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by Scott Hingley, creative director at Touch Design

The brief: Develop a communications campaign targeting young teens in communities who would not traditionally consider careers in medicine to persuade them to learn and train to become doctors.

The campaign: Well, what would you do? What would your campaign be? How would you go about the creative process of sparking such a campaign into life?

Creativity can be an elusive and ethereal concept. Sometimes when you’re in the flow, the ideas come as quickly as cars on a motorway. But on other occasions, you’re stuck at the services, with the bonnet up, exasperated, staring at the engine for signs of life.

But there can be ways to fire up the spark plugs of creativity – and in this blog we detail some helpful hints for taking you along on the journey of creativity.

Top tips

Before our top tips, we’ll briefly mention our campaign. From thinking about doctors, we naturally thought of Doctor Who, the classic inter-galactic time traveller, a figure appealing to youngsters and adults alike. The object of the campaign was to say to every young person, have you considered a career in medicine, and if not, why not? There are many pre-conceptions about what is involved and what is needed. The campaign needed to say that the next doctor in training could be you. Doctor You? A play on words, opening up medicine to all. We then removed the question mark. It felt like there was an element of doubt. And there we had it. Dr You. The campaign creative hook was in place.

Channel your thinking

You may well have a similar communications campaign challenge. If so, here are some thoughts to help you with your creative thinking:

• The creative process is aided by a good brief – if you are the client, try to provide as much relevant background information as possible
• Consider the ‘framing’ of the issue – thinking about the issue as a problem to be solved may be one way. But all issues can be considered in different lights. Is there another way of looking at your problem?
• Come at the issue from a different angle – place your issue in another context – what would happen if you wildly exaggerated it, what would a child think of your issue, how would it work in the countryside, what if it was coloured orange, could you build a Lego model of it? All of these approaches will help you gain different perspectives
• Play with an issue – and have fun. Here at Touch we like to have fun with our work. What are your first reactions to the topic? How does it make you feel? What makes you smile?
• Close the door and open another – there’s only so long you can play around with a certain idea. At some point you’ve got to close the door on that idea, walk down the hallway, and open another door, to another idea. Open and close enough doors and you will discover a room of surprises
• Take different approaches, put yourself in a new context – sometimes the best idea will come when you least expect it – when you’re in the shower or walking to work, from out of the blue inspiration will strike. If you’re still waiting for inspiration, put some dedicated time and effort into it. A cake will only come out of the oven if you put the right ingredients in the tin. Creativity sometimes needs a recipe
• You may not have the solution – sometimes despite the best efforts and the most dedicated thought, you may not find the answer you want. That happens, it’s just the way things are. However, you are not alone. Ask the person across the desk. Phone a friend. Ask a stranger. Form a focus group. Listen carefully. The answer is out there.
• Still stuck? Leave the office, get some fresh air, come back, then give us a call or email scott@touchdesign.co.uk. We’d love to talk through your ideas. www.touchdesign.co.uk

Scott from Touch Design will take part in a free open online workshop in the commscamp Facebook group from 12.30pm on Wednesday September 15.