Articulate Your Creative Ideas

Imagine giving a pitch of your creative idea to your most important clients. A lump forms in your throat. For some strange reason, the mental picture of your creative idea appears in your head but your brain can’t seem to find the right words to put it across. Breaking into cold sweat, you begin to panic and desperately grasp at straws to save your presentation. Welcome to every creative’s worst nightmare. 

Your clients start to frown and their puzzled faces soon mirror that of your equally confused teammates. One of your clients raises his hand and requests for you to go back to the previous slide. He didn’t manage to catch what you said. You go back and make a concerted second attempt to guide your clients through your thought process in coming up with your creative idea. Unfortunately, this attempt isn’t successful either, and your clients remain visibly lost. As you leave the room upon the conclusion of your presentation, you ask yourself what went wrong. _Was it the structure of the presentation, the fact that I didn’t use enough storytelling techniques, or simply because I suck at public speaking?  _

Get Your Clients on the Same Page

Regardless of what it is that caused your efforts to go down the drain, know that it’s completely normal to have difficulty in articulating your creative idea to the point of crystal-clear. This is because the client is unable to see things from your point of view. When you have an idea in your head, it’s only human nature to assume that the other person is on the same page as you, which is rarely the case in reality. 

I have encountered numerous situations where my clients and I were on different wavelengths. For example, when I was in Ogilvy & Mather Malaysia, we were working with a whole lot of brands. One of these was Oxy, which was for acne and pimples. For this particular brand, I came up with a story which was completely different from the usual kind of work that we were working on for the company. I was planning to create a film targeted at a younger audience and so I thought that they would be able to take more liberties. 

But as it turns out, the client was only accepting a more traditional kind of film at that time. From their perspective, that’s the way the audience is and there was little room for experimentation. They told me that they could only approve of my idea if it had been thoroughly researched on. If it went into research, it ran a chance of getting killed. This was because what my idea needed most was for someone to explain it well or for it to be made into a film. 

Eventually, I decided to direct the film myself. I pulled favours and got a couple of production houses involved. When I presented the end product to my clients, they loved it so much and said, let’s forgo the idea of researching it, because it’s meant for a younger audience. That’s one way of getting your client to be on the same page as you. Help them to look at it from your perspective. 

Also understand that your clients may not share the same level of imagination and visualisation as you. If your client is very creative, perhaps a few lines of explanation would suffice. Otherwise, bring in your entire arsenal of storytelling tools to bring your idea to life. 

Distinguish Between Execution and the Creative Idea Itself

Another reason why you might not be getting your ideas across might be because you are confusing execution with the creative idea itself.  There are times when the two might overlap, but whenever you are working on an idea, ask yourself this: what is it about the idea that excites you? Is it the strategy you intend to execute your campaign with? Or is it the fundamental concept underpinning the campaign? An example would be the use of Instagram vertical videos to tell a first-person narration of the value of friendship. If you can’t distinguish between the two, don’t expect your clients to be able to either. 

Realise That Your Idea is a Solution to a Problem

Your idea is a solution to a problem your client is facing. You’re not Picasso who’s creating a piece of art out of your love for personal expression. Hence, there must be a purpose to your idea. When you present, emphasise on this understanding of yours. Touch on what the business problem is and how your idea goes about solving the problem. Even if your teammate has presented the part about strategy or the planning, reiterate these and keep them as little markers as you present. For example, this is the target audience, this is what we are talking about and this is why our idea will work. 

Why is this so crucial? This buildup is important to tell your client that you were not sitting on an island when you were coming up with your idea. Even if you have been working with your client for a long time, this step is still necessary to get your client to be on the same page as you. Help your client to realise that everything that you’ve just presented is a solution to his most pressing business problems. 

Also strive to see the bigger picture. Realise that your creative idea is ultimately for the selling of your client’s product. This will in turn, affect his job performance, his promotion prospects and so on. This may sound like an over-exaggeration, but know where your idea lies in the bigger scheme of things. Go as far back as checking what the stock price of the company was a quarter ago. Find out what analysts predict it is going to be six months down the road. 

**Vesting Your Interests **

Regardless of whether you are handling your investments directly or somebody else is doing it on your behalf, one tip is to purchase the shares in the company that you’re working with. In fact, that’s what I do all the time. Even if it’s a small investment, what this does is that it allows you to own a part of the company. This works wonders in helping you to articulate your idea as you now have a more concrete stake in whatever you’re presenting.  

**The Two Cs You Need to Articulate Your Idea Clearly **

While passion may be important, curiosity and compassion are just as vital in helping you to become a better creative person. If that curiosity muscle is not present in your body, develop it. Take the initiative to explore things outside of your comfort zone. You also need to be compassionate when it comes to understanding your client’s business problems and seeing things from their perspective. 

Convinced that you are a terrible speaker as you leave the meeting room, you make a mental note to ask your teammate for help to present your ideas on your behalf in the future. Sounds familiar? Well, don’t be so quick to write yourself off. Speaking is a skill that you can learn and improve on. 

In many instances, you are the best person to present your own ideas because you bring the authentic passion and conviction that another person simply can’t! Learn how to present, to talk and to overcome those butterflies in your stomach. Practise, practise and practise. The more you rehearse, the easier it will be for you to give a killer presentation without breaking into a sweat. If you need help sharpening your presentation skills, rehearse in front of other people and get feedback. If you need help improving the chemistry within your team, practise in tandem with a colleague. 

Don’t forget to use all the techniques of storytelling to help you. Observe the people around you for inspiration. Learn from creative material, like great advertisements you’ve seen and books you’ve read. In the same vein, when you watch a TEDx video, don’t just watch it for the content if you’re a creative person. Observe how it was presented. If you feel Simon Sinek presents damn well, ask yourself what it is that he does. Does he look into the eyes of his audience? Or does he use his charts to make a point? 

Also understand that it isn’t always possible to ask someone else to present on your behalf. You may not always be with the same team or with that one person who has amazing presentation skills. Don’t be afraid of presenting by yourself, the audience doesn't want you to fail so that they can slow clap or jeer. Instead, take heart in the fact that the audience is rooting for you to succeed. 

Bring Your Creative Idea to Life With Storytelling

Whenever you’re presenting, see each presentation as a storytelling session. A good start would be to understand how movies such as E.T. come up with stories. Let’s give it a try. Picture an alien who is left behind on Earth after disembarking from his spaceship. The alien meets a lonely boy and they develop a deep friendship. Notice how a story forms in your head even without having to watch the film? 

I recall this particular experience of mine when I was in DDB Mudra and was working with USL India on a campaign to promote McDowell’s No 1 Whiskey. The theme of the campaign was supposed to revolve around friendship. After much brainstorming, I realised that the one thing which best epitomises friendship is the farewell videos that you play at graduation ceremonies or when a colleague is leaving. There is usually a friendship-centred background track in these videos, like Bruno Mars’ “Count on Me”. So I said, why not let’s create a friendship song for the campaign? India’s new friendship anthem. 

To be clear, the song that we wrote, “Yeh No. 1 Yaari Hai”, does not simply refer to any friendship. It symbolises number one friendship. I wrote about friendship that is deeper than any ocean and higher than any sky. I wrote about how only friendships that have seen many summers become really strong with each passing year. That particular lyric was inspired by my childhood, when my friends and I used to fly kites during our summer holidays. We witnessed how our friendships turned into pure gold after emerging from the heat of summer, just like how gold becomes pure after passing through fire. 

The very next day, I presented the completed song, which I got a songwriter to craft through the night, to my clients. I presented it in the same way that I spoke fondly of my childhood experiences in the song, making sure that I weaved in my personal story. The idea was bought immediately without a hitch. As we only had a song at that point in time, we built a story on it thereafter to allow it to better resonate with our target audience. It was a wistful five-minute story of three friends who went back to the hill-station where they had studied. During the trip, they relived certain memories of their childhood. We knew the song was going to be a hit once it was released. And we were spot on.

Lastly, if Your Efforts Don’t Pay Off...

It may seem like a big blow initially when your most painstaking efforts in articulating your idea go down the drain. No surprise there, because an idea is as precious to its creator as a child is to its mother. But don’t give up. Ask yourself what was it that went wrong and channel your passion for your idea to work on your shortcomings. Eventually, you’ll be able to nail that crucial presentation to your clients.

1 Practice Makes Perfect

Do not underestimate the power of rehearsals in helping you to become a better presenter. Rehearse in front of the mirror and try to impress yourself. It might sound crazy, but try doing it. 

2 Practise Effective Storytelling

Bring in everything that is needed for storytelling whenever you’re giving a presentation. It helps your audience to follow your train of thought when you were coming up with your idea. 

3 Build a Robust Business Case

Half the battle is won once you manage to convince your client that your idea is going to solve a particular business problem of theirs. Keep going back to the business problem in your presentation. From there, share with your clients how you took the leap to come up with your creative idea.