Advertising Idea Machine

How To Work With AdCracker's Conceptor -

The Conceptor is like a creative partner who is really good at suggesting, "How about this ... ?" She's available 24/7, and never gets moody.*

Here's what's really great about the Conceptor. All of her suggested approaches are based on proven ways to build brands and drive sales. So the Conceptor will provide strategically sound approaches, and you provide the creative expression.

All > AdCracker CD Sets and Online products include a full-featured Conceptor, with many more creative challenges, and links to live examples for instant inspiration. So if you like this .com version you can get the professional Conceptor at the > AdStore.

Before starting, make sure you have read, or written, a creative brief, and that you understand:

- the target audience,

- the brand,

- positioning,

- product benefits,

- a single, key reason people should buy the service or do business with the company.

You should answer each challenge with an advertising concept, a simple layout sketch with a headline and visual.

The visual can be expressed in words: "picture of a dragon eating Hostess Twinkies."

Or you can make a rough sketch.

If you want to create breakthrough advertising, you'll have to create lots of concepts, lots of different ways to express the idea in each challenge.

Some ways to play:

Most people use AdCracker's Concept Cracker to get their creative juices flowing, working alone or with a partner at their desk.

Some use the Concept Cracker as a training or brainstorming tool, clicking through the challenges on a computer or projector in a conference room.

You can also use the Concept Cracker as a game, with two or more teams. Ideally each team consists of an art and copy creature.

Another way to play, click the start link, and the first team to generate a concept gets 1 point.

Each team starts with 5 "pass" calls, which they can use to skip one of the challenges without penalty. But they must call "pass" before the other team calls, "Concept!"

Who's the Top Gun on your creative team?

See how fast you can fly through these challenges. And how many ideas you can capture on paper.

Skip the challenges that are not appropriate to your product or service. But spend more time, generate several concepts, when you find questions that trigger lots of ideas.

Links to examples:

> Advertising techniques

> Unconventional advertising ideas

> Branding

> Positioning

> Direct response

Content marked R is reserved for AdCracker customers. You can get it instantly (well, in a minute or two) via online access at the > AdStore.

* The flip side is that you can't take her out for drinks after work. But what the hell.