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To reassure you, some of these are pretty overlapping. If I was to force them apart…
Idea: For me, this is usually referring to the big idea behind it all. But obviously as a word could also be used to describe someone (e.g a director/designer) offering a small build on it.
Concept: For me, this is more executional. The concept of the ad is X, while the idea behind it is Y.
Creative Platform: So this is a bit of a hybrid of the two above. For me, it means an executional thought that sits above a singular ad but below the big idea. What is our campaign always about? I.e a fluent device/mascot or a construct/formula.
Brand world: This is how all the ads look/feel across the board. Is brand X’s thing black and white or illustration, do we always use insert celebrity as the VO etc.
Hope that helps!
This is a great summary!
Pro
As the typical planner who has (on occasion) briefed using these vague terms, here’s what I’m trying to ask for when I include each.
Idea: At minimum I’d always brief with some qualifier: e.g. a “media idea” or a “social idea.” It’s the highest order unit of creative work, every choice should support some idea.
Concept: It’s an idea packaged to sell. I’m not sure that these are actually different semantically, but I would expect more executional details in a “concept.” You’ll often hear “conceptual territory,” which is often just a post-hoc wrapper for similar ideas.
Brand platform: A specific kind of creative idea that can contain many executional ideas (“tactics” or “campaigns”). Nike’s recent “winning” platform is a good example. Typically a platform would have a line, manifesto, visual treatment, some campaign outputs.
(I’ve become less convinced that platforms are useful to brief, I think the brand “is” the platform)
Brand world: The symbols, behaviours, objects, characters, environments that work together to create an idea of a brand.
People started using the term brand world when brands became too complicated and participatory to be captured in a traditional “brand book.” It’s essentially applying the same thinking studios like Disney use to build and manage their “IP” to brands.
As William Goldman said about Hollywood: nobody knows anything.
It’s always ok to ask for their fave examples of each. It will help you pinpoint what they’re looking for without implying you dont understand the ask
My favorite example for the first question:
Concept: Sitting
Ideas under that concept: Chair, bench, sofa…
For me a brand platform is equal to a concept that’s specific to that brand and can fit many different ideas under it.
And the brand world is everything that’s part of the brand’s universe. From the language/the way it speaks to the way it looks and behaves. It’s almost the character & personality of a brand so you can test ideas against it to see what this brand would or wouldn’t say/do.
I’m with GUT 1.
Concept - a general thought container
Big idea - articulates the concept as a uniform thematic, all ideas and executions need to echo the Big idea
Idea(s) - articulates/breaks down the big idea in more specificity
Every CD seems to have their own definition of a “big idea,” but lately it feels like the term has become a convenient excuse not to nurture promising concepts, dismissing them right out of the gate because they don’t feel big enough yet. That’s just lazy and shortsighted creative leadership not to mention a fantastic way to demotivate your team.
Rising Star
See: Politics and the English Language by George Orwell