Below you'll see a concept for a print ad, a full page magazine ad. It's for a low priced, 100cc motorcycle.

The target audience is 16 to 24 year old boys to young men, for whom a motorcycle will be the first major purchase of their lives, which is exactly the case in three of the world's four most populous countries: China, India, and Indonesia.

For most of the target audience, ownership of a motorcycle is a way of saying, "I'm doing great, and on the way to bigger and better things in life."

In parts of Europe and North America, there's a similar psycho-dynamic with a teenager's first car.

The concept for a print ad can be depicted in writing like this:

Or, here's another way to create the same concept:

The advertising idea behind this ad is, "The big plans you have in life start with the purchase of this small, inexpensive motorcycle."

Here's another concept:

Headline: Fashionable bedroom attire.
Visual: Condom.

The advertising idea behind this concept is that "these days it’s cool to use a condom."

Get the idea?. Of an ad idea.

For print ads, a concept is the headline and main visual, usually a photograph or illustration. And that’s what you want to scribble down on paper. Just the main idea of the ad, the headline and picture.

Sure, you can toss in some lines to indicate body copy. And the time will come to take a close look at the layout, images, subheads and body copy.

But to start, keep it simple.

Your initial concepts should look more like posters or billboards than ads.

They should deliver on the "promise" or "reason why" or the “what we want to say” part of the creative brief.

They should get the main selling idea across. Clearly. Quickly. So people can “get the idea” in the blink of an eye. (Well, maybe not that fast. But fast.)

And certainly your concepts should do all of the above in a fresh, compelling, and imaginative way.

Your concepts do not have to balance a headline and visual. They can be either predominantly copy, or focused on a big, eye-grabbing visual.

With products that appeal more to the senses, or emotions, the visual is typically more prominent. Take cosmetic or fashion ads. This is also the case for international campaigns, where visual ideas work better than copy based concepts.

Sometimes what you say is more important than what you show. So the focus then should be on the copy, as is typically the case with, say, financial services when the persuasive energy is in the words, "3.9% car loans - an all-time low."

That said, a non-traditional approach to the product category can yield a breakthrough. Imagine an all copy ad for a line of bathing suits headlined: “Too sexy to show.”

But the most important point about concept development is to generate lots of ideas. That's the way to get a great one. Or two.

In the ad business your value is based largely on the quality of your ideas. So whip out lots of rough sketches.

Don’t make the mistake of generating a few ideas then spending your “concept” time polishing those few ideas in the computer.

Notes:

The concept for a TV commercial is simply the story line or the visual idea:

Say you are creating a TVC for a new line of bath soaps, aimed at young girls, 15 to 22.

The products have light floral fragrances. The story line could be, "Three cute girls walk past three young guys at a mall. The boys react to the fragrance as the girls pass by, but argue over whether the it was strawberry, lavender, or peach. Finally, the guys run off in search of the girls. The guys find them as the girls are selecting the product off the shelf. The girls giggle, and reacting to the guys, say, "Just adore us."

The next step for a TVC is to do rough story boards, typically from 4 to 12 frames with, explanatory copy or dialog, to get the main idea down.

So say you have a brief to do a commercial for Coke based on “The pause that refreshes.” Your concept frames could show

1) A chimpanzee swings branch to branch through the jungle.

2) The chimp lands and reclines on a low hanging limb.

3) The chimp reaches down and extracts a can of Coke from a passing hiker's backpack,

4) Chimp sips, smiles, then burps. The jungle animals go crazy with laughter.

For the formal creative presentation you'll probably want at least 8 frames for a 30 second spot and around 12 frames for a 60 a sixty second seconds. Each frame of this final board should be large enough to be seen by everyone in a conference room, as shown below.

- Direct mail concepts should include rough sketches of all the elements: exterior envelope, sales letter, brochure, reply card, et cetera. And the sketches should have the headlines and key visuals for each element of the package.

- For video, you need one to three frames for each major structural element. Structural elements can include an introduction, perhaps a product demonstration, some testimonials, and certainly a conclusion.

- For Web sites, start with rough sketches of the opening or “home” page. That's where people go first, and it's by far the most important page. Depending on the purpose of the site, it's on that first page you establish the site’s positioning, brand personality and visual theme.

Later, after selecting the best concept, you should show how the theme plays out, either on the main page of each major section, or on all the pages of one section.

- For brochures, your initial concepts should include a front cover, and a few inside spreads. Evaluate several of these to select the best, which you will want to polish like the car of your dreams before presenting it to the client.

Can’t draw? Don’t’ worry. Doesn’t matter that the people you sketch look like sticks.

Can’t write? Don’t sweat it. Just talk out the headline. Say it aloud, then write it down. Get the general idea on paper, and worry about polishing the copy later.

Have you ever hear someone say, "Everyone is creative"? Well it's not true. The truth is that some people are more talented and more comfortable working with ideas.That may be you. Or maybe not.

Whether it is or not, there are lots of ways you can use AdCracker to generate creative concepts. Sometime you will work alone.