If you follow me on LinkedIn, you may have noticed I’m now an OMBLE.
For anyone unfamiliar, OMBLES take part in One Minute Briefs, a daily creative challenge where people respond to advertising briefs with quick ideas. Recently we’ve been advertising potatoes, parrots, padel and popcorn!
And I do love a creative brief. As do hundreds of others.
We don’t even need to be paid. Perhaps we’re all massive show-offs, or maybe we just need the occasional distraction from less glamorous tasks like SEO optimisation and proofreading?
Whatever the reason, it’s a brilliant reminder of just how much creative talent is out there, from all backgrounds, all over the world, and not just within the creative industries.
Give hundreds of people exactly the same brief and you’ll get hundreds of different ways of looking at it. Different experiences, different perspectives and usually something wonderful. The best entries aren’t necessarily the most elaborate, just a clever thought that makes you wish it was yours.
Working in marketing and advertising, it’s easy to become consumed by platforms, performance, processes and optimisation. OMB is a welcome reminder that the most valuable part of an advert is simply the idea. And when we’re increasingly awash with AI-generated content, its refreshing to see that a clever thought still beats elaborate execution.
And brands should be (and some are) paying attention. Recently, an OMB challenge to advertise Parker Pens in the age of AI attracted more than 350 entries. Ten of those ideas ended up appearing on a giant digital billboard in Times Square, New York.
At its heart, there’s something very smart about a marketing model that often gets people thinking about a brand, creating content for it and sharing the results, all because they want to take part. Those brands benefit while OMB gives people opportunities to develop their creative confidence, build portfolios, make connections and potentially open doors professionally. A good idea doesn’t care what your job title is.
Perhaps the cleverest idea of all then, belongs to Nick Entwistle, who founded One Minute Briefs and built a global creative community around it through his agency, Bank of Creativity.
The daily briefs, encouragement and considerable time spent bringing people together have created something pretty special. Even if it is occasionally a little distracting.
Four takes. One email.
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