2. Then there is the campaign idea: what is it that ties together all the creative manifestations of the brand? 3. And, finally, there are executional ideas, smaller ideas within the campaign that provide its substance. Strategic ideas are longer term than campaign ideas. When I presented a new idea to Allianz, I was asked by the CEO how long I thought this idea would last. I said, “at least ten years”. Campaigns are shorter: IBM wanted five years for its current platform. In powerful strategic ideas there is usually a resolution of a tension of some kind; in campaigns the unexpected combinations are housed in a sequential framework; while executional ideas often draw their unexpectedness from how they are made or where they appear – like naughty children they can sometimes stray from the core idea, and need what can only be described as shepherding. Ideas are dependent on execution: and in the interplay between the two lies a second cause of “bigness”. Give a weak idea to Alan Parker to film (if he would take it) and it will come out well. Give a strong idea to a hack director and it will come out poorly. I have always deployed – and trained my account people in – a simple matrix for assessing ideas (Ideas Vs. Execution opposite), on the basis that some process might be better than none. It is very simple, but can be a lethally effective career builder! It’s not just poor execution that can let down an idea, but it’s also inconsistency in how the idea is executed. Quite rightly, one of the most awarded executions of the digital age is the Cannes Grand Prix Volvo film The Epic Split (2013) made by Forsman & Bodenfors featuring Jean-Claude Van Damme (see here). Here is a strong idea: unexpected combination of stability and movement. The stakes were high, as was the showmanship, and in this it pulled the same levers as the famous Krazy Glue TV commercial of the 1980s. Both defied our expectations. But what is generally forgotten is that this execution was just part of a larger campaign. The other executions – a hamster steering a truck, Volvo’s CEO supported by the truck’s hook – have been forgotten. They were not expressing the same idea at all, nor were these ideas. They were stunts, not surprises.