Alexey Ivanov - How to Create an Idea If You Are Not Ogilvy

With kind permission of BBDO Moscow, Russia

Fig. 1.3. The transition to the limit in the ad for dishwasher detergent.

Very often when you think about advertising ideas it is useful to imagine what a perfect product would look like. Let us ask ourselves: “What can be called the perfect product?” Borrow the answer from TIPS4. The perfect product is when the product is absent, but its function nevertheless is performed.

The ideal product is supposed to be obviously much better than any other products. It costs nothing. It is absolutely reliable in operation. It doesn’t cause any harmful side effects. It does not require any technical support, after-sales service, warranty etc.

Here is an interesting example from history.

During the siege of the city the commander of the papal army Cesare Borgia appealed to Leonardo da Vinci with the request to build a tower which would allow his army to overcome the fortress wall which was 10 meters high.

A siege tower is a large wooden structure, usually rectangular on the ground. Its height should match the height of the wall of the fortress to give an opportunity for archers to shoot from its upper area.

Wood was used as a material for the construction of the tower. It was covered by non-combustible materials to protect it from fire. Usually freshly picked animal skins were used for these purposes. The tower can move on four wheels when hand dragged or pulled by cattle, and the storm team gets quick access to the city wall.

Before the start of construction of the tower, da Vinci advised as soon as possible to spread the rumor that his tower will be as high as 12 meters.

The idea appeared to be simple, as every brilliant idea is. Once besieged people learned about the construction of a taller siege tower, they hastily began to build their walls higher as well. Their foundation could not sustain the additional load, and it only took a few shots to make the walls collapse.

The tower Leonardo suggested did not have to be built at all.

As you can see, we have the perfect tower. It was absent, cost nothing, but it performed its function perfectly!

If you ever happen to visit the Polytechnic Museum in Moscow, take a look at one of its exhibits—an electric candle of Yablochkov. It was first demonstrated as a form of street and theater lighting in 1878 at the World Exhibition in Paris.

This invention was met by the world press with words “Russian Light”, and “Light comes from the Russia”. But Pavel Yablochkov was not the first who proposed to use an electric arc light. Electric candles were invented a bit earlier. But their light was unstable and capricious.

Near each candle, a man was needed to manually shift the horizontally arranged carbon rods as they burnt out. If the distance between the electrodes was bigger than a permissible minimum, the light became uneven, the lamp started blinking and, naturally, died out.

A device that would automatically shift the electrodes was required. And such a device was invented. It was controlled by a clock mechanism. It was quite ingenious, but it had one major drawback: the unit was still fragile.

What was the suggestion of the Russian engineer?

Perfect control is the absent one, yet its function is performed. Yablochkov changed only the geometry of candles. He placed carbon rods not horizontally but vertically. This made the gap between the rods remain constant, along the entire length.

The space between the rods was filled with melting ceramic material to save the voltaic arc from sliding down. Is it simple? Not really. It took more than 30 years to create an ideal mechanism for the convergence of electrodes.

Now let’s get back to advertising.

One day a manufacturer of modular inter-floor stairs came to our agency. The king’s share of the market was occupied by his competitors with their wooden stairs. The basic and fundamental weak side of this product is an annoying creaking sound which inevitably arises when the steps and rails are loosened, and the wood is cracked from drying out.

We decided to attack this “weak point of the enemy.” But how to show the absence of a creak visually? All we had at our disposal was a picture of the stairs and perhaps the image of a man or animal who goes upstairs (see Fig. 1.4.).

Fig. 1.4. The key visual for promotion of silent stairs.

What is the ideal product in this case? The staircase which is absent but yet the opportunity to rise to the upper level is still provided. We divided the sheet of paper into two parts. On the left one we depicted a dog walking up the stairs. The subtitle at the bottom said: “It’s how our staircase looks”.

On the right one was the same picture but without stairs. It turned out that the Rottweiler was flying in the air. The headline was: “It’s how our staircase sounds” (see Fig. 1.5.). This idea increased sales silently for more than six years.

With kind permission of MasterUm, Moscow, Russia

Fig. 1.5. The silence instead of creak. Our noiseless staircases neither squeak, nor complain.

By the way, the creators of the historical-revolutionary film Mother had to solve an even more sophisticated creative problem back in 1926. What would you do in order to show silence in the silent movie? The film director Vsevolod Pudovkin found the amazing solution.

In the frame he showed how drops of water from the washstand were falling slowly and rhythmically. One was falling after another. One kept falling after another. In reality, the sound of the drops can be heard only when all sounds around are frozen. It was one of the best episodes in the movie.

Let’s go on. Suppose that we advertise a super-reliable door lock. What is the ideal product in this case? There is no lock at all, but it is absolutely impossible to get inside the house. Because the door is no different from the brick wall (see Fig. 1.6.).

With kind permission of Guthan Suthiphongchai and Weerawat Weerawatanakorn

(Lowe Bangkok, Thailand)

Fig. 1.6. Transition to the limit leaves no room for shy thinking.

How to introduce wireless services? Once again let’s return to the sight of the ideal product. There are no wires, but they honestly and rigorously implement their “function” (see Fig. 1.7.).

The idea of DDB Mudra Group, Mumbai, India, redrawn by Juriy Gerasimov

Fig. 1.7. Perfect electric wires are absent but fulfill faithfully their function.

As you can see, strong creative solutions may not be in adding something to a picture, an idea or product, but in the opposite approach. The disappearance of the familiar and the expected object attracts our attention, captivates, fascinates the viewer (see Fig. 1.8.).

With kind permission of Annie Chiu and Anna Echiverri, New York, the United States