Cannes It: Is it time to ban the 'Big Idea'?
Has the very idea of the 'Big Idea' had its heyday? Matt Parkes, the global marketing director of design firm Jones Knowles Ritchie (JKR), certainly thinks so.
Cannes, Audience Science, JKR, The Drum, Matt Parkes,
Parkes is the first to appear in Cannes It, a series of video interviews based on The Drum's Digital Dungeon format where marketers nominate their top hated phrases, jargon and buzzwords to be banned from The Drum forever.
When The Drum's Digital Dungeon landed in the south of France for the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity 2016 (rebranded, naturallement, as 'Cannes It', in association with AudienceScience), it asked Parkes what word or phrase should be banished from the modern marketer's lexicon.
The answer was categoric: the 'Big Idea'.
Says Parkes: "I don't think a client or creative team or brand ever wants a 'small idea'. [So this phrase] is an injustice to the creative industry."
Instead, he suggests, the industry should be looking at 'quick' ideas that travel across platforms that consumers can instantly engage with - and comms strategies that are relevant to the consumers they serve.
Do you agree? Should The Drum banish all mention of the term 'The Big Idea' from here-on in, in print and online? Has it become a cliché that stunts the creative process?
Watch the video and share your thoughts below.