Out There: Push your creative ideas until they break
An exercise for pushing your strategic thinking fast
It’s Monday morning. And we all need caffeine. Grab a cuppa, a pen, and get ready to stretch your brain. I’m changing up the format of this newsletter to dart between observational deep dives once a month, lighter takes on brand positioning and narrative, and practical tips on creative practice for those in the branding industry. And we’re starting with an exercise I do pretty much every day: finding new ways in. Because the status quo is BORING and we can’t be doing with it.
Weirding the normal
Most positioning and messaging work follows a predictable process.
Kickoff workshop
Desk research
Possibly some stakeholder interviews
Distill the commonalities into something pithy
Boom, done.
It’s neat and tidy. It’s sensible. It’s also exactly how you end up with the same positioning statements and messaging every other brand in the category uses. It’s comfortable, it’s familiar, it gets signed off by the c-suite. It’s also dull as dishwater, and doesn’t actually create memorable brands. You might as well not bother.
The antidote: Pushing WAY past all reason.
How do you do that?
Let’s get into it.
Pushing beyond your comfort zone
Here’s how I take a strategic idea and stretch it into unexpected, ownable, and altogether more interesting creative directions that go way beyond the bog standard:
What’s the most extreme version of this idea?
Push it so far that it becomes borderline egregious. What if the brand was obsessive about this value? What if it shaped everything they did?
Thought starter: A sustainability brand that doesn’t just care about the planet – it actively shames you for buying anything new. It connects to your bank account, and when you buy something new, you get a notification screeching SHAME SHAME SHAME like GoT at you. You cannot switch it off for one minute.
What’s the sexiest?
Strip out everything practical – make it pure desire and aspiration. Imagine it in a high-concept perfume ad. How does it seduce?
Thought starter: A budgeting app that doesn’t talk about financial responsibility but turns money management into status and power. The more you save, the more you get access to exclusive networking events. The higher your savings, the higher the net worth of the individuals you can meet.
What’s the villain edit?
Flip the hero narrative—if this brand was the antagonist of its category, what would it stand for? How would it proudly own that role?
Thought starter: A fast-food chain that doesn’t pretend to be healthy, but fully embraces indulgence, weight gain, and regret. Weigh in, and if you’re fatter, you get rewards.
What’s the contrarian take?
Challenge the default assumption. What if the “truth” everyone believes about the category is actually completely wrong?
Thought starter: Instead of promising “faster,” a productivity tool could argue that slower, deeper work is the real competitive advantage. It only has one timer, at the end of eight hours. It switches off all over apps - you can’t access anything other than your work. If you stop typing for more than five minutes, you get an embarrassingly loud red alert played through your speakers.
Applying this to your work
Run your idea through at least two of these lenses. See what new angles emerge.
Write headlines for each extreme – what’s the loudest, most absurd way to say it?
Think beyond messaging – how would a company behave if they really committed to this? Explore activation ideas across the customer journey.
Dial it back until it’s just on the edge of believable. That’s usually where the magic happens.
If you’re making yourself snort laugh, saying “okay, we can’t suggest THAT” – you’re probably onto something.
Have fun with your thinking. Get uncomfortable.
Until next time, nerds.