Where do all of the ideas for commercials come from? Market research? Demographics? Detailed surveys and focus groups? Sure why not…if your client has the budget! But, could these commercials fail? Yes. And they often do.

So what are we to do? What are our clients to do? Advertising is as important as ever. Budgets are shrinking and in some cases the competition is shrinking too.

Here are some options:

• Look to what has worked in the past.
• See a commercial you like and do something similar.
• Get a message and stick to it. Then beat it into the ground.
• Get nostalgic, air commercial campaigns from long ago and freshen them up for your client with the addition of their website URL. And Voila!
• Or, my favorite: sit down with your client and ask them questions.

I like to ask a bunch of questions. I may not know a lot about what my client does and they may not know a lot about what I do, but we have that in common. Talking, asking and answering questions creates a-kind-of-magic.

I know going into a meeting with a client that they want easy to digest videos that pack a punch. So, I need to know what they want to say. I will take that info and grind it up… and the first thing I do is try as hard as I can to make fun of the product or service! Privately, I come up with a few horrible ideas (free of Charge!). I wish I could give examples… but that is a trade secret I will not divulge.

Why do this? It's fun, for one. For two, I need to take "the box" that my client created for me by answering my questions, and turn it inside out. It's the way I approach it… right, wrong or indifferent… it makes me happy and I get interesting commercials from the process. It’s a thought exercise. Does this mean I work only with the oils and brushes of comedy, satire, or self-debasing humor on behalf of my client? I wish I could do more of that, but I digress.

There really is no value to thinking out-side-the-box unless it leads your intended audience into-the-box. A creative commercial concept has to have teeth, the fang to inject the message. Wait, that is a bit negative. The needle to inject the life giving medicine of your client's life enriching message. A B12 shot for sales and happy consumers. A good commercial distracts the viewer into a state where they don’t realize that they are being sold something, or at least they don’t mind as much. The smiley face sticker we slap on the injection site… yeah that’s a good commercial.

There is no handbook on creativity and there is no rule book either. Listening to people who are self described as "not-creative" can unleash a wealth of un-tapped creativity, in them and in the mind of us "creative-types."