How to get your idea?

This is a very common question that every one of you wants to know but is afraid to ask - at least that's usually found in my tutorial sessions.

Creativity is a disciplined eye and a wild mind.  So you don't get creative ideas without some form of methodology, you've got to look around you and "see" things sharply and dig out the "insights". However, this is not enough, many of you have spent so much time and many effort in the discipline, trying to analyse and hoping to find out what could be the USP before kicking off to the idea stage.  That's useless!  Because you have forgot the "wild" side of creativity.  You've got to trust your intuition and be brave to go as wild as you could just to explore and experiment with whatever that hits your mind.  They may be crazy ideas and strange thoughts but they will form the bridge to your creative advertising.  It's time to forget about the bloody research and rational analysis about your TA or products, facts could only lead you to mediocre and boring ideas.

I'll try to throw out some stones here to help you think "wild".

Stone no.1 - Is there an idea in the product Name or Logo?

Can you kick off from your product name or logo and start to think wildly and associate anything that comes to your mind to form an idea?

e.g. 61382A. You want to position 61382A as a programme that encourage FREE thinking and expression.  The idea:  61FREE82A.

XTC.  You want to tell people that XTC  ice-cream has EXTRA TASTE.  The idea: Ice eXtra Tasteful Cream.

Red Cross.  You want to play around with the blood donors.  The idea: Bloody donors.  Does it mean anything to you?  Go on and be brave!  I'll continue tomorrow.