To begin with, what is ideation?

Ideation is the creative skill within the practice of innovation. For better understanding, we can take up an example. Let’s say ideation is analogous to being the architect of a new building. The architect (one who holds the power of ideation) works with the client to understand their needs and develops several concepts (ideas) that meet up to their expectations. Then the final design is built by a team of workers (programmers, designers, etc) and in the end, a building is created in the place which was null and void before (innovation).

To make it more precise, ideation can be said to be the raw materials, utilizing which we can create different types of innovation. Now adding the prefix creative simply intensifies the meaning. Creative ideation is regarded as random outbursts of creative capability. However, an intense creative outburst or fruitful creative ideation can only be achieved after a lot of brainstorming, hard work, and research on a particular topic.

Ideation can be divided into 4 quick steps, namely the creative brief where all the important information is stored. The incubation where all these ideas are amalgamated with creative juices till the point something fruitful is reached. The cracking of an idea is mostly an extension of the previous step. And lastly, implementation, where all these ideas seamlessly come together and they are incorporated in a campaign to fulfill the marketing objective.

Before proceeding towards why ideation makes marketing successful, we should also be aware of what brainstorming is. ‘Brainstorming’ is one of those terms you would see the best digital agencies casually throwing around.

Brainstorming can be regarded as group creativity wherein everyone spontaneously lists down their ideas and then moves from a subconscious level to conscious levels in creative terms.

Brainstorming is an essential part of creative ideation as different perspectives enrich a particular idea which often turns the non-working ideas into actual working ones.

Brainstorming even has several advantages that the best digital agencies know. These are-

• It enhances outside input thus allowing others to freely propose ideas to think about.
• Not all ideas are going to be concrete or worthwhile in the first instance. But with proper idea building during brainstorming, that very idea can make up the Eureka moment.
• A huge benefit of the brainstorming session is that it allows one to get out of a normal routine. It can make one aware of improvements in certain areas of the company, they didn’t even think in the first place.
• Top digital marketing companies believe that teamwork will be one of its biggest advantages. With brainstorming, every employee would share their set of ideas. This would not only enrich the group but also create a sense of bonding and solidify the relationship.

Coming back to ideation. Creative ideation makes a massive impact on marketing and branding by challenging existing trends and beliefs. The art of marketing and branding is helping customers have a ‘box’ to believe in and creates an emotional connection with the very box, which can be a product/service/company.

There are generally four types of ideas one needs to brainstorm about.

• Problem Solution.
  “Problem-solution results from trying to solve a particular problem and certainly represents one of the most prevalent yet earliest forms of innovation. Problem solution is a core principle of a successful content marketing strategy, which should focus on ideas of being useful to a certain set of the audience one possesses. In the context of content marketing, these solutions don’t require ingenuity, but simply need to be relevant and well-communicated.” The problem solution is the most important type of idea for brands, whose longevity is rendered viable through the satisfaction of a user’s need or makes approaches to fulfill their needs in the least.
• Evolutionary Idea.
  The evolutionary idea simply takes something that already exists and improves it. This is a very popular approach in content marketing, most remarkably in the SEO community. In this, you don’t have to be original to produce something of value. “Tactics for evolutionary ideas in content include changing the format of an existing piece, going into greater detail, or adding a new perspective.”

• Symbiotic Idea.
  “A symbiotic idea is something that combines two or more existing ideas and can lead to significant breakthroughs.” With stark similarities to the evolutionary idea, symbiotic ideas in content marketing benefit from pre-existing interest. This can be a very straightforward approach to develop content ideas. Combining a popular format with a trending theme is one of the leading examples of such an idea.
• Artistic Innovation.
  “Artistic innovation is created to express an artistic impulse.” Some of the top digital marketing companies consider this idea as one of the purest forms of innovation because it is sheer creativity and free of any practical constraints and has no other use than to give pleasure, or in the least, an emotional reside.

Ideation forces marketers and brands to challenge themselves as to what their company is, what is it made of, or what are its beliefs, how it interacts with fellow companies, and is it the best company for the customers. If saying a company to be a box, ‘thinking outside the box’ is what the process of ideation will be. Innovation is a relative process and happens on the ideas created through the practice of ideation. The relationship between ideation and marketing should be based on relentless challenging of assumptions and beliefs, even if they are established to the point of bias. Great marketing ideas come to the surface when a product/service/company is viewed without assumptions and beliefs and then with either added. Great ideas, established biases, assumptions, and beliefs, and finally the product of ideation lead to an acceptable shift in marketing and branding campaigns.

Creative ideation or Creative Communication is, in itself, a vast topic. Many intricate pieces go with ideation and creation alongside the above-mentioned theories. Every brief and paradigm shift comes with a distinguished set of challenges and every marketing problem exists with a rightful creative solution. At the end of the day, it’s the matter of cracking the right ideation that makes all the difference for a specific brand or marketing campaign by .