The Master Guide / 03 Concepts and references · The idea
Generating wide
Many ideas, from many different engines, before any one is judged.
Many ideas, from many different engines, before any one is judged.
Write at least 20 raw ideas across at least six mechanisms [best available, not yet validated]. A mechanism is the engine that makes an idea work. Tick one box per mechanism you used:
Mechanism | What it does |
Demonstration | Shows the product's truth happening |
Exaggeration | Pushes a real problem or benefit past the believable |
Metaphor | Makes the benefit visible through something else |
Slice of life | A real moment built on the insight |
Character or device | Something the brand can keep for years |
Song or musical idea | The idea lives in a tune |
Reversal or twist | The ending changes what came before |
Ritual or place | A cultural moment the brand can own |
Format idea | A series, real people, something interactive |
Stunt | A real act that becomes the film |
The assumption reveal [proven] | The viewer holds a belief they never checked; the film lets them commit to it, then shows the truth in one image, with the brand on the true side |
Aikido [proven] | Take a move the category keeps making, which the audience is tired of, push it to the absurd inside one ordinary moment, and let the brand be the one that doesn't. No named rival unless the client asks; the red lines still apply |
Two rounds you always run (decided):
one round that asks for unconventional ideas, out loud;
one round thought in the market's language first, then written in English. An idea born in Egyptian Arabic sounds different from one translated into it.
Look at exemplar concepts only after the first round, and only to critique them (decided). Seen first, they set the shape of every idea that follows.
Write each idea in two lines under a working title and its mechanism: what happens and what it means, in under 20 words; then the one image people will remember. For example (emotional, a ride-hailing app, Alexandria):
4. The Spare Key [slice of life]
Idea: a grandfather hides a key for the grandson who never visits, until the app says he's on his way.
The image people remember: a key taped under a plant pot, gone.
Why: three recent Film Grands Prix turn on the audience's own assumption: Orange's WoMen's Football (2024), The Last Photo for ITV and CALM (2023), and Channel 4's Considering What? (2025). Aikido sits behind DoorDash's All the Ads (2024 Titanium Grand Prix) and Heinz's A.I. Ketchup.
Sources
Orange, WoMen's Football, Marcel (shots); The Last Photo, Max Fisher, adam&eveDDB (shots); Channel 4, Considering What?, 4Creative, Steve Rogers (Channel 4 press); DoorDash, All the Ads, W+K Portland (shots, 2024 winners); Heinz, A.I. Ketchup, Rethink (The Drum).