The Big Idea

“An ad idea is visually and verbally expressed through the creation, selection, combination, manipulation, and arrangement of visual and verbal elements and the written copy. A big idea is a solid, creative, on-brand idea that is large enough and flexible enough to be used effectively across media for a period of time.” (Advertising by Design, Landa, p. 066) The big idea for the Molly Brown advertising campaign is to create something that the audience can relate to and make them want to come to the stores, in both locations, even if it’s just out of curiosity. This is a store that has risen to have national recognition by its customers because of their website and the fact that they carry hard-to-find designs. The advertising needs to support this history that the company already has with their customers and appeal to customers that haven’t ever heard of them before. “Basing ideas on personal life experience or observing others can help make your ad ideas relevant to others’ lives. People should react: ‘Yep, that’s how it is!’ When we can relate to the story, we feel a kinship with the brand or group being advertised.” (Advertising by Design, Landa, p. 195) Since I have worked at Molly Brown’s, I understand our customers and what they want when they come into the store. I want existing customers to talk about the ad with their friends because it caught their attention and made them think how like the real experience is to the commercial. I want potential customers to catch the advertising and tell all their friends how they absolutely must check out the store that made this fun, feminine, ad. “An effective ad is driven by the underlying concept. An advertising idea-or concept-is the creative reasoning behind a solution. The concept determines the resulting message: what you say and how you design.” (Advertising by Design, Landa, p. 066) The concept of the advertising is that every girl deserves to feel like a glamorous diva just like her favorite rock star or celebrity. “According to Abraham Maslow, one of the founders of humanistic psychology, we have a hierarchy of needs that influence our behavior. At the pinnacle, we find self-actualization, which is defined as ‘the desire to become more and more what one is, to become everything that one is capable of becoming’.”(Advertising by Design, Landa, p.068) By coming to Molly Brown’s and buying a swimsuit, she will attain this desire. In the store, it is not uncommon to hear the sales associates tell a girl that she could buy a suit somewhere else, but it’s the girls in the swimsuits from Molly Brown’s that get all the stairs at the pool clubs. This is the concept that the advertising is meant to convey. “An ad idea is visually and verbally expressed through the creation, selection, combination, manipulation, and arrangement of visual and verbal elements and the written copy. A big idea is a solid, creative, on-brand idea that is large enough and flexible enough to be used effectively across media for a period of time.” (Advertising by Design, Landa, p. 066) The commercial and the print ad go together to help create a cohesive advertising campaign that can be used by the company at least for the rest of the season. They will always be able to use it on the website because it is their very first commercial ever and their customers will always be able to enjoy it as a way to feel closer to the company.