For the 1st time in my career, I have it all: at an agency I respect, with CDs I like, on a brief with potential.

I have no excuse. But my ideas just aren’t as good as the other teams’. What do I do?

You do your best to have the best idea and if you don’t, you advocate for whomever has the best idea. The best managers are the ones who recognize when someone else has the better idea (I know you’re not a manager now, but maybe you want to be someday?). If you can help sell-in someone else’s idea in a positive way, respectfully, that is it’s whole own skillset and a valuable one. But saying that as a person who spent the past seven years at very collaborative, but competitive agencies.

Keep making ideas until they’re better

When I was in this situation, I worked harder (longer) than everyone else until it started to show results.

Read more books. Read comic books. Smoke weed. Play with kids. Read stories to kids. Visit the library. Go see a whole day of movies. Spend the day alone and take a hike. Take mushrooms. Live dangerously for a day. These are things I do all the time to stay sharp and get inspired.

A tip my mentor/former CD shared with me when I was starting out and still find helpful today: go for quantity first, then quality. Just list down everything and anything that pops in your head. Get it flowing.

Usually the first ten or so are the familiar routes. And because you've gotten the familiar ideas out of the way, the more surprising/interesting/bizarre ones will come. Don't stop until you've filled up the page. Then leave the list for a bit and do something else. Come back then start sifting through it. Pick the ones you really like then start building and crafting from there.

Best to always think like a child first, then edit like an adult later.

@OP I have been there so hard. Think about the ads the other teams are presenting that you admire. What’s so great about their stuff? Now do your own secret weapon version of that. Report back and tell us what happened. PS you should be writing 50 headlines a day, to keep your hands and brains moving. (Even if it’s not a print project)

Sabotage them

Take yourself to school. Read read read about great work, old work, bad work. Be the most knowledgeable person you know.

Outwork the competition. Work work work until you feel yourself getting better at it. Hard work beats natural talent most days. Most “talented” people got there by working hard.

Listen to your mentors. Try try try the things they suggest, put them into practice and figure out what works for you, and what doesn’t. You’ll need to develop your own style and taste in order to have tasteful creative.

Stop working and start enjoying. Do whatever will make your process enjoyable. Coming up with great ideas is 75% process. The rest is a combination of talent and luck. We’re all on the same journey so reach out to your CDs too for advice.

You need to have fun and relax. You will do your best work when you’re having fun. Get yourself in that mindset and don’t stress over the importance of this. Ideas also get stage fright.

when I get stuck I think "what would Wieden do?" or "what would Droga do?" or I think what's the most controversial thing I could do with this or what's the dumbest thing I could do. try to free yourself to go right to the limits even if it's wrong. along the way you'll probably find something that's right.

Push yourself...always! Explore, share, talk and write everything down. Keep researching and try to look for inspo everywhere. Use design thinking techniques maybe. I love to use colors: I write down on a post-it my key word and use other colors post-it to draft words related concept. It help me a lot to visualize what’s good and what’s not. (I work on strategies but I believe this can also help in your metter)
I’m doing this on a daily base, even for brands/companies I don’t work for. It’s like a training!
However, don’t be too hard with yourself! It happen and don’t shame yourself for having a “meh-moment”. Love yourself and your talent! This will pay back more then anything else!

Try and write about things you actually care about.

Figure out why their ideas are better than yours. What is it you’re missing? Analyze then incorporate.

Get away from your desk and work from another location for a bit. Or leave the office and do something you love. Climb a mountain and scream into the open air for a while. Usually helps me.

Try talking about the project w a non advertising friend you can get real w. Get away from the brief a little. If funny is appropriate then talk to a friend who you can laugh w. If it’s about financial stability talk to someone who lives in that world. Just start talking and get away from the assignment just for a few hours. Watch a movie that circles around the target, brand or strategy.

Try Harder.

Honestly just help out the people with the better ideas, I’m sure you can contribute. You don’t have to ‘win’ the brief to be good. Plus you might learn how they think and help your own ideas in the long term.

Enjoy it!