into action. No matter what you’re selling.