What is campaign ideation?
Ideation is the process of moving from a brief to a fully formed creative concept. It's the stage where research becomes thinking, thinking becomes an idea, and an idea becomes a plan for how that idea will reach an audience across real media and formats.
In professional advertising and marketing, ideation is typically done by creative teams working from a creative brief. In a student context, you're doing both jobs — you're the strategist who researches the brief and extracts the insight, and the creative who turns that insight into a campaign concept and executions.
The creative process — four stages
The Ideation Tool is structured around four sequential stages. Each builds on the one before — which is why the order matters. Jumping straight to the creative idea without doing the research first almost always produces concepts that feel generic or disconnected from the brief.
Stage 1: Background research
Research is not optional — it's where the creative process starts. The three areas to research are the product, the market, and the audience. Together they give you the full picture of the context you're working in.
Product / service research
What does the brand sell, and how does it position itself? What is its tone of voice — playful, serious, aspirational, irreverent? What have its previous campaigns looked like, and what did they say about the brand? What are its USPs — the things that make it genuinely different from competitors? This knowledge shapes the creative direction and ensures the concept feels consistent with who the brand is.
Market / industry research
What is the competitive landscape? Who are the main competitors and how are they positioning themselves? What cultural trends or industry shifts are relevant to this campaign? Are there regulations or sensitivities to be aware of? Understanding the market tells you where the space is — where the brand can say something that competitors aren't saying.
Target audience research
This is a summary of your audience insights — the findings from your target audience research. What does the audience care about? What are their values, interests, pain points and media habits? What kind of messaging tends to resonate with them? The insight comes from the intersection of the brand and the audience — you need to understand both to find it.
Stage 2: Finding the insight
The insight is the most important and most misunderstood part of the creative process. It is not an observation about the product. It is not a statistic. It is not a summary of the brief. It is an undeniable human truth that your campaign can tap into — something real, felt, and immediately recognisable by your audience.
A genuine human observation about how the audience thinks, feels, or behaves — rooted in the research, not invented. It creates the "yes, that's exactly it" moment.
The creative response to the insight — the campaign concept that expresses, subverts or celebrates that truth in a way that connects the brand to the audience.
The insight comes from your research — specifically from the tension between what the audience wants or believes and what the brand can offer or stand for. The best insights feel obvious once stated, but weren't obvious before.
Notice that every insight above is about the audience — not the product. The product comes in at the next stage, when the campaign idea responds to that truth.
Stage 3: The creative idea
The creative idea is the campaign concept — the expression of the insight through the lens of the brand. It has three components in the tool: a campaign title, a campaign overview, and a closing statement.
Campaign title
A short, memorable phrase that captures the essence of the campaign. It might be a tagline, a hashtag, or a campaign name. It should be distinctive enough to stand on its own and instantly communicate something about the idea. It's not always the first thing you write — sometimes it crystallises after you've worked out the overview.
Campaign overview
How the campaign actually works — what the audience experiences, across which channels, in what order, and when. If the campaign runs in phases, explain each phase. If there are interactive elements, explain how they work. This is where the idea stops being abstract and becomes a plan. Be specific about media, timing and audience interaction.
Closing statement
A paragraph that explains why this campaign works — how it expresses the insight, how it speaks to the audience, and how it answers the brief. This is your chance to demonstrate the strategic thinking behind the creative. It's not a summary of what you've already said — it's the argument for why this idea is the right one.
Stage 4: Executions
Executions are the individual pieces of creative output that bring the campaign to life. Each execution should be a specific, detailed description of a single piece of content or activity — not a category ("social posts") but a particular format with a defined purpose.
The tool asks for three required executions and a fourth optional one. Each should:
- Name the format and platform clearly
- Describe the content — what it shows, says, or does
- Explain how it connects to the campaign idea and insight
- Note the context — where and when the audience encounters it
Tool walkthrough: the Ideation Tool, field by field
The Ideation Tool guides you through all four stages in sequence. You can't reach the executions without filling in the research and insight first — which is intentional. Here's what to write at each step.
Brand / Client (Step 1)
The name of the brand you're developing the campaign for. This appears as a label on the output card.
e.g. Irn BruProduct / Service Research (Step 1)
What you know about the product — USPs, positioning, tone of voice, previous campaigns, brand history. The more specific this is, the more useful it becomes when finding the insight. Draw on secondary research: brand websites, campaign archives, marketing trade press.
e.g. Irn Bru: carbonated soft drink, Scottish icon since 1901. Known for irreverent humour. Previous campaigns subverted expectations — "It's phenomenal." Positioned as a treat, not a health drink.Market / Industry Research (Step 1)
The competitive landscape — what competitors are doing and saying, what trends are shaping the market, what opportunities exist in the space. Use sources like Mintel, WARC, Campaign Live, or industry reports.
e.g. Soft drink market highly competitive. Health trend pushing brands toward low-sugar messaging. Irn Bru's competitors (Coca-Cola, Pepsi) are moving aspirational. Opportunity for Irn Bru to own irreverence and Scottish identity while competitors go mainstream.Target Audience Research (Step 1)
A summary of your audience insights from the Target Audience Maker. What they care about, their values, media habits, and the tension or truth that connects them to the brand.
e.g. 16–30 year olds in Scotland. Value humour, authenticity and peer approval. Heavy Instagram and TikTok users. Want brands that speak their language — not lecture them.Core Insight (Step 2)
The undeniable human truth your campaign is built on. Write it as a single statement — one to three sentences — that captures the tension between what the audience thinks/feels and what the brand can offer. It should feel true without the brand name in it.
e.g. "Young Scots don't want to be told what to drink. They want a brand that gets them, laughs with them, and doesn't take itself too seriously."Campaign Title (Step 3)
A short, memorable name or phrase for the campaign. Don't force it — if it doesn't come easily, write the overview first and come back to title it once the idea is clear.
e.g. #GetSomeIrn · Made of Different Stuff · The Most Scottish DecisionCampaign Overview (Step 3)
How the campaign works in practice — channels, content, timing, phases and audience journey. Be specific. "A social media campaign" is too vague. "A three-phase campaign launching on Instagram and TikTok in September, beginning with a teaser phase…" is the right level of detail.
e.g. Three-phase campaign: Phase 1 (teaser) — cryptic OOH near campuses and festival sites. Phase 2 (launch) — social video content and TikTok challenge. Phase 3 (sustain) — UGC amplification and paid retargeting.Closing Statement (Step 3)
The strategic argument for why this campaign works. Explain the connection between insight, idea and brief. Show the thinking, not just the result.
e.g. "This campaign directly responds to the insight that young Scots want a brand that speaks without lecturing. By owning irreverence and Scottish identity at a moment when competitors are going mainstream, Irn Bru has the space to be the most authentically Scottish voice in the market."Executions 1–4 (Step 4)
Specific descriptions of individual pieces of creative output. Each should name the format, describe the content, explain the channel and context, and connect back to the campaign idea. Three are required; a fourth is optional.
e.g. 30-second Instagram Reel targeting 18–25s in Scotland via Meta Ads Manager. Opens on… [describe the scene, message and end frame].Common mistakes to avoid
"Young people like Irn Bru because it's Scottish and funny." This is an observation about the product, not a human truth about the audience.
"Young Scots want a brand that reflects how they actually talk and think — not how brands think young Scots talk and think." That's a tension. That's workable.
"We will post content on Instagram and TikTok to reach our audience." No format, no content description, no connection to the idea.
"A 15-second Instagram Reel using a trending audio format. Visual: a split screen of 'what other brands think we want' vs 'what we actually want.' Ends on product shot. Paid amplification via Meta targeting 18–25s in Scotland."
- Skipping the research. The insight won't be credible if it isn't grounded in real research. Do the product, market and audience work before attempting to write the insight.
- Confusing the insight with the idea. The insight is the truth about people. The idea is what the brand does with that truth. Keep them separate and distinct.
- A campaign overview that's just a list of content formats. "We will post 3 Instagram Reels, 2 TikToks and 1 YouTube video" is not a campaign overview. Explain how the campaign works as an experience — what the audience sees, in what order, and why.
- A closing statement that just summarises. The closing statement should argue, not recap. Explain why this idea is the right one — what strategic thinking makes it the best response to this brief for this brand.
- Executions that aren't connected to the idea. Each execution should feel like an expression of the same central concept. If the executions could belong to any campaign, they're not specific enough.
Develop your creative concept now
Work through all four stages — research, insight, idea and executions — and generate a full campaign concept to save to your campaign.