What exactly is an "advertising idea"?

Many small business owners think of an "advertising idea" as a postcard mailer, a radio spot, a website or Facebook page.

To be precise, however, those are not "ideas." Rather, they are "mediums" to convey a message. And while media selection is important, it is only one part of the creative equation.

If you are a copywriter or an art director at a multinational ad agency then the term "advertising idea" means something quite different. You get paid to think conceptually, so your "ad idea" might be something like this:

- A vivid metaphor to position the product in a crowded market.
- A memorable brand character.
- A "buy one, get one free" direct response offer.

Those are all creative concepts. Or put another way, they are all messages that can be communicated through mediums such as TV or email or social media. And that's what we feature in this album of 100 creative ads.

Ideas and executions

The "execution" is how you bring an idea to life. For example, the idea in this TVC for Haagen-Dazs Gelato is something like this:

Open on an argument between two Italian lovers. She screams,"I'm leaving." He shouts, "Glad to see you go!" Then enter a carton of Haagen-Dazs Gelato, and their passion for the Gelato overcomes their anger ... at least temporarily.

From that idea comes a script and story board. And from that comes the final production, depicted in the Flash video below.

In this video you can see how the creative team - writer, the art director, creative and film directors brought the idea to life.

You might also notice some flaws in that execution, the most obvious one being the introduction of the product, which seems forced. That product introduction would have worked more naturally if the product had, say, fallen out of the shopping bag and rolled between their hands on the table.